Nearly 100,000 young New Zealanders aged 15–24 are currently not in employment, education or training, a figure that now sits at 13.5% and represents a ten-year high, up from 12.3% in the previous quarter. In just three months, the number of young people classified as NEET has increased by 8,000 to around 91,000.
It is a statistic that can easily be read as disengagement, but on the ground, organisations such as the Graeme Dingle Foundation are seeing something more complex. Young people are not stepping away from aspiration. In many cases, they are stepping towards it without the structures, connections, and guidance needed to turn ambition into direction.
This is a generation with aspiration, but uneven support
Research from the Helen Clark Foundation regarding social cohesion highlights a consistent paradox. Young people remain the most aspirational demographic in the country, yet they experience the lowest levels of social cohesion and the weakest sense of opportunity.
Around 62% report feeling isolated at least some of the time, 40% experience food insecurity, and fewer than half believe New Zealand offers a genuine opportunity. The implication is not a lack of motivation, but rather a gap between aspiration and access – a form of latent potential that is not being consistently supported into pathways.
The Graeme Dingle Foundation works hard throughout the community to help young people find positive pathways for their future. Through its connected programmes, the foundation supports rangatahi at crucial stages of their development. Project K works with Year 10 students, helping build confidence, resilience, and life skills, while Career Navigator supports students from Years 10 to 13 as they explore future pathways, career opportunities, and life beyond school.
Where the system begins to strain.
Insights from Growing Up in New Zealand reinforce the importance of belonging and connection during adolescence, particularly within school environments where identity, confidence, and future orientation are formed. School satisfaction, peer relationships, and a sense of inclusion are shown to be strong predictors of long-term wellbeing and direction, while those experiencing marginalisation face significantly poorer outcomes.
It is within this context that the transition from school into further study or employment becomes one of the most vulnerable points in a young person’s development. Not because the ambition is absent, but because the scaffolding around that ambition often is.
The Graeme Dingle Foundation Career Navigator programme
It is precisely at this point that the Graeme Dingle Foundation’s Career Navigator programme is designed to intervene.
Positioned as the final stage in a connected developmental journey through school, the Graeme Dingle Foundation’s Career Navigator programme supports students as they prepare to leave school and enter the world beyond it, helping them navigate the increasingly complex landscape of career pathways and opportunity.
Rather than presenting careers as abstract options, the programme focuses on making them tangible. Students are exposed to real workplaces, real professionals, and real expectations, while also being supported to understand their own strengths, interests, and direction.
Turning aspiration into experience
At the centre of the Graeme Dingle Foundation’s Career Navigator programme is structured mentoring, where each student is matched with a dedicated Career Navigator mentor. These mentors meet with students at least once a month to set goals, support personal development, and help guide decision-making around future pathways, while also reinforcing learning from workshops and experiential opportunities.
Alongside mentoring, students participate in a range of practical experiences including Career Pathway Days, industry presentations, work site visits, and Work Ready Experiential Workshops, all of which are designed to build both awareness and capability.
Career Pathway Days bring together employers from a range of industries who present directly to students, offering insight into real roles, workplace expectations, and potential career trajectories. Industry presentations and site visits extend this exposure further, allowing students to see how different sectors operate in practice rather than theory.
The Work Ready Experiential Workshops complement this by developing practical skills across four key areas: self-awareness, opportunity awareness, decision-making, and transition learning. Across up to 21 workshops, students learn skills that are directly valued by employers, including communication, CV development, and workplace readiness.
Measurable impact on confidence and direction
Evaluation of the Graeme Dingle Foundation’s Career Navigator programme shows consistent and significant outcomes for participants. 91% of students report increased self-confidence, 95% say they gained skills needed for the workplace, and 92% learnt how to prepare a strong CV. A further 89% report improved communication skills, while 88% gained clarity on suitable job pathways, and 92% said they benefited from exposure to alternative perspectives on their career choices.
Taken together, these results point not only to increased readiness for work, but also to increased self-belief and clarity at a critical transition point in young people’s lives.
A rising challenge that requires earlier intervention
As NEET numbers continue to rise, the risk is that the issue is interpreted primarily through the lens of motivation or effort. Yet the evidence suggests something different. Young people are still highly aspirational, but too many are navigating complex decisions without consistent exposure, guidance, or connection to opportunity.
Closing the gap between potential and participation
This is not a story of disengagement. It is a story of uneven support for a highly motivated generation.
The Graeme Dingle Foundation’s Career Navigator programme exists to close that gap, not by changing young people, but by ensuring they are better supported as they move from school into the world beyond it.
Because if nearly 100,000 young New Zealanders are currently outside education, employment, or training, the question is not whether they have potential.
It is whether the system around them is doing enough to help them realise it.