Chris Collins, EIT’s chief executive and Unison Chief Executive Officer, Ken Sutherland examine equipment from Unison’s Centre of Excellence facilities

Unison’s Centre of Excellence has embraced campus culture since opening at EIT Hawke’s Bay earlier this year.

Developed in partnership with EIT, the centre is delivering specialist electrical engineering courses in a facility tailored to meet the real-world needs of the company’s training and employee development programme.

A large open-plan workshop is used for practical training and a separate classroom for more formal lessons.  An outdoors area is also being developed to provide a complete lines training rig with associated technical components such as cable pits and transformers.

Unison Contracting Services capability development manager Aaron McIntosh says Unison is New Zealand’s first electrical network company with its own branded learning environment.

While specialist in nature, the centre offers flexibility for delivering a wide range of subjects, with movable partitions allowing EIT and external groups to modify the space to suit their own requirements.

“Unison is one of Hawke’s Bay’s 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,” says EIT chief executive Chris Collins.

Mr McIntosh agrees.  With its strong focus on “smart” computer-driven equipment, Unison is future-proofing the network, he says.  “To build that, we need to build the skills of our technical staff.”