Polytechnic pre-trade courses helping employers find staff

A South Canterbury building industry historically short of skilled and specialist tradespeople could have faced more serious staffing issues were it not for Aoraki Polytechnic’s pre-apprenticeship training courses, industry leaders say. Employers have complimented the polytechnic on its “realistic and timely” courses, which embraced all of the skills commonly found in today’s workforce and reflected the work ethic employers were looking for.

The company that won one of the biggest local building contracts in decades says the courses have been a saviour to industry. Ranger Construction managing director Roger Forde, whose company won the $18.6 million build contract for the Caroline Bay Aquatic Centre, says finding and retaining skilled staff is a constant battle as a general shortage of builders across the industry nationwide continues. But Mr Forde said Aoraki Polytechnic’s year-long pre-trade courses have helped building companies after a lull in apprenticeship training nationally in the late 1990s.

His comments have been warmly welcomed by Aoraki Polytechnic Head of School for Trades and Agriculture Malcolm Kendrew. Mr Kendrew said it was important to have such feedback and it was satisfying that the views had been so positive.

“One of the good things about our pre-trades programme in the last few years is that it has been changed to deliver most of the theory component required for a person to complete their apprenticeship, and a fair amount of the practical skills as well. “Our pre-trade courses reflect what vocational and trade training should be all about, allowing people to come in, practice and learn new skills, and then go to a building site, an engineering shop or on to a farm and know what they are doing,” Mr Kendrew said.

“In the end, it’s this training that sets them up for an apprenticeship and very rewarding careers, especially in these times of a tighter job market.” Mr Forde said Ranger Construction had employed some of the polytechnic’s graduates and found they joined his workforce with many of the skills necessary to be useful from day one.

Mr Kendrew said that one of the reasons for the success of Aoraki Polytechnic pre-trade graduates was their thorough preparation. “It’s been loud and clear to us for many years in talking to industry right across the trades, that there is more we can all do to get people work-ready, young people especially.

“This has been a big challenge for us and we need to work even more closely with industry to ensure we are getting this right,” Mr Kendrew said. The trades job market was looking for more skills diversity in its employees, he said.

“And we have responded by creating as many opportunities for our trainees within one course to experience skills found on another.” An example, he said, was automotive pre-trade trainees doing a couple of units on welding, and engineering students, “especially with this region’s huge focus on agriculture”, having an opportunity to look at basic building construction and machinery maintenance.

And there were new programmes in the making at Aoraki Polytechnic that met goals in training diversity within a core subject. “Within carpentry we are introducing a pre-trade training programme in brick and block to give our building students some crossover and collaboration within the general construction industry,” Mr Kendrew said.

ENDS

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