This month our team attended the Roofing Association of New Zealand (RANZ) conference in Nelson. Our Chief Operating Officer, Marcus Bathan, was also part of a panel discussing the progress that has been made in the last 12 months to improve training for learners and employers in the roofing sector.
Marcus spoke about what Vertical Horizonz has achieved since September last year (2022) when we began offering roofing apprenticeship training and what our goals are for the coming year, including reimagining our programme, focusing on our learner’s wellbeing, and becoming more sustainable in our use of materials.
At VHNZ we operate on a model of continuous improvement for all our course content, and our apprenticeship training is no different. We are reimagining our roofing programme based on skills standards. Skills standards encourage a more holistic approach to standard design, have transferable competencies and less prescriptive ranges. Waihanga Ara Rau Workforce Development Council (WDC) have been great to work with on this and we are excited to be one of the first groups to ulitise these new skills standards.
Our learner’s wellbeing is always forefront of our mind, and to support that, this year we have appointed Richie Hepi as our Learning Engagement Manager. He is responsible for hearing the learner’s voice and supporting our students.
To help support our learners physical and mental wellbeing we are implementing two new learning modules. Work Should Not Hurt will now be delivered in Block B and covers individuals physical wellbeing and safety at work. We are also rolling out Wellbeing and Wellness Awareness Training for learners in Block A, which covers an understanding of what wellbeing looks like, how everyday pressures can cause stress, and healthy coping mechanisms to allow self-management.
Finally, we are looking at how we can design OUT as much waste as possible in our training programmes. How can we reuse, repair and recycle materials from our block courses? We are currently investigating a number of initiatives including working with manufacturers that take back waste product and recycle their own products and looking at how we can better reuse products in courses. We are also planning community projects as part of our block courses, things such as building bus shelters, outdoor smoko sheds, animal shelters and local kura projects have all been put forward as projects that could be done in our local communities.
