Kia ora koutou, Industry training, aligned to formal qualifications, has never been more in demand across the infrastructure sector. The increased accessiblity to qualification training through government subsidies in response to Covid – the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund and Apprenticeship Boost – has seen employers taking the opportunity to skill up their local workforce. We have seen unprecedented growth in enrolments this year …
Courageous young leaders and top training initiatives have been recognised at the Z Energy People Awards and Connexis Civil Industry Training Awards, held on Friday 30 July in Wellington. Hundreds of people from across the civil construction industry attended the prestigious awards, which were presented at Te Papa Tongarewa as part of The Contractors Conference, New Zealand’s premier civil construction …
Kia ora koutou, This month, while we have been forging ahead with our transition plans and resourcing up to meet our increased trainee and apprentice numbers, we have also been reflecting on 2020 in the run up to the Annual General Meeting. The past 18 months have been marked by unprecedented change for both Connexis and the industries we serve. First Covid, …
Girls with Hi-Vis® is well underway and has been getting national attention with an article in the New Zealand Herald. On Friday 11 June, the NZ Herald ran a feature on the Girls with Hi-Vis® (GWHV) initiative and the value women can bring to the infrastructure industries. Read the article here, including a profile of Ultimit Ambassador Kat Kaiwai of Tairāwhiti …
The highlight of Katareina Kaiwai’s four-year journey to achieve her Civil Infrastructure Apprenticeship was getting it finished. That is not to say that Kat, who now runs her own roading firm, Tairāwhiti Contractors, did not enjoy her training. In fact, one of the first things she did after completing her Apprenticeship was to ask her Connexis Customer Service Account Manager (CSAM) what qualification she could do next. However, she says it was only once she got to the end of her training that she …
Kia ora koutou, There’s a lot of change happening in our sector, and we’ve embraced that with some changes of our own. At the end of the year I’ll be leaving Connexis to join BCITO (the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation) and Kaarin Gaukrodger, our very able and experienced General Manager, will be taking over the reins. I’m immensely proud of the team at Connexis and …
A new ‘user-friendly’ qualification, eligible for free trades training, has gained a big thumbs up from Rural Contractors New Zealand for workplace evidence such as photos being accepted as one way to recognise the skills of people working in rural contracting. The New Zealand Certification in Rural Contracting level 3 was unveiled by the Industry Training Organisation Connexis at this …
The Government’s recently announced Free Trades Training scheme is a welcome boost for the Infrastructure Industry. It provides a platform for attracting keen new workers to build the required workforce capacity and capability to deliver on the pipeline of infrastructure projects. The Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund (TTAF – also called Free Trades Training) of $320 million was announced by …
Civil infrastructure trainees around the country put the recent Level 4 lockdown hours to good use hitting the books and studying toward their apprenticeships. Lateisha Jeeves, Fulton Hogan Whangarei and Quaid Leech, Extreme Earthmoving Ltd in Auckland, switched their study from the workplace to home making the most of the lockdown hours. Lateisha is part of Fulton Hogan’s road maintenance …
TOBY BEAGLEHOLE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CONNEXIS INFRASTRUCTURE INDUSTRY TRAINING As published in Contractor Magazine January ‘Perspectives 2020’ As a newbie to vocational education and industry training in New Zealand, I was caught on the hop by the Government’s proposals in its Review of Vocational Education (RoVE) in February 2019. The biggest revamp of industry education in more than 25 years, RoVE …
