Building a trade pipeline from the ground up

‘After 50-odd years of building, I had semi-retired, so when the school reached out to me, it was perfect timing,’ says Ashburton builder Peter Taylor. ‘Currently I have 12 students in two groups of six, and we’re building two two-bedroom units this year. They’re doing everything from the ground up, working with qualified people from each of the trades.’

‘The micro-credential is the beginning of the apprenticeship,’ says Assistant Principal Abbey Bruce. ‘Those credits carry straight into BCITO when they get a job. But the big thing is what Peter’s doing alongside that: the work ethic and site behaviour. They’ve basically done the first part of an apprenticeship on a real build site, with real tradespeople from their community.’

The driver behind it all was a regional problem that Andrea Lee, Executive Member and Past President of the Master Builders Ashburton Branch, had been watching for years. Mid Canterbury has no tertiary institute for construction, so young people who want to go into the trades tend to leave for Christchurch and often don’t come back. ‘We need the trades here,’ she says. ‘There’s a lot of work. But a lot of these students don’t even know what the jobs are, let alone whether they want one, until they get that experience.’