Pou 4 – School (kura) transitions
Ngā Whakawhitinga mai i te Kura
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Kura Transitions provide a pivotal opportunity to support rangatahi to transition from kura to decent employment and training.
The experience of rangatahi is at the centre of this kaupapa. Communities have a stake in the decisions that rangatahi make and their overall wellbeing.
Information provision is central to rangatahi making informed decisions regarding local career and training choices. The importance of starting a coordinated relationship between kura and employers as early as possible holds the key to rangatahi achieving a successful transition to employment. Anecdotally there is more mahi that needs to be done to clarify local career options and to do everything possible to make sure rangatahi have a fair opportunity to make an informed choice. One frustration is the lack of relevant industry aligned career advice and provision. Rangatahi might be more interested in mahi if they can see where the opportunities and growth areas are in their rohe.
Gateway coordinators in the kura play a role in linking rangatahi in education to employment. Current programmes are often not matching the actual interest of rangatahi or local job opportunities. Local employers need support to actively engage with kura so that partnerships are forged with kura and with rangatahi themselves.
Case Study — Hastings Boys High School and Patton Engineering
Mātai take – Te Kura Taitama Tuarua o Heretaunga me Patton Engineering
Hastings Boys High School (HBHS) trades academy offers exposure to 4 trades (engineering, carpentry and product design, carpentry and pathways classes, product design and computer-aided design). Rangatahi learn valuable real-world skills, while exploring the pathway to see if it is for them and increases their chances to secure an apprenticeship or employment. Located in the High School, it gives rangatahi early exposure to different trades and mahi experience before they leave kura.
Partnered with Patton Engineering for over three and a half years, they provide workplace experience for rangatahi interested in engineering. They also offer 4 rangatahi an apprenticeship each year. Rangatahi who do not secure one of the apprenticeships are likely to get another one elsewhere due to the networks developed through Patton.
One rangatahi who secured an apprenticeship in Year 12 with Patton Engineering came through HBHS and the trades academy. His kura experiences had not been positive and he started getting into drugs and going down a bad path. He flourished in the Trades Academy and with the skills he learnt, he secured an apprenticeship at Patton Engineering and saw it as an opportunity to do something better with his life “HBHS were the only people who cared about what I wanted to do. They were good and they pushed me to do better.”
During his struggles, the kura tried to bring in social workers to help talk to him, but this made no difference and he felt that the kura was not teaching the right skills for him. “Some of the stuff at school isn’t relevant to real life. Better to teach them things like tax, financial planning, banking, driver licencing”. He felt that the kura need to bring someone in who has similar lived experiences and understands all the issues that these boys are going through.