Scaffolders in high demand

Recruitment and training are a "massive focus" for Scaffolding, Access and Rigging New Zealand (SARNZ), particularly with the demand now coming out of Christchurch and industry losses to Australia, says new national president Chris Douglas of Whangarei.

SARNZ represents most of the country's scaffolding companies. Chris Douglas has been a member since 2003 and was elected to the executive three years ago, and the presidency last week.

He says his own company, Northland Scaffolding, has lost five staff to Australia this year and this was happening to scaffolding firms throughout the country. Scaffolding jobs in Christchurch were being offered with the promise of being flown home every weekend, to any New Zealand location.

"The drain of personnel makes training vitally important," he said. SARNZ was also strongly focused on increasing safety in the industry and building partnerships with other industry sectors and associations.

"We are working closely with training providers and careers advisers on initiatives to increase recruitment and ensure the industry is well prepared for the challenges ahead," he said.

Chris Douglas began his career in sales management in the building industry before launching Douglas Roofing in 1998 and Northland Scaffolding in 2002. The roofing business had led to the scaffolding venture. Wanting to maximise safety for their roofers, they had invested in a guardrail system, which had led on to developing a service for other roofers and suppliers, which had quickly expanded into a full scaffolding service.

He sold the roofing company in 2008 to concentrate on Northland Scaffolding, which he runs with his wife Karen, employing 10. The workforce includes two apprentices and two pre-apprentices. The company's product is currently highly visible at Whangarei hospital, where scaffolding is in place for a major exterior paint job.

New face at ASB

New ASB Bank Northland regional manager Jason Burton will be intensively walking the talk over the next few months. He says he will be strongly focused on meeting customers and staff across Northland, mindful that "a lot of business in provincial New Zealand is done on relationships".

He says he will be aiming to deepen and develop relationships and continue ASB's investment in the community, particularly its key sponsorship with the St John's ambulance service. ASB's school financial literacy programme GetWise had done 234 presentations in schools, nearly half of all Northland primary and intermediate schools, he said. Three more roadshows were planned. Originally from Wellington, Jason Burton has worked across the bank's branch network in the North Island, latterly in managerial roles.

GetWise teaches children basic money-management skills. Launched in February 2010, it has reached more than 210,000 students, continuing a 90-year-tradition of encouraging children to save. The famous Thrift Essay Competition, which inspired decades of children to write on a theme of the rewards of saving in the hope of scoring a monetary prize, was an ASB initiative.