Hands-on work experience is key to connecting young women to the wide variety of career opportunities that exist in traditionally male-dominated infrastructure trades, according to one of the industry’s leading training providers. 

Kicking off this week Girls with Hi-Vis^® (GWHV) is an annual month-long series of events developed by Connexis, infrastructure training provider for the civil construction, energy, telecommunications and water industries. Throughout June every year GWHV sees New Zealand’s major infrastructure employers host female secondary students onsite to demonstrate the career pathways open to them working in fields such as highway construction, power distribution and water treatment.  

While onsite the students are able to try their hand at some of the day-to-day tasks required in different infrastructure trades and hear from other women already building successful and varied careers in the industries. 

Connexis Executive Director Kaarin Gaukrodger says as well as making more young women aware of career opportunities in infrastructure that they may not have previously considered, GWHV makes an important connection between the value of vocational pathways, offering tertiary qualifications while building a successful career in an industry that offers plenty of pathways for ongoing development. 

“At GWHV events the female students have fun and engage in opportunities to find out what these types of jobs really involve. They see for themselves that they are more than capable of doing this practical, physical work that is crucial to the health and prosperity of their local community.” 

“They also see the skills required and how they are able to gain those skills through work-based training they can complete while working, earning and building their career,” Gaukrodger says. “Most importantly it connects the students with local employers and the Connexis team who can work with both the businesses and the schools to find Gateway work experience placements that can lead to apprenticeships and jobs.” 

GWHV has been running for more than ten years, and Gaukrodger says its success at opening up infrastructure trades to more women is evident in its growth each year and the increase in females undertaking infrastructure training. In 2015 the event began with three Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) companies hosting events and 50 female students in attendance. This year there are 30 events scheduled right around the country, with more than 80 schools and 800 students set to attend. 

“That growth indicates employers and school careers advisors recognise that young women have generally been overlooked as a potential workforce. Many of our schools and employers are also repeat participants which is a good indication of the value they see in the event,” she says. 

Connexis now has its highest-ever number of enrolled female learners; with the proportion of female learners doubling from 8% in 2015 when GWHV was first launched to 16% in 2025. 

“That growth is partly due to the ongoing impact of GWHV,” Gaukrodger says. 

“We are now in the fantastic position of having women working in infrastructure careers who attended a GWHV event and are now passing their knowledge and experiences on to other young women at GWHV events being held by their employer.” 

This year’s GWHV includes a te reo Māori event in Ōtaki on the expressway construction site at Te Pae o Tararua: Ōtaki to north of Levin. 

For a full list of Girls with Hi-Vis® events, inspirational work stories and information, visit the Connexis Girls with Hi-Vis® page.  

Read Azra Wenlick’s career journey to becoming a line mechanic field supervisor. 

For more information please contact 

Kerri Jackson 

Accento Communications 

kerri@accento.nz 

0220885860 

About Connexis 

Connexis is a training provider for New Zealand’s Civil, Energy, Telecommunications, and Water infrastructure industries. Connexis works with infrastructure employers to develop and deliver nationally recognised programmes for apprenticeships and professional qualifications that sit on the New Zealand Qualification and Competency Framework. Connexis is committed to increasing the capability and capacity of New Zealand’s infrastructure workforce through high quality, work-based learning across these industries which are vital to keeping New Zealand connected. 

The post Changing the face of who keeps New Zealand connected  appeared first on Connexis | Infrastructure Training.

This hands-on experience in an infrastructure role while he was still at school has opened doors for Northland’s Halen Pihema. 

In 2025, while still a student at Broadwood Area School in the Far North, Halen completed a Connexis Gateway programme, working with Map Projects. The skills he gained through Gateway, which saw him work onsite with Map Projects for part of the week, then helped Halen find a job with civil contracting company Solid Civil Solutions. 

“At the start of school last year my School Gateway Co-ordinator Tanya King, gave me some options of what to study and there was a career option, so I chose that. Then she asked if I wanted to try some work experience as part of that, so she got hold of the Gateway programme.” 

A civil construction career appealed as Halen has his sights set on gaining his heavy vehicle licenses so he can operate onsite heavy machinery like diggers and trucks. Halen says the infrastructure Worksites Level 3 Gateway Programme he gained through Gateway has given him a great start to those career goals, and definitely opened the door to his current job by giving him important basic skills. 

“It covered a lot of health and safety stuff, as well as things like how to read technical documents like site plans. One of the best parts of the training is knowing how to read all that. When I started and first looked at documents like that I didn’t know anything so it’s pretty cool to be able to read them and understand them.”  

Find out more about the range of Connexis Gateway programmes available here 

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