Apprenticed to success

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

When Jasmine Were decided to leave Papatoetoe High School after finishing School Certificate last year, she was determined not to settle for a "dead-end" job.

So she seized on an advertisement on the school noticeboard from a local auto-electrical workshop, and is well on her way to becoming a fully fledged tradeswoman under the Government's new modern apprenticeship scheme.

"I didn't even know how to use a screwdriver at first," the 17-year-old confessed after emerging from under a car bonnet at Papatoetoe Auto Electrical.

Although her grandfather was a mechanic and she loves cars, her mother had misgivings about whether she could stay motivated in such a male-dominated trade.

But after three months in the job, Jasmine's quietly conscientious attitude and attention to detail persuaded owners Peter and Bev Roxburgh to keep her on for the long haul by offering her an apprenticeship to became an auto-electrician in her own right.

The Manukau Institute of Technology became her training coordinator, handling all administrative work and appointing a staff member to liaise between the Roxburghs and the Qualifications Authority as well as "mentoring" Jasmine along the way.

Now she is accumulating her own set of tools for everything from rewiring boats to diagnosing computer glitches in the latest car engines - and her mother has long since been won over by her enthusiasm for the work.

Jasmine is one of more than 1640 youngsters, mostly aged 16 to 21, signed up to a scheme aiming to reduce administrative headaches for employers who may otherwise be reluctant to take on apprentices.

The number of apprentices jumped by 35 per cent between June and September, past the halfway mark of the Government's target of having 3000 in workplaces by the end of next year at a cost of $10 million to $11.5 million a year.

Employment Minister Steve Maharey says the growth shows the scheme is meeting the training needs of young people and businesses in a practical way, allaying concern at the demise of more traditional, time-serving apprenticeships.

"In less than a year we've seen modern apprenticeships grow from a pilot initiative to a quality workplace learning pathway that contributes significantly to the nation's skills base."

Twenty-four industries are taking part in the scheme, in which the Government pays training coordinators $2000 a year for each apprentice, working in areas ranging from turf management and agriculture to aeronautical engineering.

But although just over 20 per cent of all modern apprentices are Maori or Pacific Islanders, only 97 of the 1640 youngsters signed up at the end of September were female.

Skill New Zealand spokeswoman Margaret Griffin, whose agency administers the scheme with industry training organisations, promised steps to attract more women.

She also expects recent additions of public sector and hospitality employers to the scheme to boost female numbers and says young women accounted for a larger proportion - 14,124 of a total of 66,390 - of participants in industry training.

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