File image. Photo: 123RF
Businesses pushing pause on internship or graduate programmes ahead of an economic downturn could see top talent slip through their fingers and head offshore.
Some graduating university students are being told to downgrade their career expectations as they enter the job market in a likely recession, as some businesses halt internships in a bid to cut costs and resources.
Chief people officer at cinema software and data analytics company Vista Group Anna Ferguson said it was not the time to skimp on investing in training up interns or recent graduates.
"Partly it's that focus on the pipeline of talent, not just for today, but for the future, as these are, after all, going to be our future leaders," she said.
"The other point is, if we don't offer opportunities to graduates here in New Zealand, what I think will happen is that we will lose that talent to overseas competitors, so it's really important that we can foster that talent here at home."
Ferguson said Vista had up to 20 interns in the company's summer programme and up to 20 recent grads in the graduate programme at any time - some of which go on to be fully employed at the company.
"We get the benefit of having people with fresh ideas and new perspectives," Ferguson said.
"They come in and they're really additive to our organisation and to our culture.
"Some of what they're learning at university are new skills and technologies that are coming into being that we're also using in the workplace."
Ferguson said they come in ready and eager to learn, and are provided with the opportunity to work on projects.
"That really shows the value of what they're bringing into our organisation and then what we can do with that work that they've contributed."
