Ten students from three schools gathered at Stratford High School on Tuesday to officially start on the first Build a Bach project to take place in the Central and South Taranaki area.
The students, from Stratford High School, Hawera High School and Patea Area School, will be building a relocatablebach on Swansea Road as one of two Build a Bach projects in Taranaki, jointly run by Taranaki Futures and WITT.
The project is in its second year, with one bach having been successfully built on the WITT New Plymouth campus grounds last year. This year, each squad of students will be involved in all aspects of the bach build, gaining valuable entry level, industry skills within the industry. The students have already completed a two-week block at G&H Training in New Plymouth, where they had a health and safety introduction and an introduction to the trades they will be learning.
"Nationally, just 30 per cent of students go on to university from school, so schools need to look for other pathways and options for their students." Principal of Stratford High School, Philip Keenan, says he talked to the school board about the school getting involved with the project this year with the idea of being able to offer it to students from the Central and South areas of Taranaki.
As educators, we have to remove the blinkers and look around to see what will help our students gain the skills they need.
"Warwick Foy, the manager of education innovation at Taranaki Futures, put a lot of work in to ensure we could bring the project here, and we are delighted to have five students now working on it, gaining practical skills that will help them in their future careers."
One of the students, Gage Drummond (16) from Stratford High School, has "always wanted to be a builder," and sees the project as being a way to gain practical experience before leaving school.
Michael Paamu (17) of Patea Area School also thought the practical experience would be good for his future. "It appeals to me as a trade, so I am looking forward to trying it out."
