Early in June 2008, the B Loyal Advisory Group started developing a project to support the North Canterbury regional labour market. Its purpose is to market and deliver collaborative solutions to high schools, students, school leavers, parents/caregivers and the wider community on the career opportunities available in our region. The project aims to create a level of awareness about the careers and jobs available to enable more youth to choose to work locally.

Engagement with the North Canterbury businesses has demonstrated there are considerable skill shortages across a range of industries. Support for and encouragement of students in these fields will assist business growth and local employment in our region.

The official launch of the project was in February 2009(see press release).  To date, all 7 of the local high schools and 55 North Canterbury businesses are onboard and are committed to actively working together to help local young people into local jobs. 

The B Loyal project facilitates this in a number of ways:

• Career Open Days/Industry Taster Days with local schools and businesses
• Work experience – include youth passports to record feed-back on experience
• Gateway placements - assist schools to find placements with local businesses
• Youth employed in local part time or full time work 
• Promotional material demonstrating the support of local businesses to the B Loyal project
• Encouraging more local businesses to participate in the B Loyal project
• Provision of information on career opportunities available in North Canterbury to high school students
• Work with ITO’s to encourage local youth to sign up on training agreements and apprentices to complete qualifications 
• Support the development of an interactive careers event/s in North Canterbury by encouraging more local businesses and other stakeholders to participate and provide information on the wide range of career and job opportunities available in our region