56 | Skilled workers hard to find from page 54 Pipeline & Civil has many major projects underway. CIVIL CONSTRUCTION Pipeline & Civil We’re a boutique agency that is mobile - we come to you so you don’t have to come to us! • Traffic Management • Civil Construction • Aviation Deal with the owners directly: Twissteen MacDonald: 027 266 2061 Junior Chan-Tung: 021 288 1947 Your Temporary Labour Hire Specialists! “If they are more inclined towards leadership, there are still more opportunities to go into leadership roles such as leading hand and supervisor. We are changing that terminology and bringing the opportunity for progression to the forefront of our vocabulary.” Pipeline & Civil is engaging with local secondary schools, guidance counsellors, and whānau in a bid to raise awareness about civil construction careers. One of the challenges it faces in doing this is schools are tending to promote tertiary education as the way forward, at the exclusion of everything else available to school leavers. “I’m not sure how the incentives work, but they do tend to push people into tertiary education. That is fantastic for the highly skilled workforce, but some people don’t have the right attributes to succeed in tertiary education, they have a lot more readiness to enter the trades. “We now have a trade apprenticeship programme which is relatively new, but getting people to connect with that is quite challenging, and the secondary schools aren’t always open to it.” Finding the necessary skill set amongst the kiwi labour force has been very challenging for Pipeline & Civil, and Hugh says as well as needing to train and upskill the people who are here and ready to work, the industry also in the short term needs to fill some gaps with people from outside of New Zealand. “The Government needs to take the industry feedback on board and adjust the immigration settings so we can get a good mix of people to fill the short-term need, as well as upskilling people going forward. Funding for apprenticeship programmes needs to continue to ensure upskilling continues for the benefit of the industry.” Civil Contractors New Zealand’s EP!C programme is now shining the spotlight on infrastructure careers and some of the amazing infrastructure projects the civil construction industry is delivering to local communities. “Civil contractors have a massive role to play in public health and wellbeing,” Hugh says. “All of these issues we see in the media about boil water notices, Havelock North, and the Three Waters reform are triggering the conversation about the integrity of our water and waste water networks. “A lot of work needs to happen and we want to encourage people to join the industry so they can help to solve these issues.”
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