Former student Maria Hetaraka Pathways to the future
The new Careers/ Transition team at Taipa Area School is working with students to develop authentic pathways to future careers and employment opportunities.
The team, Robert Rush, Gary Peach and Owen Gilmour, invite parents to information evenings to explore the many different pathways being made available. For many of the students, engagement levels have skyrocketed, attendance has improved, and there is a new sense of hope for a brighter future.
I am currently studying infrastructure with the Solomon Group in Kaitaia, and my future looks a little different now.
Last year, when I was at school, did nothing for me because I wasn’t focused on my learning and I was distracted by other things. My attendance wasn’t good, as I was usually out on school trips or bunking. I was never caught, so I just kept doing it. I didn’t get on with many teachers because I felt they had no faith in me. There was a lack of respect between us.
In 2018 I took the infrastructure dual pathways programme with the Solomon Group in Kaitaia. The purpose of this programme is to prepare us for employment, and for people like me and my friends who need to wake up.
In this programme we sat our learner licences and gained our site safe passport, which enables me to go on to a construction site anywhere in New Zealand. I have also completed a traffic control management course, which allows me to get a job on the roads.
The course demands that we be drug-free, which is one of the main priorities. Other priorities are attitude, attendance and work effort. Communication is one of the important aspects; we have to communicate our absences if we ever miss a day. If we don’t phone in when we have a job in the infrastructure industry we will get fired. Also, if we are not sure of anything, we have to ask questions.
Our course teachers are really different to our school teachers, because they tell you straight up and they do not mess around. They tell us how it is in the real world.
The course teachers trust us and believe in us, even though they don’t know us. They understand our backgrounds because their backgrounds are very similar.
The best thing about the course is the preparation they pass on to me so I will more confident when I apply for a job.
"Communication is one of the important aspects [in the the infrastructure dual pathways programme]; we have to communicate our absences if we ever miss a day. If we don’t phone in when we have a job in the infrastructure industry we will get fired."