Starting young

TOKOMAIRIRO HIGH SCHOOL AT Milton has taken on board the fact that forestry is a great career prospect in the Otago region and sees no need to wait until pupils have passed school age to formally train in forestry skills.

Tokomairiro offers NZQA Unit Standards to learners working towards NCEA Levels 1 and 2, as well as an option to gain a Forestry Qualification, which includes up to 40 credits at Level 3.

There are three programme pathways:

1. A Forestry Pathways Course for senior

students still enrolled in school.

2. A youth Guarantee Course for school

leavers aged 16-19.

3. An Alternative Education programme for those under 16 who have disengaged at school.

As well as delivering standards on site, Tokomairiro offers practical components and supports students into work experience while assisting with applications for suitable employment.

The programme is supported by the Forest Growers Levy Trust.

This past year, during the COVID lockdown, the students worked on knowledge unit standards for pruning and planting through distance learning.

Tokomairiro is supported by practical interaction visits to local forest companies – City Forests, Ernslaw One and Wenita Forest Products.

Wenita CEO, Dave Cormack, says it’s difficult to get skilled machine operators and silviculture contractors, particularly pruners, in Otago and Southland.

“This course certainly helps to de-mystify the industry and debunk some of the misconceptions which parents so often have about safety, professionalism and career opportunities for young people in the industry,” says Dave. “Alistair McKenzie, the course tutor, still works in the forest and has a good network of industry contacts and his experience and knowledge feeds into the content of each course.”

Dave says the courses provide the experience for a range of forest operations and further training opportunities during the course. Some of the participants may decide to move into silviculture or harvesting work when they leave secondary school. Others might consider further forestry education at polytech or university, or go into farming.

Stanley Moko (18), trainee from the 2020 Tokomairiro Forestry Pathways course, is already reaping the benefits:

“When I completed the course, I was able to look at all the job opportunities the forestry industry has to offer and gain a broad knowledge of the forest areas of trees grown in the Otago / Southland area.

“I found that the skills gained were suited to silviculture and I was able to improve on my planting, pruning, thinning and general chainsaw skills on this course. As a result I was able to get a full-time sustainable job with a contract forestry crew and will move from pruning to planting in a couple of months.

“I like the close team atmosphere and friendship. It’s great!

“After planting, I will be able to move to a thinning crew to get more experience in that field. Also, I am working towards a National Certificate in pruning of which I already have some modules from the course.

“As well as gaining full-time work for myself, my stepfather is going to gain employment from the same contractor. He has the skills but is out of work.”

First published in the NZFOA Bulletin.