The apprentice electrician at GT Electrical
Success Stories
Jayar Salanoa loves working with GT Electrical as he heads towards becoming a fully qualified electrician.
Gareth Eves, Director of GT Electrical, has employed several young people through Work and Income and is now a signed-up partner in the Porirua Youth 2 Work Movement.
“We’ve been going for more than 10 years and there are about 14 of us in the company. We’re a really young company so it’s been natural for us to take on young people.”
Gareth is a big fan of taking on young apprentices and training them up. “It gives us the opportunity to show them the way we want things done and it’s a good fit to bring in some of these young guys to work alongside the more experienced ones.”
Gareth enjoys a strong relationship with Work and Income Porirua, working with them whenever he has an opening.
“At that level, we’re not looking for skilled people; it’s more about a willingness to learn – we can teach anyone how to do the work but we can’t keep them interested if they don’t want to do it. These young guys need basics like a driver’s licence, a relatively clean police record and the right attitude.”
Gareth says that in his experience youth can be hard working if you give them a shot, and loyal. “Jay is a perfect example of that; he is always five minutes early for a job and that’s awesome.”
For Jayar, getting a trade has been a long-term ambition. He attended Bishop Viard College in Porirua and then lived in Australia, where he got his first job in pipe installation.
“I wanted to come back here and get a trade, I met Gareth and then he gave me this opportunity. Since I’ve come here I’ve learnt heaps. When I first got here I was looking at everything and thinking what is it? As time’s gone by I’ve slowly learnt and now I know how to do circuits and can get on and do things on my own.”
Jayar spent a lot of his time at GT Electrical working on the Kotuku Apartments in Kilbirnie, says Gareth. “Because the whole building has the same layout from apartment to apartment it was a good opportunity to build on his skills – there are 20 switchboards there and Jay worked on about 10 of those. It was repetitive enough to build the skills without becoming boring.”
