The share market crash of 1987 had a serious impact on everyone, and the New Zealand construction industry was no different.
Due to the doubts surrounding of future work, trades people were unwilling to take on apprentices. A group of forward thinking plumbers realised that if this trend continued, New Zealand would soon face a shortage of plumbers. Despite the markets uncertainties, this group of plumbers agreed to share apprentices amongst themselves. This meant that when one of their workloads dried up, they were able to pass the apprentices onto another member of the group so that the apprentice was able to complete their training.
In February 1991, the Apprenticeship to Industry Training Trust was established as a charitable trust by the original group of plumbers. In those early days, an apprentice was generally shared between three or four host businesses however, since then the ATT concept has changed.
Today, a host business takes on one or more apprentices full time for the duration of their apprenticeship. However, the original concept of sharing an apprentice between groups of host businesses is still a popular option in the smaller regions.
ATT’s model of providing host businesses with a managed apprentice has paved the way for similar organisations in the plumbing, electrical and engineering industry, making ATT market leaders in the business of providing managed apprenticeships.
25 years is an exciting milestone for any business and ATT is no different. Despite the many changes that ATT and the industries in which we operate have faced in the last two and a half decades, our original purpose of supplying the industry with quality trades people remains the same. To celebrate this milestone, we will announce exciting new initiatives throughout the year that continue to benefit both our apprentices and our hosts.
From this year onwards, ATT will cover the costs for our apprentices to attend: first aid, confined spaces and fall arrest refresher courses; ensuring that our apprentices are at the forefront of health and safety legislations.