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Students at three more Wairarapa schools will from the start of next year get a chance for hands-on workplace experience as part of their studies.
Totara College of Accelerated Learning, plus Tararua and Chanel colleges are joining the government's Gateway programme, which provides work-based skills training for students.
Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer says around 37 more students will be able to test their suitability for trades and skilled jobs while still at school.
A $57 million package announced in the May budget provided funding for a substantial expansion of Gateway. Wairarapa's three new Gateway Schools are among more than fifty now taking up that funding.
In Wairarapa, the programme already includes around 100 students gaining work experience whilst studying at Dannevirke High School with Kuranui and Makoura colleges. By early next year, more than 180 secondary schools across the country will be opening doors into work with Gateway.
"This is a real boost for Wairarapa, where the gap between available jobs and skills means a lot of lost opportunity for businesses to expand and for people to lift their incomes," said Georgina Beyer.
"The chance for a secondary student to test themselves in a trade or skill often leads them into a good career path. It also gives employers the chance to spot talent at an early age. Around a quarter of Gateway students in 2003 moved on to full-time employment the following year."
Ms Beyer says the latest expansion to Gateway comes hot on the heels of announcements that see thousands more places funded nationally for Modern Apprenticeships and industry training -including a projected increase of 486 industry trainees in the Wellington region before the end of this financial year and 55 more Modern Apprentices.
"We're leaving nothing to chance or to the whims of the market in pursuing our pledge as a government to have every 15-19 year old in education, training or work by 2007."
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