The Kāinga Ora Construction Plus programme has been working with Ara Education Charitable Trust (AECT) to provide extra tools and skills for their trade academy students. AECT is an innovative collaboration between industry, government agencies and schools to create work and training opportunities for South Auckland school leavers.

AECT identified some key areas where the students needed upskilling to better prepare for jobs in the construction industry. To achieve this, a series of workshops were held with students from five secondary schools – Mangere, Manurewa, Aorere, Onehunga and Southern Cross.

In September, two groups of students visited Piritahi’s head office to learn about health and safety. The students enjoyed learning about keeping themselves safe onsite and about the jobs available in the health and safety field.