In this post you will find a list of all of our courses on offer in the Grey District in 2012, together with course summaries and links to the appropriate places on our website to find out more.

The format is as distributed in our mailbox flyer:

Secondary School Students

It is a great idea to make the most of the time that you have at school. Don’t leave school until you really have given it your best shot. There are fewer opportunities in life for those who leave school too early – a lifetime of poverty could be staring you in the face.

Have you heard about the West Coast Trades Academy?  Talk with your school about this programme that provides for you to work towards a Trade qualification while you’re still at school! (Early Childhood, Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Construction, and Hospitality) For more information visit www.wcta.ac.nz

Recent School Leavers

(Note: For the ‘Youth Guarantee’ programmes you must be aged 16 or 17 on the start date or be 15 with a school exemption.)

• Learning for Earning: 30 January – A free full-time Youth Guarantee programme that will enable you achieve the National Certificate in Employment Skills and complete your Driver Licence and any NCEA requirements. The environment is quite different to school and there is a strong focus on preparing you for, and helping you in to, work.
• Literacy & Numeracy Support: 30 January – A free part-time programme to help you lift your skills in reading, writing, communicating, and maths. Just ten hours per week over a ten week period – focussed on your personal learning needs.
• Mawhera Services Academy: 26 January – A free full-time Youth Guarantee programme that will enable you to complete your NCEA while you are busily engaged in challenging physical activities in a disciplined environment.
• ACE: Various dates – Very low cost (or free) short courses of just 16 hours duration to provide you with skills in a whole range of areas.

Courses for Registered Job-Seekers

Note that the following courses are free for eligible job-seekers. Referral from Work & Income is essential, so enquiries should be directed to Work & Income.

• Commercial Driving: 30 January for up to 13 weeks  – Gain a Class 2 licence and specific endorsement/s, with a focus on job-seeking skills and getting a job.
• Customer Service & Retail:  23 April for up to 13 weeks – Gain skills for customer service work and for finding employment.
• Skills for Work: 30 January for up to 26 weeks – Gain a range of work skills including computer skills, customer service skills, driving skills, health & safety, job-seeking skills, literacy & numeracy support etc.
• PC Skills for Work (Distance Learning): 30 January for up to 26 weeks  – A distance learning course for job-seekers who need computer skills but can’t get to a regular class to get these skills. Job-search skills and generic employment skills are also included. (Available throughout the West Coast)
• Literacy & Numeracy Support: A free part-time programme to help you lift your skills in reading, writing, communicating, and maths. Just ten hours per week over a ten week period – focussed on your personal learning needs.
• ACE : Very low cost (or free) short courses of just 16 hours duration to provide you with skills in a whole range of areas.
• Our Business Services Department can arrange training for your workforce.

Public courses for all adults

• Literacy & Numeracy Support: A free part-time programme to help you lift your skills in reading, writing, communicating, and maths. Just ten hours per week over a ten week period – focussed on your personal learning needs.
• ACE : Very low cost (or free) short courses of just 16 hours duration to provide you with skills in a whole range of areas.

Training options for workplaces

• Our Business Services Department can arrange training for your workforce.

-          Call Wayne Aitken on 768 9998 ext 719

For more information on any of these courses you can visit Karoro Learning, 180 Tainui Street or:

• Call Karoro Learning on 768 9998
• Visit www.karoro.co.nz

~ Free transport or transport assistance is available for students from many nearby locations ~

A colleague glanced out my office window yesterday and noticed something obvious that I had never seen!  This natural fungal love heart is to be found on the tree right outside my office window.  It makes you wonder just how often we fail to spot the signs of love and care around us.

It would be nice to think that students and stakeholders experience an occasional ‘smile-generating’ moment when they interact with our staff here at Karoro Learning.

If you’ve had a really positive experience, then we’d welcome your comment on this post!

Today, we have advertised for a Manager for the new West Coast Trades Academy. This is an exciting new cooperative venture between all West Coast secondary & area schools and tertiary partners. The WCTA kicks off in 2012 with Tai Poutini Polytechnic providing the tertiary input into the Academy. The position is advertised at www.karoro.co.nz/vacancies

I have loved stained glass ever since my childhood in a home where a little stained glass projected colours onto our house walls. It seems that everyone wants to get married in a church with magnificent stained glass windows too!

If you would love to learn to make simple designs in stained glass then I’m pleased to announce that Mike Bruce (of Shady Characters, Paroa) has agreed to offer a daytime community education class at Karoro Learning so that we can all learn to make simple stained glass objects… and perhaps after a few classes… well… a window or lamp shade?

Mike will even help you with the maths of measuring out those precise shapes to make your lamp shade!

Check out the class details at: http://www.karoro.co.nz/events/?ee=44

It is official!  Cheese making can be a lot of fun! (Not to mention tasty)  Over a period of four Sunday afternoons, this ACE class are having a great learning experience as they discover the joys of cheese making. Part of the joy of this ACE class is the whole group experience. This is topped off by the nods of approval from appreciative family members back home, as the cheese is tested in various new recipes!

Look who popped in to pay us a visit this morning! (Photographed on the Karoro Learning lawns)

Part of living on the beautiful West Coast of the South Island is the joy of such visitors.

The Kotuku (or White Heron) breeds only on the West Coast, near Okarito.

There are thought to be around 80 breeding adults and 50 – 60 first and second year birds in the country.  The Kotuku is a symbol of things beautiful and rare… and is very precious to us West Coasters.

Apart from the visit of the Kotuku, we have also been visited by lots of rain, wind, hail and sleet over this past week!

West Coast Primary School children will benefit from a West Coast Primary Principals Association  project that won financial support from Development West Coast.

This project puts more up-to-date ICT gear in the hands of West Coast primary school children. In this fist year of a three year project, Development West Coast has contributed over $100,000 towards school ICT equipment.

Karoro Learning’s ICT Facilitator, Eric Martini spearheaded the project, after discovering that the key factor reducing the use of IT gear in West Coast schools was the age and unreliability of equipment.  Schools benefiting from the project have committed to ICT plans that provide for the maintenance and on-going replacement of the equipment in the future.

Pictured from left to right are: Evan Jones (DWC Trustee), John Doonan (Principal Hokitika Primary), Mandy Dodds (Deputy Principal Cobden School), Megan McLellan (Principal Kokatahi-Kowhitirangi School), Dulcie Bell (Principal Blaketown School), and Eric Martini (Karoro Learning’s ICT Facilitator)