What do you hope to achieve this year?

Roo | Te Tai Poutini

Roo transitioned from a secure government job to a building apprenticeship, gaining skills and confidence to now build his own house while balancing work and family life.

“My career has changed significantly over the last ten years. I’ve gone from outdoor education to just finishing a building apprenticeship. And I’m just about to start building a house this year. So it’s about finding that balance this year of working a little bit more for myself so I can get more family time and balancing that out. Working hard but then also a bunch of good quality time with my family at the same time.

It was definitely a daunting step, especially after Covid, going from a full-time government employee, working for the polytech government. Going from a full-time, relatively high-security job, to switching to an apprenticeship where I’ve done a bunch of building in the past but didn’t quite know how little I actually knew about building. And so now switching into a learning role was really quite fun.

Learning how to build, how to build well, how to build efficiently. And now, switching gears this year having the skills to actually go ahead and build my own house.”