(Picture caption: The Tupu Aotearoa initiative and Horowhenua Learning Centre have helped transform Pelise Yan from a shy young woman to a confident employee at Oji Fibre Solutions, manufacturers of pulp, paper and wood-fibre based packaging solutions.)
Preparation and a boost in confidence have helped 19-year-old Pelise Yan transform from a shy, quietly spoken young woman to a confident and reliable employee.
Pelise stems from Kiribati and ventured to New Zealand in search of a better life for her and her parents, who remain in their homeland.
While articulate and clever, Pelise is naturally a shy person, however, through the support of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ (MPP) Tupu Aotearoa initiative and provider Horowhenua Learning Centre (HLC), she has truly emerged from her shell.
Pelise joined Tupu Aotearoa to help her find employment in New Zealand, but found she was facing challenges with communicating due to her shyness, HLC Employment Consultant Tessa Feomaia says.
“Pelise would often let her sister-in-law answer on her behalf during interviews,” Tessa says.
“For two months, Pelise was under the pastoral care of the Tupu Aotearoa programme and during that time she gradually became more confident in communicating with people.
“I would take her to the community networking facility here in Levin to talk to people running workshops and while at first, she refused to interact or participate, she learnt about the importance of working through this barrier in preparation for work.”
With no work history or experience, Pelise’s CV required a lot of attention, and a plan was made for her to complete some volunteer work to add some skills to it.
Soon after, Pelise saw a job Genoese advertised which she applied for and was shortlisted.
Pelise was so nervous she came close to not attending the interview.
“Tessa did a mock interview with me to calm me down, which really helped…I ended up going through with the interview and did well and was offered the job.
“That same week, I was offered a job with another company, Oji Fibre Solutions – I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
By working closely with Tessa, Pelise was able to weigh up which offer was most aligned to her, and she ended up accepted the role at Oji Fibre Solutions.
According to Tessa, Oji Fibre Solutions sends a glowing report about Pelise, and says she is thriving.
“She is there every day, on time and is a fast learner, to the point they are confident in her ability to self-manage,” Tessa says.
“Pelise has started being talkative and making new friends, and is a confident, thriving young person.”
For the MPP and HLC teams, success stories like Pelise’s are evidence of the Tupu Aotearoa initiative working to support Pacific people to gain skills, education or training to enable them to thrive.
“Seeing Pelise transform from someone who was very shy and quiet to someone making changes in order to be involved with others, not only to help support herself but her family back home in Kiribati,” Tessa adds.
Visit the MPP website for more information on Tupu Aotearoa.