Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti
5 days ago
Sapper Brooking Poi is now in the NZ Army having studied the NZ Certificate in Study and Employment Pathways (Services Pathway) (Level 3) at EIT Tairāwhiti.
A former EIT student, who used the services pathway programme to prepare for a career in the NZ Army, is now learning a trade that he can take back home to the East Coast after he leaves the Army.
Sapper Brooking Poi’s (Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tūmatuenga) journey to success is a positive one and is helping to promote the benefits of study to potential students in his East Coast community.
Brooking, 19, was born in Gisborne but spent his childhood in Ruatoria before finishing his schooling at Lytton’ High School. He was always keen to join the NZ Army and was told by Zac Te Maro, a tutor at EIT, that he should go to the Army and the best way to prepare for it was to do a programme at EIT. It was worth the effort as he completed the NZ Certificate in Study and Employment Preparation (Services Pathway) (Level 3) at EIT Tairāwhiti.
He says that he enjoyed the programme due to the working environments and with their high quality of standards.
He says being fit helped as well, which he had done by weight lifting and touch rugby. Brooking is currently on sick leave, having dislocated his shoulder. He is based at Linton Army Base in Palmerston North, where he is doing a plumbing trade.
“I would like to go back home, especially back in Tairāwhiti, where we don’t have many plumbers and help out the Kaumatua.”
He says the apprenticeship he is doing in the Army is teaching him plumbing, gas fitting and drain laying. Having signed up to the Army, Brooking has to stay there for eight years, but he believes that he will stay on a bit longer and get all his licences. He even has ideas to trade change after his apprenticeship to gain more knowledge.
He says that studying further after school was always something he wanted to do.
“It was just the way I was raised. Put your head down and do the mahi and you get the treats later.. Not only did I have mates at EIT , but tutors were nice and they were very respectful to us.”
EIT Trades and Technology Head of School, Todd Rogers, says: “It is great to see Brooking pathway through to the NZ Army following the path carved by other members of his whānau.”
