30 July 2012 - For immediate release

CTC goes to China

Four Canterbury Tertiary College (CTC) students at CPIT who will represent New Zealand in China next month say they are looking forward to the opportunity to experience a very different culture.

Graeme Steel, Alex Stewart, Greg Herrett and John Lali will join 120 participants at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Youth Fair in China from 10 to 19 August.

CTC was selected as the New Zealand representative for the event, which aims to promote vocational training to APEC youth and stimulate APEC youth skills development. The trip is funded by APEC.

The CTC model allows students to remain enrolled in secondary school and complete NCEA credits whilst getting started on vocational training. Graeme Steel, who is enrolled at Papanui High School and is in his second year of carpentry at CTC, said he was looking forward to stepping out of his comfort zone.

“I am hoping to learn from the conferences we go to - hopefully there are things I can apply to my training,” he said. “A highlight should be the LG factory – just to see the scale that China is working on and compare the technology to what we have here in New Zealand.”

The group will travel to Beijing, Nanjing, Wuxi and Shanghai with visits to factories, a college and China’s World Skills competition for skills exchange activities. Tourist sites such the Great Wall, the Olympic Stadium and Confucius Temple are also on the programme.

“This is an exciting and unique opportunity for our students to be involved in an international event, learn about other cultures and expand their skill base,” CTC Manager Emma Meijer said. “It’s also another vote of confidence in the success of CTC in Christchurch and nationally.”

Greg, John and Alex are all training in automotive while attending Hagley Community College, Linwood College and St Thomas’s of Canterbury respectively. They were excited about representing New Zealand at the APEC event and sharing their experiences of CTC.

“I wasn’t attending that much at school because I wasn’t interested,” Greg said. “CTC is a once in a lifetime opportunity to train while you are still at school. At Hagley we don’t have automotive studies, but here I can get started on my training and I have learnt so much about myself.”
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