Out with baggage, in with self-belief

In a Mt Wellington warehouse, school leavers are hammering nails into what could be the foundations for a house.

In their sometimes haphazard way, they are laying foundations for their future.

These are kids who have slept rough, been thrown out of school for causing trouble, and have been told all their lives they are trouble. Many are long-term unemployed. Some have drug problems or are carrying other "baggage".

They will leave the Auckland Trade Training Academy for jobs on building sites as carpenters, roofers and plumbers. Many will go on to get trade certificates and long-term careers. With construction firms desperate for labour, the industry is overcoming long-held prejudices to fill vacancies from the unemployed ranks.

But first, says managing director Tom Cherrington, "we clean up the baggage".

That can include teaching trainees to read and write, to be punctual, to lay off P.

"The hardest thing to teach is attitude," Cherrington says. "It's easy to teach them what to do with their hands."

For these school dropouts, polytechnic study towards a trade certificate is not an option.

But agencies such as the academy - which has training sites in Mt Wellington, Mt Roskill and Henderson - are bridging gaps to give unemployable youths a shot at work-based training, winning contracts from Winz, the Tertiary Education Commission and the Ministry of Social Development.

Terence Polidario, 16, left school four months ago with nothing to show for it. "My careers teacher told me I'd be better off doing a course 'cos I was doing nothing at school," says the former Marcellin College pupil. He intends to build his own house. "Ever since I was little I was good at building things."

Tai Nicol, of Waimamaku, near Opononi: "I was in a class for naughty kids. We just listened to Bob Marley - that was our work." He was good at "hands-on stuff" but couldn't handle academic subjects. He says there was little encouragement for woodworking trades at school.

Leslie Groves, 21, was keen on carpentry at school but, like Nicol, found few opportunities to pursue it.

He went labouring after leaving school but the pay wasn't good. He hopes to get a job and an apprenticeship. "I want to get a job as soon as possible and start earning money."

Brent Henare, site manager at the academy's Mt Roskill workshops, says there is a huge change in trainees when they realise they have a future and a good income.

"Employment is the key. Getting a piece of paper at the end of the day when they've left school with nothing.

"It's not just about carpentry or any other trade. It's about self-belief.

"A lot of these people have never had someone believe in them in their life."