Monday 4 July 2016 - On Wednesday 6 July, 750 students and teachers will join the Got a Trade? Got it Made! Big Bus Tours 2016 across Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. Students and teachers will visit 50 workplaces to see what trades and services careers and on-the-job learning is all about.
Sectors on show include manufacturing design and engineering; civil engineering; specialist trades; automotive technology, repair and engineering; social and community care; sales and service; sign-writing; mining and industrial machinery and construction and infrastructure - to name a few.
"We wanted to promote the many opportunities that exist for on-the-job learning and apprenticeships, across as many sectors as we could, in one day," says Got a Trade chair, Andrew Robertson.
The Big Bus Tours are part of Got a Trade’s campaign response to the growing need for more young people to enter trades and services roles across New Zealand. Industries like aged care require more than 2,600 new people entering the sector year on year and in construction and infrastructure that figure is closer to 5,000. Looking forward to 2020, in industries like mechanical and automotive engineering, there’s demand for more than 5,600 and 11,200 new people respectively. By 2020 the civil engineering sector will also need 19,600 new people, and in the manufacturing sector, that figure blows out to 40,000.
"There’s no doubt that there are great opportunities out there for young New Zealander’s" adds Robertson.
"But students can’t choose a career they cannot see. The Big Bus Tours will really open their eyes to the full range of opportunities available across Got a Trade’s 140+ industries."
The Got a Trade Big Bus Tours will be backed by the BCITO’s Big Construction Tours the very next day. Together the Tours will have more than 2,000 students exposed to all aspects of apprenticeships and on-the-job learning.
The Big Bus Tours is an initiative driven by Got a Trade? Got it Made! the national campaign to promote trades and services careers and on-the-job learning. Got a Trade is a collaboration of eight industry training organisations; BCITO, Careerforce, Competenz, Connexis, HITO, MITO, ServiceIQ and The Skills Organisation. Together they represent more than 140 industries.
The second annual Got a Trade Week, celebrating those making headway in their trades and services careers, will run 22-26 August 2016.
To learn more about the opportunities a trades and services career can offer, and for a full list of participating workplaces, visit gotatrade.co.nz
