eNews – December

Prue Feely Civil, Civil Trades, Energy, eNews, News, Telco, Ultimit / Women in Infrastructure, Water

Kia ora,

As the calendar year draws to a close, I’m pleased to report that 2019 has brought a wide range of successes. As the standard-setting body for the infrastructure industries, Connexis shares the Government’s commitment to raising the profile of vocational education. This includes working with schools and communities around New Zealand and providing more flexible workplace-based learning, while actively supporting the training needs of our industries in a way that enables our country to grow.

It has been encouraging to see the 985 current qualification enrollments that lead towards Civil Trades Certification. A big congratulations also goes out to the 443 people who have earned their certification to date (cf. 250 in 2018) as well as all the trainees who graduated this year.

As a forward-focused organisation, Connexis also welcomed the Government’s announcement in October of a 27 percent increase in places to be made available at Trades Academies and Gateway secondary-tertiary programmes for school students. This is discussed further below. 

Connexis has continued the call this year for more women to be employed in trade roles. We are very proud to have been leading the way through our Ultimit – Women in Infrastructure initiative and see a growth from 4% to 8% in overall female trainees to date. The successful Girls with Hi-Vis® (GWHV), an Ultimit – Women in Infrastructure initiative has actively contributed to this. We are excited to be planning this again for June 2020, please see more details on this below. 

Despite the challenges and changes that 2019 has presented, Connexis remains committed to providing seamless support for workers during their training, to increasing enrolments in vocational education, and to helping trainees complete their qualifications. While the next two years will see many more changes, Connexis is confident that a managed, industry-focused, transition through the Reforms of Vocational Education (RoVE) can ensure a vocational education system that is better recognised, better valued and ready for a fast-changing future of skills, learning and work for our industry.      

Until next time, 

Toby Beaglehole
Chief Executive 

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