Service Acadamy director Pita Lloyd with five of seven of the Flaxmere College students accepted into the 2023 EIT Service Pathways programme. Photo / Supplied
Service Acadamy director Pita Lloyd with five of seven of the Flaxmere College students accepted into the 2023 EIT Service Pathways programme. Photo / Supplied
Seven Flaxmere College students who have taken part in the school’s Services Academy over the past few years will soon start taking the next steps to start a career in a number of different New Zealand services.
The group of 18-year-olds have been accepted into the EIT | Te Pūkenga NZ Certificate in Study and Career Preparation, commonly known as the level 3 Services Pathways program.
EIT’s Services Pathways programme is a six-month course that will prepare those taking the course with the knowledge, skills and confidence to apply for training or employment in the NZ Police, armed forces, and corrections services, as well as a few other careers that involve working in positions of trust.
The EIT course will get the students test-ready for the recruitment process of whichever services they are interested in joining, which includes physical, intellectual, mental and health tests.
Flaxmere College’s Services Academy director, Pita Lloyd, believes his seven students joining the course will already be steps ahead of others in the class due to the school’s programme.
“The course gets our students face to face with military people and gives them a good look at what it could possibly be like even though it may just be one dynamic of the services,” he said.
Lloyd takes the school’s Service Academy away five times a year, the first is a two-week induction course in Waiouru run by Youth Life Skills (YLS), a Unit of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).
The introduction course is a military mechanism to grow their confidence and abilities while putting the students in certain situations where they have to make critical decisions.
Another is a week-long bushcraft and navigation course, where the high school students learn survival skills in the bush, navigate and camp out at night.
Flaxmere High School students (left to right) Cruz Barbarich, Vieanna Matthews and Marlia Ioane speak with Service Academy director Pita Lloyd about their future. Photo/Warren Buckland
Flaxmere College is the only school in Hawke’s Bay that offers a Services Academy.
The Services Academy is an entity within Flaxmere College and commits itself to providing life skills, motivational learning, training and vocational options that will allow youth to confidently and successfully establish their place within and contribute to the local community and New Zealand society.
It gives students a structured military-based environment, opportunities to attend several courses with the New Zealand Defence Force, opportunities to develop service skills and knowledge, leadership training, NCEA credits, physical challenges, and outdoor experiences.
Academy director Lloyd spent 25 years in the NZDF infantry and joined up as an 18-year-old, just like the youths he is sending off to EIT’s Services Pathways programme.
He is proud to be able to show and help his students into a career path they are truly passionate about.
Three of the seven students attending the EIT course next year said they are looking forward to the Services Pathways programme and that they have learnt so much from the Flaxmere College Services Academy.
Flaxmere College student Cruz Barbarich wants to follow in his family members’ footsteps and join the NZ Army, hopefully, to go into the NZDF Infantry Regiment.
Barbarich said the school’s service academy had given him many experiences and opportunities, and he feels ready to take the EIT course next year.
Vieanna Matthews, who will be joining Barbarich on the EIT Services Pathways course, said Flaxmere College’s academy has helped her with her social skills and public speaking and has helped build her confidence, which she will bring with her into her future career in the army as an NZDF combat driver.
