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Rebuilding ChristchurchDelivering trades skills to meet emergingdemand from the building and constructionindustry.We welcome the Government’s investment in us to train the peopleneeded by the building and construction industry. Last year we trainedaround 1300 people in carpentry, plumbing, painting and decorating, brickand block laying, engineering and electrotechnology.The expansion of our trades delivery is timed to meet the expected impactin 2013 of Christchurch’s future building needs. This high industry needis expected to last for five years for residential builds and 10 years forcommercial construction projects.After a low period in the building and construction industry over recent yearsit is even more important now to boost the numbers of pre-trade staff aswell as skilled tradespeople. Research, testing, consulting and informationcompany BRANZ says that at least 40 percent more people will be neededto rebuild Christchurch and build affordable housing in Auckland. As therewill be a lot of movement of tradespeople around the country to take upthese opportunities, skilled people will be needed everywhere.Our Build Your Future campaign which started in late 2011 as a directresponse to the call to action from the Government to provide skilledtradespeople for the rebuild of Canterbury, really started to gain momentum.The Government announced additional funding for ‘priority trades’ in late2012. WelTec, with its long history as a trades training provider, offered aspart of its Investment Plan negotiations to continue delivering to this cohort.Our Engineer Your Future campaign, designed to encourage more peopleto consider training for the engineering industry, came into sharp focusin late 2012 when the Government announced 1000 more engineeringplaces across the public tertiary education sector to be achieved in 2013.In 2012 our focus for recruitment was on secondary schools in the greaterWellington region. This saw the development of joint collateral with VictoriaUniversity of Wellington’s School of Engineering. Alongside this wascontinued collaboration with the Metro Group on promoting the Bachelor ofEngineering Technology nationwideThis year, working with Whitiriea we made entry into trades even easier, withpre-trade programmes offered in Otaki and the Kapiti Coast.Feedback from the building industry on the quality of our graduates and theirskills is very positive. Employers in Wellington and Christchurch were linkedup with our graduates. The SCIRT (The Stronger Christchurch InfrastructureRebuild Team) bus visited Petone in late 2012 and more than 70 WelTec andWhitireia trades graduates signed up for work in Christchurch.2012 ANNUAL REPORT | 27