The gateway work placement programme continued successfully this year with popular job choices being hospitality and early childhood education for girls and farming and retail for boys.

We also had a boy placed with a barber a career choice which was a first for this class.

In total we had 14 placements in a range of careers so students could gain valuable experience to help them decide which career path they might eventually decide to follow.

Again we had excellent support from our employers who are so crucial to the success of the programme. New employers this year were Café Brie and Groom n Style in Palmerston North, the Foxton branch of the HDC library and two dairy farms Tangimate, M & J Pescini, and GR &KL Lovelock both on state highway one south of Foxton.

A big thank you to them and to all our employers for their continued support.

Congratulations to Brooke Whittaker who won the gateway cup in a close contest. Brooke worked at Foxton Preschool and Nursery and she received outstanding reports from her employer who compared her to already trained and qualified graduates. Well done Brooke.

This is my last year as the Gateway coordinator and I would like to thank the many employers I have worked with over the past years. I appreciated the time and effort your put into our students to teach them the skills and knowledge they need to move into the workforce and I enjoyed working together with you.

Kevin Brown