Onsite with Colin - Employer and Workplace Assessor
Auckland builder Colin Bird has owned his own business for five years and has been working in the industry for fifteen. He has been involved in training apprentices since completing his own apprenticeship and has a strong commitment to increasing the skills of his employees, and seeing them achieve a qualification.
A strong believer in the benefit of continuing education Colin recently achieved unit standard 4098 'Use standards to assess candidate performance'.
Colin said he had some reservations about attending the two day training course, “I was worried it would be like going back to school, and I would end up being taught stuff I already knew”, but his concerns proved to be unfounded.
“Attending the course really improved my confidence around the whole assessment process. I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about assessment, but the BCITO trainers really shed new light on the thinking behind the process. Not just about how to do it, but why we do it and how it all fits in the big picture”, says Colin.
Colin currently has two apprentices working with him and has always believed that building strong relationships right from the start paves the way for a successful and productive learning experience. Colin still occasionally works alongside the first apprentice he ever trained and mentored and is proud of the part he has played in his success as a qualified tradesperson.
Finding the time to spend two days away from his business was a challenge for Colin but the end result is worth it and Colin says he has improved his processes onsite which has meant time saved for him and also his apprentices!
“In our industry we talk about time being money – the time spent attending the course and ultimately achieving the unit standard has certainly been worth it. It’s been a positive experience for everyone involved, and a real plus has been that my apprentices see it as acknowledgment of the work they do. They appreciate that I want to make sure I am assessing them correctly”.