The first house has now been completed by Massey High School and the partner schools for Kainga ora.

On Wednesday morning at 5,45am 24th July 2020, the first completed house that was built at Massey High School for Kainga ora was blessed on site in South Auckland. This house has been built by students who are completing their final years at school doing full time vocational training in construction. The students working under the guidance of qualified licenced building practitioners, have built a four bedroom house at Massey High School, which has then been transported to it’s location in Mangere. Massey High School is the lead provider in AWVA, (Auckland West Vocational Academy), which works with its partner schools in the Trades Academy programme funded by the Ministry of Education.

Trades Academies are government funded and offer students an opportunity to get involved in skills-based learning with tertiary providers. All the credits gained count towards NCEA plus nationally transferable tertiary qualifications and the students benefit in being in full time training, onsite at Massey High School, in the Construction and Infrastructure career pathway.

The pathway, while retaining high workplace expectations and standards, allows closely supervised students to work in an environment that teaches students all the skills, (hard and soft,) needed to prepare them for an apprenticeship.

The schools involved with the house build include students from The Bay of Islands College, Kelston Deaf Education Centre and Rutherford College as well as Massey.

Massey High School started building its first house in 2012 and with the programme expanding, AWVA is now in partnership with Kainga Ora, (formerly Housing New Zealand, HLC and Kiwibuild). There are currently four other houses under construction at the school for Kainga ora.

Kainga Ora programme director Nick Seymour says they are thrilled to be working with the students and at the same time it helps us deliver more warm, dry and safe homes for families in need.

“Not only are the students at Massey delivering four homes for those in need, they have done so ahead of schedule,” he says.

“The partnership also means the school does not have to sell the houses it builds on the open market, meaning they can focus solely on its educational objectives.”