Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti
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Two of many successful Trades Academy students, Hannah Sewell (l) and Connor King (r) from Havelock North High School with Trades Academy Manager Paul Hursthouse.
This week, over 400 Year 11, 12 and 13 high school students from 22 Hawke’s Bay schools celebrated their success at the Hawke’s Bay Schools Trades Academy certificate ceremony and prize giving.
EIT has one of the largest and more successful Trades Academies in New Zealand. This year over 400 Hawke’s Bay high school students, over 280 East Coast high schools students were attending one of the programmes on offer.
The students could choose from 22 programmes including Building & Construction, Engineering, Hospitality and Information Technology. This year EIT also added Services Pathway, Automotive and Tourism & Travel to the course offerings and these were extremely successful.
“Trades Academy gives students a wonderful opportunity to try out a vocation they are interested in. They can get a taste of what a job may be like and get hands-on experience,” says Trades Academy Manager, Paul Hursthouse. Paul acknowledges that COVID-19 posed novel challenges to students, tutors and schools alike. “It was heartening to see that the students just embraced the situation. Staff put in a great amount of extra effort and dedication, and schools were immensely supportive.”
The governments’ Apprenticeship Boost also enabled many level 3 students to pathway directly into an apprenticeship with one of EIT’s industry partners.
Paul also highlights the strong participation of Māori and Pasifika students which make up 70 percent of the Trades Academy student body.
“The Trades Academy programme is an important pathway for supporting students into trades training and helping industry address skills shortages,” says Paul. “I’m looking forward to kicking off a new Trades Academy year.”
NOTE: EIT is a member of the Steering Group who worked on the Matariki Hawke’s Bay Regional Development Strategy (HBRDS).
Growing people to be work-ready and matching them with employee-ready organisations who foster a spirit of lifelong learning across our collective workforce is key Pou 2 of Matariki HBRDS. Trades Academy is a key initiative linked with Matariki HBRDS for Employment, Skills and Capability Pou 2.
