Friday, 27 January 2011 – Unison has officially opened its Centre of Excellence training facility at the Eastern Institute of Technology’s Taradale campus.
The facility was developed in partnership with the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) to provide a dedicated learning environment for the delivery of safety and technical training courses for Unison employees, which will also be available for use by the EIT and external groups.
“This facility allows us to deliver all our training in one industry specific location and in a learning-focused environment”, said Unison Networks CEO Mr Ken Sutherland.
EIT Chief Executive Chris Collins said the partnership made sense.
“Unison is one of Hawke’s Bays largest employers and, as EIT is the leading provider of education and relevant training for the region, it just made sense for the two organisations to partner for the provision of such a specific training facility.”
The opening of the Centre has generated interest from other network providers throughout the country, as well as from industry training providers. An industry training organisation has already booked the Centre for a National Certificate course, which is to run over the next twelve months.
“In the electrical industry, safety is paramount, as is the continuous development of our employees. Being able to deliver this training locally is of huge benefit, and we’re also pleased to be able to help attract industry courses to the region” said Mr Sutherland.
The Centre features a large http://www.phpaide.com/?langue=en workshop area, classrooms and an outdoor training area all designed to meet the needs of Unison’s training and employee development programme.
In fact, according to Mr Sutherland, the establishment of the Centre has acted as a learning and development project for the Company.
“We were able to incorporate the project into our Employee Development Programme, with Unison Contracting Services Cadet, Clayton McCullough, responsible for the design, costing and project management of an outdoor training environment complete with overhead (de-energised) power lines, which will be completed in April.”
The task of raising the power poles will also be undertaken as a training exercise he said, with employees from the Company’s engineering crews involved in the installation process.
“Unison continues to develop a range of energy and infrastructure solutions, and developing our employees is a critical part of this process. Cutting edge technology used in initiatives such as our smart network roll-out, our shift into the telecommunications sector with our superior fibre network, and the development of our civil engineering business arm all require continuous training and development,” said Mr Sutherland.
The Centre will offer training across a range of subjects, including first-aid, safety, and traffic management courses, Unit Standards and National Certificates, together with necessary training that enables employees to prepare for new and developing technologies. It will also host Unison’s ‘Switched on to Opportunities’ course, which is a Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) funded literacy programme that provides forty hours of training to fifty employees over a 12-month period.