Apprentice sees strong future ahead

SKY'S THE LIMIT: Building apprentice Miro Mitchell at work on a new house in Omanu.PHOTO/JOHN BORREN

A year ago Miro Mitchell was sitting exams at Nelson College and barely giving New Zealand's lifestyle capital a second thought.

But life has a funny habit of taking people in different directions and the 19-year-old building apprentice's choice of Tauranga was no exception.

"I wanted to move away from Nelson, so I came up here with my girlfriend, got into a good rugby team and got a good job ... I'm loving it."

Miro, who works for Way Builders, has not looked back. Helped by doing a pre-trades course at school, he survived the standard 90-day job trial and now looked forward to a career where his skills would be in strong demand.

"I can see myself doing this for a long time."

Miro always imagined he would be a carpenter. Apart from a couple of years when his focus shifted to cars, he has stayed true to his dreams. He reckoned he might strike out on his own one day but in the meantime his life on the job revolved around picking up as many skills as he could.

Being an apprentice meant keeping his log book up to date, tracking his work progress and hours on different aspects of the job. His first block course at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic since he signed up with Way Builders in January is this month.

Miro is happy in the knowledge that the industry was in an upturn with plenty of opportunities beckoning for young men like himself. "I see a strong future."John Cousins