Major New Investment for the Wellington Region Announced

Major New Investment for the Wellington Region Announced

20 November 2013

Today the Hon Steven Joyce, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment announced a significant investment for the Wellington region by the Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) and Whitireia New Zealand. Given the importance of skill development in growing a strong construction sector the Minister announced WelTec’s new Regional School of Construction, in association with Whitireia New Zealand. The new Regional School of Construction is a positive initiative in the Wellington region where work-ready graduates will be trained to go onto work in the construction sector.

Whitireia and WelTec under their single Council are actively working to enhance and facilitate student access throughout the region.

The Regional School of Construction will involve consolidating current engineering and construction programmes into two main hubs centred on Petone and Porirua. Preparatory programmes in places such as Kapiti and Wellington city will feed into the School. WelTec’s School of Engineering will be consolidated onto one site at Petone.

This encouraging development reflects the growing importance of the construction sector and aligns with the government’s considerable investment in major infrastructure projects throughout the Wellington region and New Zealand, as well as the Canterbury rebuild.

“Employment in the Construction sector is forecast to grow by 3.6% a year: the fastest rate of growth for any of the 15 broad sectors in the economy. This will add 3,220 jobs in the Construction sector in the Wellington region. Major infrastructure projects for the Wellington region will stimulate significant demand for skills related to civil engineering and heavy construction projects,” says Roger Sowry, Chair of Whitireia and WelTec’s Council.

“With this in mind and due to the historically dispersed nature of WelTec’s current sites a proposal for the first stage of a Regional School of Construction incorporating consolidation of WelTec’s engineering programmes into one site will now get underway. A ‘hub and spoke” approach will be taken for the Regional School of Construction with two main hubs centred on Porirua and Petone with spokes providing preparatory programmes in places such as Kapiti and Wellington city. The level of investment over the next four years is $13.60 million. This level of investment is essential to meet increased demand for our training and for our graduates.

“With more than 4600 students currently studying at WelTec and Whitireia in construction and engineering and a high level of interest from employers in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch for our graduates (we have a job brokerage service and a close working relationship with the Canterbury Skills and Employment Hub) this is the ideal time to invest in a Regional School of Construction,” says Mr Sowry.

ENDS

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