Jordan Gillespie
Jordan was a Year 12 student at Waimea College in 2014 when he put his name forward to enrol in the Trades Academy Mechanical Engineering programme based at NMIT. At that time he was taking other practical, hands-on subjects at school, such as Materials Technology, Graphics, Engineering and Physical Education, and Trades Academy seemed like a good option for an extra subject.
Jordan knew that he didn’t want to go to university when he finished school, but that he wanted to work, earn money and do a job that was practical and had a good career path. He says that Trades Academy was the perfect first step to fulfilling these goals.
“Going into NMIT to Trades each week was awesome. We got to spend the whole day working in the engineering workshop and this really helped us to build our skills. Building and racing our grass kart was cool – the real highlight of my year at Trades.”
Since completing his year in Trades Academy, Jordan has been focused on pursuing his career goal of becoming a qualified Mechanical Engineer. In Year 13 he enrolled in his school’s Gateway programme, undertaking work experience with a local engineering company one day a week. From there he enrolled in the NMIT fulltime pre-trades engineering programme, before gaining employment at Trinder Engineers. Today Jordan is three quarters of his way through his engineering apprenticeship.
At Trinders, Jordan is part of a large company which specialises in a range of industrial, transport and forestry engineering work. Currently Jordan is part of a team which designs and engineers machinery for the forestry industry. He completes block courses and also attends night classes at NMIT as part of his apprenticeship. The work he does at Trinders also forms an important part of his apprenticeship assessment and he is aiming to complete his Level 4 NZ Certificate in Mechanical Engineering within the next 12 months.
Looking back, Jordan says that his transition from school to employment was pretty seamless, and that the combination of Trades Academy, Gateway work experience and NMIT Pre-Trades study made all the difference when it came to finding employment and an apprenticeship. He is very grateful to his managers at Trinders and tutors at NMIT who have all assisted Jordan through his training and have been crucial in helping him achieve his career goals.
Looking back to when he was at school, Jordan believes that the best advice he could give to younger students is: “No question is a stupid question. Put yourself forward, show that you’re keen and want to learn. Go out and offer to do work experience and don’t expect everything to get handed to you.”