Career Pathways

A pathway for our graduate trainees to education and employment

We’ve formed new partnerships to help our trainees jump into a future of possibilities. To support our graduate trainees beyond the voyage, we have teamed together with local industry, tertiary providers and organisations to create a pathway to education and employment. Our trainees complete their voyage with a sense of possibility – our goal is to connect them with people that can guide our young people into work or study.

We have partnered with some incredibly passionate and caring people who understand career guidance, education options and have access to employment opportunities through apprenticeships, the armed forces or further education.

We are very excited to have formed a team of well-connected professionals ready to work with our rangatahi, read more about our partners below.

We are excited to announce that we have partnered with the R Tucker Thompson Team, to provide career options for their graduate students.

Smart Trade Solutions

How it works

The focus on education and employment will be introduced on the last night of the voyage by our crew. At the end of 7-days our crew and trainees have formed close bonds, there is trust, connection and a sense of whanau for all on board the ship. This discussion is informal and begins with outlining the relationships we have with providers. The crew are then able to connect the trainees to the right providers.

Smart Trade Solutions

Thanks to the introduction by Competenz, we have partnered with Rick and Tracey Lunn from Smart Trade Solutions who are able to provide career options for our trainees. Smart Trade Solutions connects people to the trades; they specialise in offering support and mentoring for apprentices, specialist training, as well as career pathways help and advice. Rick and his team can connect with young people who might not be sure what they want to do, or where they want to go. They are masters in supporting young people to navigate those first steps into employment.

Defence Careers

Our relationship with Defence Careers means we can access site visits, one on one discussions with recruitment and information and connections into careers and further educations in the Army, Airforce and Navy. We are able to connect our people directly to their recruiters. The R. Tucker Thomson also invites young candidates recently signed up with the services to undertake a 7-day voyage to increase confidence, leadership skills and the ability to work within a team.

NorthTec

NorthTec is the largest tertiary education provider in Tai Tokerau with Northland campuses in Dargaville, Kaikohe, Kerikeri, Whangarei and Kaitaia. The focus of our connection with Northtec is guidance. Their careers advisors are part of our team and are able to offer guidance towards careers, employment, study or next steps. In practical terms we will connect our rangatahi to this opportunity in a series of communications. First and foremost the careers advisor is introduced to lead each young person, over a series of years, towards a career, education or work.

Queenstown Resort College (QRC)

Queenstown Resort College (QRC) is New Zealand’s premier Tourism and Hospitality Management College. Lucky for us, they also have a Campus right here in Tai Tokerau. We have approached QRC proposing to work together to incorporate their Tourism Operations curriculum and the Qualified Deck Crew course content delivered over a six month period. The goal is to provide quality content and qualifications to prepare candidates for jobs with providers in the Bay of Islands.

Tai Poutini Polytechnic (TPP)

Our arrangement with Tai Poutini is reciprocal. We offer student placements on our waka; their student in their Outdoor and Adventure Education programme are offered placements on our 7-day voyages as crew members. They are also invited to volunteer or apply as crew in the summer time. Trainees showing an interest in outdoor recreation are encouraged to speak to the Tai Poutini recruitment team about the study on offer. We connect the youth individually to our team at Tai Poutini.