UCOL Carpentry Students Know No Boundaries
Certificate in Carpentry students have gained plenty of hands-on fence building experience recently – a whole 200 metres
of it.
The 23 students have been building the metre high boundary fence around six flats in Sanson, for the Manawatu Community
Trust.
Trust Chairman Albert Dodunski says the mutually beneficial opportunity came about during a visit he made to the UCOL
trades facility and a discussion he had with Head of School Danny Reilly. “The fence was a job that we needed to have
done,” he says. “And there’s nothing like practical experience when you are learning a trade.”
The Trust has supplied the building materials and UCOL students have provided three days labour each week.
UCOL Carpentry Lecturer Steve Wharehinga says the students have been divided into small teams and gone through the
complete fence building process from measuring and setting out, to post-hole digging, and the use of machinery and nail
guns. “They think they are pretty good at it now.”
“The building of the fence has provided the guys with real experience in an outdoor environment. You can’t replicate
that in a workshop,” he says. “And it’s also a great community project – everyone wins.”
ENDS