Close to 29,000 construction workers will be needed in Christchurch over the next 20-years and some of those heading south will be thirteen rangatahi from Taumarunui.

Their training is the outcome of a new relationship established between North Island Polytechnic UCOL, Christchurch’s Te Kaihanga Cooperative and Hinengakau Development Trust in Taumarunui. Te Puni Kōkiri, the local council and Ministry of Social Development have helped broker the relationship.

The students are undertaking preliminary training and will go on to complete UCOL’s pre-apprenticeship Carpentry certificate later this year. Danny Reilly is the polytechnic’s Construction programme leader and says students will graduate in time to start work later this year.

The project is the North Island arm of an initiative by Christchurch-based Te Kaihanga Cooperative - a group of Māori tradesmen who first got their start together under the original Māori trades training scheme run by the Department of Māori Affairs in the fifties through to the eighties. They banded together after the 2009 Christchurch earthquake and since then have been working to support training and apprenticeships so young Māori can up skill and take part in the rebuild.

Taumarunui lawyer and Te Puni Kōkiri business mentor Graham Bell says the project fits with the community’s role in government work to create better outcomes for young people in the region.

Te Kaihanga spokesman Danny Reilly says the project is also in line with UCOL’s drive to improve educational outcomes for Māori.

"The importance of that is reflected in the great attitude shown by our 13 young Māori students," he says. "They’ve hit the ground running, keen to learn all they can so they can make a useful contribution to the rebuild - and build themselves a productive career."

CERA reports that the build in Christchurch is not a short term boom and bust dynamic either: the mahi will be over the next twenty years.

“The vision for Te Kaihanga includes harnessing Māori potential and enabling Māori tradespeople to tender for, manager and deliver large building projects in the rebuild: while also providing training and employment opportunities for rangatahi Māori wanting to enter the building and construction sector,” says Acting Deputy Secretary, Eruera Reedy.