A partnership between the District Health Board and Ministry of Social Development in Hawke's Bay has left beneficaries feeling rewarded and satisfied.
The Hawke's Bay DHB, who run the Hawke's Bay Hospital in Hastings, want to give beneficiaries a stepping-stone into employment by offering them a cadetship. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
A cadetship has been running since February last year and both organisations are hailing its success.
The health board and MSD started the paid, eight-week programme, offered to beneficaries for 30-hours-a-week.
To date, the organisations have run three cadetship programmes and 37 people have completed it.
Of those, 30 were still employed by the DHB within six months of completing the programme - a success rate of about 80 percent.
Furthermore, over 80 percent of those who completed are Māori or Pasifika, increasing diversity in the DHB's workforce.
Roseanne Siaosi was on the sole-parent benefit, working part-time as a freight sorter, before hearing about the cadetship.
"I was just looking for a more secure income for me and my baby at the time," she told RNZ.
She started the cadetship, working in the health records space and then moved on to a recruitment advisor for junior doctors.
"Getting in these doctors for our staff shortages at the moment, and with everything that's going at the moment with the sickness and that, and helping out the departments, I just find that really rewarding, and it's satisfying knowing that you're doing your bit to help in the community," she said.
MSD East Coast regional commissioner Karen Bartlett described the scheme as "life changing" for the cadets.
She said it could provide longer-term certainty than temporary work like apple picking, which is common in the region.
"Quite often it's people who may be doing seasonal work, temp work in horticulture or something of that nature but aspire to other things."