Girls motor up for work experience

Two Kuranui College schoolgirls are chasing down careers in the automotive industry - on two wheels and four.

Motocross rider Shanice Young, 16, and her schoolmate Stephanie Morrison, 17, each started work experience last term at automotive repair workshops in Masterton.

Stephanie, of Masterton, helps out each Wednesday with car repairs and maintenance at the Eastwood Motor Group workshop and each Monday with similar jobs at Fagan Motors, where Wairarapa motocross rider Shanice Young, 16, also works on motorcycles at the Suzuki workshop.

Stephanie said she intends to carve out a career for herself in the industry but stops short of painting herself as a girl racer despite tacking a "not yet" to the self-appraisal.

"I own a Nissan Skyline but I'm not really a girl racer - not yet - not until I do a bit more to it anyway."

The Year 13 student said her working days at the pair of garages most often comprise a watch and learn brief at the shoulders of full-time mechanics "and doing what they tell me to do".

She is hoping to get similar work experience before the year ends and would jump at the chance to launch an apprenticeship in the trade.

Graeme Charters, Eastwood Motor Group workshop foreman, said Stephanie was the first female student to take up work experience at the garage in his two decades at the site and she was keen and "doesn't mind getting her hands dirty".

Shanice owns a Kawasaki KX85 and is "loving" her automotive work, which fits hand in glove with her status as the only female motocross rider in her age group and class in Wairarapa and Upper Hutt, the two regions where she has completed most of her competitive racing to date. The Wairarapa Motorcycle Club member earlier this year took first place after racing against "the boys" in the Wairarapa 85cc class and also won gold in the women's up to 125cc class while racing against older riders on bigger machines.

She has just won sponsorship with Antidote4Insanity and off the track had also distinguished herself playing mixed grade rugby before taking up football.

Shanice is yet to tweak her racing machine herself, she said, but is gearing her work experience toward that day while helping out at Fagan Motors with quad bikes, kids' machines, racing and touring class motorcycles.

Paul Clark, Suzuki workshop service manager, said the pair of Kuranui schoolgirls were the first work experience students accepted at Fagan Motors.

He was impressed with the work Shanice completed last term and was more than happy to take her back for a second term.

"She's brilliant, has a great attitude and is keen to learn."

Shanice would be a definite starter should an apprenticeship vacancy come up at the workshop in future, he said.

Kuranui College spokeswoman Catherine Rossiter-Stead said the two girls are among seven students from the school who are on automotive work experience this year of a full roster of 17 students working in trades that also include farming, carpentry and childcare.