School leavers with learning difficulties now have a better chance at employment in the trades sector thanks to a South Auckland initiative.
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The Aspire2Trades campus in Manukau opened its doors last year, with courses in painting and decorating, welding, and forklift training.
Recently it redesigned the trades programme to be more inclusive for people with learning difficulties, including dyslexia.
Tony Boyce is the education manager at Aspire2 Trades, and had worked with people with learning disabilities for close to a decade.
He realised there was a huge gap in helping young people with learning difficulties get jobs.
So he decided to broaden the trades programme and retrain tutors on how to work with students with learning disabilities.
Mr Boyce said that included making classes smaller, and making the work more interactive.
"Rather than look at us presenting a programme and hoping they come into it and then trying, for them to try and achieve something, the idea was to make the programme user friendly.
"So, these students now can seamlessly transition through the information and the tutors will work to facilitate ways and bridge ways that they can even use afterwards."
One of the students, Kaynen, 17, joined the course in February and said the course has helped him change his life around.
In eight weeks, Kaynen will be starting an apprenticeship at a construction company as a painter.
Before enrolling, he said he was hanging out on the street stealing, and going to parties.
"I didn't want to be like my old life and just live on the streets, and be a bum really. I decided to come to Aspire2Trades to pick up a trades skill."
He said if it wasn't for the school, he would be behind bars.
Jenny Maihia has some learning difficulties, and found it hard to concentrate in school but said the smaller classes made it easier for her to get work done.
"If I don't understand what's written, I need help visualising the words. Putting it into a picture so that I understand what's being put into the assessment."
Kaynen also liked the smaller classes.
"The small classes help us because we get to learn better with the teacher, get more one on one times, and it helps us learn together as a class, and help us teach each other."
There are 89 students enrolled in the trades course, and tutors at the school say about 60 percent of the students go on to apprenticeships and full-time employment afterwards.