Minister salutes Apprentice of the Year

Speech to the Apprentice of the Year, Boatshed, Wellington

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Good evening and welcome. I am honoured to be a part of today's award ceremony and I want to begin by offering my warmest congratulations to all of the finalists, and their employers and family members who have travelled to Wellington in support. I hope you've had a great day in Wellington so far. You all deserve a real treat.

This morning I had great pleasure in hosting the 10 finalists and their supporters for morning tea in Parliament. One of the things I enjoy most about these sorts of occasions is meeting some talented, committed hard-working New Zealanders. It was a great pleasure to get the chance to have a chat with a few of them this morning.

Talking with the best of our country's carpentry apprentices, it's clear that there are some great things happening in our workplaces around the country, and some great people making them happen. Apprentices, employers, and supporting whanau - take a bow, I applaud you all.

Learning, of course, is a lifetime experience. So for those finalists who have already completed their apprenticeships, today's celebration in a sense marks the end of the beginning. Being part of this competition is itself a valuable learning experience, having been put under the spotlight at your regional competitions and now at a national level.

Regardless of who wins tonight, I am sure that the success all of you have achieved already in this competition will be a valuable confidence booster and will serve you well as you advance your careers in the building industry.

I am proud, as Minister, to see that one or two of you have been part of the Government's Modern Apprenticeship scheme. This is a scheme designed to combine the best aspects of traditional apprenticeships with additional features aimed at assisting more young people to get access to employment-based training towards national qualifications. It's great to see that it is producing apprentices who are achieving at the very top level.

The scheme is part of a broader Skills Strategy aimed at ensuring the skills of working New Zealanders will be honed to meet the needs of a complex modern workplace. An essential part of that will be to maintain high quality standards.

As you know, this is an especially important issue in the building industry, having taken a knock from the leaky home syndrome, and facing real challenges going forward in lifting skill levels to raise the productivity and performance of the industry.

Completing an apprenticeship and gaining a national qualification is an ideal pathway to qualifying for a licence under the Licensed Building Practitioners scheme. Indeed it is proposed that from 2015 it will be a prerequisite to be trade qualified in order to be licensed. So I urge all the apprentices here to day to put getting licensed on their agendas as soon as they have completed their training, if they haven't done so already.

This scheme is all about lifting the quality and competency of professional practitioners in the industry. It will ensure that purchasers can be secure in the knowledge that their house was constructed by a qualified professional. And will do wonders for increasing public confidence in the building sector. People will know that the builders they engage have a proven track record and can do their stuff properly.

The scheme will also will bring designers and builders in line with many other skilled trades and professions, like plumbers, architects and electricians who already have similar registration schemes.

I am also committed to being able to reward builders who are prepared to step up and get licensed. I have the Department of Building and Housing doing work on how we can, when licensing is bedded in, give licensed practitioners the ability to self-certify some of their work or have inspections reduced to the critical few.

I expect licensing, along with other key reforms the Government has introduced, will strengthen the industry, and will strengthen consumer faith in it.

And from what I've seen and heard about the new generation of builders coming through the apprenticeship programmes, the future building industry is going to be in very capable hands.

We're celebrating the best of those apprentices tonight - a great bunch of people who have worked hard and demonstrated exceptional skills and commitment to be here. So without further ado, it is now my honour and great pleasure to help with the presentations to this year's finalists.