An exploration of social innovation within primary industry education.

Aim: To create a social enterprise whose social mission is focused on a perceived gap in my region. That being, Maori youth prospects in the primary industries and growing economic sustainability to create stable futures for them. I propose to do this through an innovative hybrid model of education and enterprise.

The primary industries have long been searching for an effective way to encourage more people into the sector. With the number of people required to man the industry forecast to increase dramatically, this is a very real issue for the success of New Zealand’s economy. (Ministry for Primary Industries, 2014) Another concern facing New Zealand is the increasing number of Maori people in the Not in Employment, Education or Training category (NEETs).

This research paper explores the possibility of a new method of getting people into the primary industries, while tackling the issue of Maori not in employment. My literature review has focused on targeting the Maori Youth of a small semi rural community in the region of Hawkes Bay – Omahu. Interviews were conducted to discover what the barriers were to the youth gaining educations, or jobs. Focus then was put on what other training institutes are out there, and whether or not they are catering to people of this particular group.

Social innovation enterprises around New Zealand are fast gaining popularity. I looked into enterprises that were helped to succeed by the foundation, Akina – I gained an insight into what sort of social missions are important to New Zealanders, and what they are doing to achieve them. Lastly, hybrid organisations have been looked into, as being the most appropriate model to base my enterprise on. There is still little known about hybrid organisations – most people under stand a business to be either, not-for-profit, or for-profit. Hybrid is a way of combining the two, the ideal being where they are combined and neither one can survive without the other.Based on the findings in the literature review, I have come up with a hybrid enterprise model that has taken appropriate features of different organisations, the needs of my target group and my own ideals to satisfy the requirements of my aim/mission.