Students swap desks for tool belts
Programme aims to get teens into the industry
APalmerston North school is giving students practical help for a move into the trades after school — and it does not involve being stuck in a classroom.
At Palmerston North Boys’ High School (PNBHS), students can come to school, clip on a tool belt and build houses.
The construction programme aims to get the teens into the industry with skills and experience.
Sam McKerras, 17, will join the programme fulltime for his final year at school in 2024, after doing it alongside other subjects this year for two out of five periods a day.
He will get industry experience in construction and on a farm.
“We’ve had maybe two or three fullas just from my Year 12 class who have got apprenticeships just from being out here,” he said.
“It keeps some boys in school, and the ones who want to leave, it sets them up real well so they’ve not going into the worksite as complete newbies. They’re getting at least a little bit of experience.”
School would be vastly different for the likes of McKerras if not for the construction programme, which this year involved building three portable houses for private clients.
“I’d stay for rugby, but I’d say I’d probably be stuck in a maths classroom or an English one, something like that.”
McKerras said the students did everything on-site under the tutelage of teachers, from getting the framing up to putting in windows.
Tradespeople come in for specialised tasks such as wiring, but students help with that too.
Hamish Edmunds, 17, agreed spending time on a construction site, which was on the school grounds, was better for him than being in a classroom.
It was not as if the Year 13 student could not cope in a classroom — he was in the school’s academic programme — but he liked the practical nature of construction.
“I do the fulltime one, so I’m out here five periods a day. But I did some single subjects on the side.
“This year, I did university accounting. Also, I’m doing a Level 3 accounting paper at the end of the year.”
This year, he spent four days a week — from 9am to 3pm — building houses at the school, and one day a week doing work experience with a local building company.
“I’d like to eventually get into the more management side of it, but I enjoy the hands-on side and that aspect as well, though.”
Three staff members work fulltime at the site, while students in technology classrooms design and put together the kitchen and other joinery.
PNBHS head of technology Richard Fogarty showed RNZ through one of the three houses the students had built, earning income for the school and earning themselves a qualification through industry body BCITO (Building and Construction Industry
Training Organisation).
He said the three-bedroom house was almost finished.
The construction programme’s developed down the years as the school caters for increasing numbers of students who stay to Year 13 but don’t want to go to university.
Students have built a classroom for the school, and would next year construct social housing for Ka¯inga Ora, Fogarty said.
If the figures are anything to go by, the programme’s a success — all 17 students working on-site fulltime this year have secured apprenticeships or cadetships.
“The boys love it. There are a number of students who would be quite honest and say that they wouldn’t have made it to the end of their schooling if it wasn’t for a course such as this.”
Quinn Sturmey, 18, said the programme kept him in school for his final year, learning a trade alongside developing a promising rugby career.
“This course gives us the opportunity to get ready for something we want to do, something we’re actually looking into doing.”
School careers adviser David Barwick said students on the construction programme also spent some time in the classroom learning financial literacy, maths and English.
“It’s a big shift for our school. We’re traditional — academics were the major focus, and gaining retention for university entrance and things like that.
“Over the last five years, there’s been a really big change for us into offering students more of a careers focus in regard going down the trade route.”
Next year, the school will also offer students an automotive engineering course.