Skills Active Apprentice of the Year

1 November 2016

Nelson camp administrator named Skills Active 2016 Apprentice of the Year

Shirlene Spencer, camp administrator at Teapot Valley Christian Camp in Nelson, is the Skills Active Aotearoa 2016 Apprentice of the Year.

Skills Active is the industry training organisation for sport and recreation in New Zealand, and the Apprentice Award recognises high-potential individuals gaining skills and qualifications that will help them improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders, through sport and recreation.

Shirlene completed her Recreation and Sport Aquatics Leader (Swim Education) in 2015 while she was employed at the Richmond Aquatic Centre. She found the business and administration side of her training especially interesting, and when the administration role came up at Teapot Valley, she applied and got the job.

Shirlene says that having left school at 15, she had assumed that further education wasn’t for her. But when her employer offered her the chance to embark on an apprenticeship, they showed they had confidence in her, and that gave her the confidence to rise to the challenge.

Now Shirlene is looking at further study options to pursue her interest in business and management and grow her career in the field she loves.

“Fundamentally, I just like being able to help people, and I see sport and recreation as a great way to do that. You do see how sedentary some kids can be, so it’s exciting when you see kids exploring new things.

“Here it’s doing the camp activities, at the Aquatic Centre it was learning to swim, and water safety – seeing them stretch outside their comfort zone.

“It’s watching kids going down an abseiling tower and knowing that you’re part of the process that brought them to camp and got them into a programme that is going to extend them and make them grow.”

Apprenticeships drive lifelong learning

Skills Active chief executive Dr Grant Davidson said it was inspiring that the award went to someone who gained a qualification later in life.

“Shirlene is a proud representative of the sport and recreation industry and we’re incredibly proud to be represented by her, as our Apprentice of the Year for 2016.

“Apprenticeships allow people who are working in our industries to be recognised for their skill and knowledge and grow that expertise further,” Dr Davidson said.

“On-job training can make qualifications possible for people who might have previously believed, as Shirlene did, that higher educational achievement wasn’t within their reach.”

Shirlene and her husband Stephen will travel to Queenstown later this month to attend the New Zealand Recreation Association prizegiving dinner, where she will receive her trophy and $1,000 cheque.

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