Students building for the community

WelTec trainees work on Bell Road council flats

PRIYANKA BHONSULE/Hutt News

HAMMER TIME: Building student Jason Parker, 17, says trainees learn theory at tech but can reinforce that study in a practical manner by building and renovating the housing units.

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In one of the biggest combined projects undertaken by WelTec, students from building, carpentry, electrical and plumbing classes are working on residential units for social housing tenants in Lower Hutt.

Working with the Hutt City Council-controlled business unit Urbanplus, nearly 60 students are helping to refurbish 22 existing units on the Bell Rd housing complex, as well as building four new ones.

The new units are being put together at the former Petone College site and the unveiling of these yesterday was attended by Mayor David Ogden, Urbanplus chief executive Richard Conway, Weltec CEO Linda Sissons, tutors and students.

Mr Conway says Urbanplus looked to partner with a few commercial outfits but nothing was socially or financially viable until someone suggested WelTec.

Dr Sissons says this is a win-win situation for more than two parties.

"I see it as five wins - the students, Hutt City, pre-employment students, former (construction) cadets who no longer have employment, and the staff of Weltec.

"In this current, and hopefully receding, recession ... the construction sector's employment will take a longer time to get back to where it was so this is a fantastic opportunity."

There are two groups of 32 students each and they alternate one week working on the units and one week back in classrooms.

With them are about a dozen building apprentices (some of whom lost their positions in the downturn), who are doing site preparation at Bell Rd and they are working in conjunction with professional tradespeople helping to install services to the new homes and undertake the landscaping.

A pre-trade electricians' class did the wiring for the units and WelTec is hoping to get a plumbers' class involved as well.

The aim is to ensure the refurbished and new homes are warmer, more modern and provide better access for the tenants.

Mayor Ogden says their plan was to increase social housing units from 186 to 210 so this venture will certainly help, though he hopes the colour of the units would change from the current yellow.

"The units will really improve the quality of living for the people in them," he says.

WelTec's Development Manager Penny Robson says these units are the largest combined project the institute has taken on and it's a bonus that it has a social outcome.

As their final year project WelTec's building and carpentry students usually build a house which is then tendered and relocated to the new owner's property.

Electrical and plumbing students would usually be working in simulated workshops.

"This project is providing them with a practical new opportunity," says Ms Robson.

"It's not simulated or hypothetical so they find it wonderful."

The units would be picked up from their current location of Petone College in a "near-completed stage" around 19 October and relocated to the Bell Rd housing complex.

Ms Robson says this is intended to be an ongoing project and first in the beginning of a relationship between Urbanplus and WelTec.

The units will be picked up from their current location of Petone College in a "near completed" stage around 19 October, and relocated to the Bell Rd housing complex.

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