Student Dylan Lardelli

Many young boys dream about building big buildings and bridges and Dylan Lardelli, 18, is about to turn that dream into reality after completing the Level 3 mechanical engineering programme at EIT.

Dylan has been accepted as an apprentice at Universal Engineering in Gisborne, where he will join the heavy fabrication division, building the frames for things such as buildings and bridges.

He is following in the footsteps of his father, who is the former Number 1 speedway side chair rider in New Zealand. He has always enjoyed making things with a welder, which he learned to use by helping his father in his shed.

He joined the Tairawhiti Trades Academy at EIT, where he was able to extend his expertise on the welder and lathe every week.

On leaving Campion College he got into the 40 week Mechanical Engineering Certificate programme, under the Youth Guarantee scholarship programme which covered his costs.

He says his tutors, Shane Cameron and John Baynes, were fantastic, helping to secure him work experience four days a week at Universal Engineering. This in turn led to the apprenticeship contract which for Dylan is the realisation of a dream.

He will be paid while learning on the job from some seriously accomplished engineers.