Aidan Donoghue: Victoria University Students Association Engagement Vice President on their new job campaign

The Victoria University of Wellington Students Association is turning heads with its new campaign.  

“No work. Sh*t pay. Why stay?” is the slogan for their “Where’s the Work?” campaign. 

The group is aiming to draw attention to the record number of students ditching the country for prospects overseas. 

Engagement Vice President Aidan Donoghue told Ryan Bridge they’ve seen within the public sector to lower the roles offered, and they want to encourage the private sector to pick up the slack instead. 

He says we either let these people go and likely never see them again, or we keep them inhouse and try expand industries within New Zealand.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Victoria University of Wellington Students Association Views turning some
heads with their new campaign today no Work, Shite pay,
Why Stay? As the slogan for there Where's the Work campaign?
The group are hoping to draw attention to the record
number of students ditching the country for overseas. Aiden Donahue
is the Engagement Vice President at VIEWSA hi Aiden, Hello,

(00:25):
so why do you think these students are leaving well?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
In our opinion, I think it's just the rational decision
for any student when they see such a lack of
opportunities within the country. If they can see that it's
quite easy to move to another country, say Australia, it's
got better pay, better opportunities, and they've already seen all
of the zeal in all their life, why would they stay?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
What's the difference in graduate pay starting rates between the countries.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I don't have that off the cuff, but I'm looking
on sites like Possible you can see the rates are
around about ten thousand dollars difference, and including the currency difference,
it's just not very competitive with New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
So what do you want done about that? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:09):
So all about this, This campaign is all about trying
to pressure both the public and private to see that
there's a clear lack of supply for this huge demand
we're seeing and just fill those gaps we've seen within
the public sector. There's been pressured within house to lower
their roles offered, and then we really want to encourage

(01:30):
private to pick up that that and keep ki we
talent ke we.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
You want private businesses to hire graduates, but you mean
you can't just hire graduates to do nothing, can you? No?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Exactly we want to and if there isn't enough work there,
it's just a clear something that that other places will
provide that work. And so it's either we let these
people go and of which we probably will not see
them again gathering from our wages, or we keep them
in house and try and expand within New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
A lot of industry in Australia that keeps their unemployment
rate at the lower rate than OWS. I think ours
is five point one. There is four point one at
the moment unemployment. But you know they've got a lot
of mineral extraction, that sort of thing. You'd be on
board for more of that that's graduate jobs.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, Look, we're not opposed to any graduate opportunity for
any of our students, because ultimately the decision to take
that job lies within the individual. We just want to
see that that those opportunities be presented in the first place.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
So it's not like you're waiving a woke flag here saying, oh,
we won't take these jobs, we won't take fossil fuel jobs.
You're saying, actually, you want an economy that's strong enough
that has decent jobs for graduates to go into so
they stay in New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Exactly couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Well, what's the harm in that? So who have you
written to and what's the response you're getting?

Speaker 2 (02:51):
So we haven't written so much that the action on
Monday was us posing the question first, and we really
want to put the ball and within their core about
what they're going to do with that. We can see
the stats that people are leaving and so it's really
up to policymakers employers to really to fix that if
they want to have a strong workforce to toy from.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, okay, great, I love it because we need I'm glad. Look,
I used to know a thing or two about views it,
and there was a lot of people in there who
would not have said things that you've just said to me.
They were basically they were basically communists. They didn't really
want private enterprise. This was a long time ago. But yeah, no,
a strong economy means strong jobs and that means places

(03:37):
for your graduates to go do. Yeah, exactly, good on you,
Aiden Donahue, Engagement vice president at VIEWSA in Wellington. Students
graduating path to work work's not there? Can you blame them? For?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
More?

Speaker 1 (03:51):
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