Shaaron James describes her job for the past 12 years as being “like a little bridge helping show young people what the world might look like”.
Shaaron has been the manager of Top of the South Trades Academy (TOTSTA) since it first started in Nelson back in 2012. It is a role she calls “a gift”, but now she is passing the torch to new management in the form of Amy Dalton.
TOTSTA is a programme that opens doors for students in Year 11-13, who want to stay at school but are ready to start training for a real job. The programme links them with a provider, where they attend vocational training one day a week, earning credits towards NCEA. In 2012, the programme offered what people perceived as the “traditional trades” of automotive, mechanical, hairdressing, beauty, and primary industries, Shaaron says. “Nothing along the breadth that we’ve got now,” she proudly remarks.
Things have expanded a lot since the first year, when NMIT learning was offered to students at Nelson College, Nelson College for Girls, Nayland, Waimea, Garin and Motueka High.
The programme now includes students from Queen Charlotte High, Marlborough Boys and Girls, Rai Valley, Tapawera and Murchison Area Schools, and for the first time this year, Golden Bay High and Collingwood Area – all of whom travel to Nelson or Richmond every Friday to attend NMIT or one of three other providers.
Providers of courses now include Whenua Iti Outdoors, Electrical Training Company (ETCO), and Papa Taiao in Golden Bay.
Shaaron says the programme encourages young people to stay in school. “They can’t come to us unless they are at school.”
Shaaron says, looking back over the past 14 years, the biggest change is the size of the programme.
“When I look at it, is certainly the size and the number of kids we put through. We’re funded for 344, now, but we put through over 400 kids every year.
Shaaron says, as well as the benefits of the facilities and teaching staff, students also get to move away from their groups within the school environment.
“They are forced to learn to look broader, and from the little schools, particularly, it’s quite significant for them to come into a big campus so they grow in terms of their personal development.
“It is such a gift, because they get to try something without it costing them a cent.”
Even the transport is paid for, she says. Each year, the enrolment hopefuls are far more than they can accommodate, and the need keeps growing.
“It’s helped students within school be able to make better choices beyond school,” Amy says.
“It’s actually helping them grow individually and actually work out who they are and help them on their own career path.”
“I often say at the beginning of the year, you know, you’ve been given this gift. And I have lots of kids who want to be here who can’t be here so I want you to respect that gift,” Shaaron adds.
Looking back on her time at the helm, Shaaron says she’s most proud of “creating one big happy family out of something that probably shouldn’t be one big happy family”.
“Because even though, like any family who can have difficulties or challenges or differences of opinion, in essence, I could go to anybody really, and say, we actually need to sort this out - we’ve got trust, and that’s not an easy feat in education, it’s quite a challenge.”
Amy says she has lots to learn and look forward to in the role. “Government have put out they want to bring in more vocational education. It actually exists already in schools, the partnerships already exist, but it is not consistent across the country. How that looks will be another challenge, but that industry experience is definitely the thing that needs to be worked on, and making it more streamlined for schools.
“I also see Marlborough as an opportunity to better support their young people.”
For Shaaron, she says it’s time to “repurpose” herself.
“I’ve had a pretty serious health issue, but also, I saw there was something that needed to be done and I’ve done it, and now it’s time to gift it to new person who’s got new energy and new ideas.”
“Enormously proud,” is how she sums up the legacy she is leaving in Amy’s capable hands.
