EIT car parks were cleared for the highly anticipated beach buggy test drive on Friday.

The EIT Taradale campus saw three student-made beach buggies were taken out of the workshop and test-driven for the first time by their designer/builder students on Friday.

In celebration of the hard work students invested into the project-based learning initiative, EIT Trade Skills tutors cordoned-off an entire car park to make room for 40 students to take their beach buggies out for test drives before being sold.

Trade Skills tutor Andy Sinclair said that the students have done everything on the machines, from the design work to reconditioning engines to the auto electrics to engineering and welding.

Andy said the initial safety check test drive carried out two weeks prior by EIT tutors was full of humour.

“The engines stalled and then a steering column came off in my hands while driving. After all the hilarity it was back to the workshop to iron out the problems.”

Designed to give an introduction to trades as a career choice, all forty graduating students of the Certificate in Applied Practical Skills – Trades Skills are heading into higher level learning at EIT. 

Seventeen of these students came into the programme under the government initiated Youth Guarantee scheme, established to encourage those 16 and 17 years who have left school into tertiary training.

Trades Skills student Chris McAulay-Rieger is graduating with this class next month and staircasing into EIT’s pre-apprenticeship carpentry programme.

Chris said of the project, “I really enjoyed the process of building these buggies.

I learnt the practical side of the construction and the project-based training was a really good way to learn.”

The beach buggies will be up for sale, with an expected sale price of $2000 to $2500 per buggy.