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Kiwis fly in to unlock training

Recently I met a group of high-spirited young men who "commute" from New Zealand to undergo their locksmith training at NMIT. Surprisingly, New Zealand's population is too small to sustain a specialist locksmith training facility. For a couple of years Max Cherry, program co-ordinator of locksmithing flew to New Zealand and delivered training on site to help the New Zealand Master Locksmith Association design an on-going training program. Ultimately, however, it was decided that the best option was to bring the students to Australia for their training.

NMIT was chosen by the New Zealand Master Locksmith Association as the preferred training provider for all New Zealand locksmithing apprentices because of its facilities and its solid reputation in the industry. Trainees come across for three weeks at a time in first and second year. The rest of their assessment is carried out in the workplace by trained assessors. Max also manages this workplace assessment.

For many of the trainees it is their first time on an aeroplane or even away from home. They are truly commitment to the training willing to pay $3000-$3500 each time they come over. Currently NMIT is training six first-year New Zealand apprentices. I tried out all my sheep jokes on them but, as they'd heard them all, I turned to more serious subjects and found out a bit about them.

Paul Gregory, the father of the group at 47, is actually an Englishman. His trade is gun-smithing but the declining engineering industry in England made it impossible for him to find a job whilst he was offered no opportunity to retrain. For the past ten years he has driven forklifts. In search of better prospects, Paul and his family decided to move to Palmerston North, a small town two hours outside Wellington on the north island. Paul has been working for Chubb security for 18 months and only recently commenced his apprenticeship. He finds there are a lot of skills he can transfer from gun-smithing yet he has realised the course is not going to be a holiday. These trainees are cramming in a lot of work. Classes run from 8am-4.30pm each weekday. Paul has also found it challenging using different products and tools to those he uses in his apprenticeship in New Zealand.

Ryan Silcock views his time in Australia a bit differently to Paul. At only 24 he relishes this opportunity to enjoy Australia and has been experiencing quite a lot of the Melbourne nightlife, especially the live band circuit. Ryan didn't plan to be a locksmith. After high school he did a variety of odd jobs. He was working as a barman when one of his regulars asked if him if he would like a locksmithing apprenticeship. He jumped at the chance and hasn't looked back since. He sees the locksmithing industry as one offering many options as well as the possibility of constant change and development, which keeps him keen. Ryan comes from Wellington and this is his first time in Australia and his first experience of 37 ° C weather. He found a recent hot day so unbearable he chose to continue working in the air-conditioned computer room rather than have lunch in the heat! As for the training, he is learning heaps.

For further information contact:
Marnie Long
Student Recruitment Officer

Email: MarnieLong@nmit.vic.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 9269 1251