Trade training boost for Northtec

The future of trade training in Northland has been ``kick started' to another level with news of $3.5 million of Government funding, Northland's polytechnic head Terry Barnett says.
Prime Minister Helen Clark and Building and Construction Minister Shane Jones visited NorthTec yesterday to announce an $8 million capital injection into the tertiary institute.
The Government will in effect write off an existing $5 million loan to the polytechnic - saving the polytechnic about $500,000 a year in interest payments.
The polytechnic has also been given $3.5 million to develop a new trades training facility. NorthTec will lease the former Gilmours building, in Dyer St, Whangarei, and convert it into a Future Trades centre combining all its trades training courses.
Mr Barnett said Future Trades would cost about $4 million to set up with the remaining $500,000 coming from key industry training organisations.
The centre would train a wide range of trades, including automotive, mechanical and electrical engineering, marine construction, welding, carpentry and joinery.
Mr Barnett said the polytechnic had been working with industry for some time to improve trades training in the North. Over the past five years the number of trades students had grown from 190 full-time equivalent students to 600.
The polytech's facilities could not meet the demands for ever more training across a wider range of trades and at an ever higher level. Qualified trades staff would be in high demand in coming years, and NorthTec had to be ready. Yesterday's funding announcement was a mark of confidence in the future of tertiary education in Northland, he said.
"It is also a tribute to local industry, Government agencies, iwi and economic development agencies that have consistently and vocally put the case for enhanced facilities north of Auckland."
Helen Clark said the Future Trades project would provide much needed skills for the Northland economy.
A recent survey of Northland industry revealed that 22 per cent of employers had recruited workers from overseas in 2007, compared with only 9 per cent in 2004. The marine engineering sector alone has established a requirement for an additional 1200 workers by 2012.
"It is imperative that NorthTec is able to increase its contribution to trades training, so that Northlanders have an opportunity to acquire the skills which the local economy needs," Helen Clark said.
"To do that, NorthTec badly needs new training facilities. Its current teaching spaces lack the required technology and are not well configured for modern teaching methods."
The first trades training courses could be held in the revamped Dyer St facility by June 2009.
* PM adopted in recognition for work
Northland has a new and very Honourable citizen - Prime Minister Helen Clark, who has become only the second-ever honorary Northlander.
Miss Clark was presented with her honorary citizenship certificate by Northland regional councillor and former Whangarei Mayor Craig Brown at NorthTec yesterday.
The Prime Minister was in Whangarei to announce an $8.5 million funding boost for the polytechnic, including $3.5 million to set up a trades training centre.
Mr Brown said the rare honour - MP Jim Anderton is the only other honorary Northlander - was in recognition of everything her Government had done for the region over the past nine years.
He said on very rare occasions Northland leaders decided to make someone an honorary citizen, and they did not have to think long and hard about Miss Clark.
"We've seen a whole array of things happen for Northland under your leadership," Mr Brown said.
Regional Council chairman Mark Farnsworth said the Labour-led Government had done more for Northland than any previous government.
"I'm not meant to say that because I'm meant to be apolitical, but I think it's a simple fact," he said.
Whangarei Mayor Stan Semenoff agreed.
Miss Clark said when her Government came to power it did not look at the political leaning of a region - Northland has been staunchly National for three decades - before deciding if it needed help.
Yesterday was her second trip north in less than a month.