Veteran of Train to Gain leads Upskilling Initiative in New Zealand
Updates | Wednesday December 05th, 2007Twenty employees of Downer EDI Works, one of New Zealand’s largest infrastructure companies, recently gathered for a presentation and celebration as they received graduation certificates from Prime Minister Helen Clark. These 20 employees from all over country formed a representative sample of the 800 employees Works has put through TeamWorks, an on-the-job training programme aimed at building leadership skills through a strong underpinning of literacy, language and numeracy (LLN).
The ceremony was the result of the first partnership under the Upskilling Partnership Programme (UPP) between an employer, training provider, Industry Training Organisation, and the New Zealand government. The UPP draws from many of the lessons learned from Skills for Life. Programme director Jenny Thornton, who moved to New Zealand after five years on Skills for Life and Train to Gain says research and evaluation around the outcomes of LLN training is crucial for New Zealand.