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Your local news from Paekakariki to Otaki
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Female digger in heaven and moving earth
Pulling Strings
DRIVING IN STYLE: Haley Adamson, operating one of Goodmans Contractor’s newest and largest GPS-tracked diggers on the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway construction site, is going from strength to strength in the bulk earthmoving industry. Story page 3. PHOTO: CLOE WILLETTS / KAP090714CW50TONDIGGER
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Fruit burst
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Golden Girl
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Scheme will boost jobs DAVID HAXTON A lot more people will be employed on the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway thanks to a training programme focusing on labouring and machine operation. Kapiti Infrastructure Training and Resources Ltd is opening at the former Helipro headquarters at Kapiti Coast Airport later this month. The programme is being funded by the Ministry of Social Development, and will be fronted by Stomp Consultants owner Lane Stensness, who also works for Fletcher Construction. Training will focus on all aspects of expressway construction right through from gate keeping to machinery operation.
“It’s borne out of a need for more skilled labour for the expressway project,” Mr Stensness said. “We recognise there’s probably going to be a shortage, in excess of probably hundreds of staff, to work on the project. “The programme will be all your general skills stuff for your labour and moving on to heavy equipment.” Initially the ministry is supplying candidates to get unemployed people into work, he said. “But it doesn’t mean people off the street or who want to shift companies, they can all still get into the programme too.” It is hoped the courses, which run for either one week or three weeks, will start on
July 21 or July 28. “There will be diggers, loaders, rollers all that sort of stuff operating but I don’t envisage that happening for a few months. “The first lot of people will be the labourer type of people. “We will take on a few hundred that’s for sure.” Mr Stensness said his company had been successful over the last eight years of putting a programme together to upskill people in, “heavy machinery, health and safety, methodologies and all that kind of stuff”. Otaki MP Nathan Guy was excited “about the prospect of a local training initiative which will train local workers for jobs on the Kapiti expressway and
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Transmission Gully. “The programme is currently being finalised by the Ministry of Social Development. “I’ve been talking to Minister Paula Bennett about this local training scheme for some time, and I’m delighted it’s likely to begin in the next few weeks. “It makes sense to utilise the airport facilities for practical and theory training and encouraging local people into road construction. “Under a National Government we have a massive investment in the Kapiti expressway, Transmission Gully and roading improvements all the way to Foxton. “There’s going to be plenty of work in the next decade.”
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Prices apply Wednesday 16 July to Sunday 13 July 2014. Available only at PAK’nSAVE Kapiti. All offers are subject to availability or while stocks last. We reserve the right to limit quantities. No trade supplied. Rimu Road, Paraparaumu, Kapiti. Ph: (04) 296 6222. Open 7am-11pm, 7 Days
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