Wednesday, 03 August 2011
By KRISTIN HALL AUT JOURNALISM STUDENT
ALL HANDS ON DECK: Eastern Bay of Plenty Trade Academy students Justin Liddington, 17, and Claude Opperman, 17, get to work. PHOTO Kristin Hall C4261-21.
TINKERING away under the bonnet of an old Corolla, 17-year-old Claude Opperman is clearly in his element.
Last year, the Trident High School student says he failed most of his exams. This year it’s all changed. Mr Opperman says he won’t be part of the growing number of unemployed teenagers in New Zealand, thanks to his placement on the automotive mechanics course at the Eastern Bay of Plenty Trades Academy.
Opened in February, the academy provides an opportunity for high school students to learn a trade through the Waiariki Institute of Technology – while staying enrolled at school.
The programme involves seven schools from across the Eastern Bay, and sees 105 students participating in seven different courses from agriculture to professional cookery.
Students finish high school with both NCEA credits and a national qualification in their chosen trade.
Mr Opperman says the academy has given him a new desire to stay at school and enter the workforce as soon as possible.
“All schools should have something like this. We get to practise doing what we love and get the proper training too,” he says.
A report released by the New Zealand Institute last week showed New Zealand has the highest youth unemployment in the OECD.
Trident High School principal Peter Tootell says the academy will definitely decrease the number of local students leaving school and going on the benefit.
“We are aware there are students across the Eastern Bay who have left to become couch potatoes, but this will mean they’re incredibly employable.
“Previously we found we’d been sending kids off to work and they either weren’t ready or spent three months there only to decide that it wasn’t for them.
“Employers would come back saying: ‘Sorry you just don’t have the right attitude or the right work ethic’ and the students would be saying: ‘I don’t want to do this.’
Mr Tootell also said the programme has been successful in bringing at-risk kids back into the school system.
“We’ve had kids that have had extreme problems that have suddenly turned around. It’s really opened everybody’s eyes as to the potential of these students.”
Waiariki development manager Rosemary Johnson says the hands-on training at the academy has seen a change in students’ performance at school.
“We’ve definitely seen a huge change in attitude.
“Our mid-year reports came out in July and we saw a lot of really positive comments.
“The thing is that the students are really highly motivated because they’re doing something they actually want to do.”
Mr Opperman says he is surprised that his marks have improved, even in academic subjects.
“My maths has improved heaps because I know I’m going to need it.
“You don’t know you’ve gotten better till you see your grades, and then you get a bit of a shock.”
With all seven courses at full capacity, Mr Tootell says the academy is looking to introduce hairdressing and nursing next year.
