Elite Services – Training the secret to success
Success Stories
Elite Services is a family business, with a passion for encouraging youth development, enabling young people to achieve their own goals, grow personally and eventually become significant contributors to their families and their local communities.
The company specialises in electrical and electronic maintenance, hydraulic and materials’ handling equipment and automatic door maintenance.
Company Director Paul Kay says a high level of expertise is required in the business, so the focus is firmly on training its staff.
To build up the training side of the business, Elite Services has invested in employing Tino Capazorio from South Africa, where he was the national training manager for DORMA, one of the largest door companies in the world.
Tino says that although there is no degree or diploma available for the electronics on automatic doors, there are so many technical and safety issues involved that specialised training is a must.
This, coupled with changing health and safety requirements that mean two technicians are often needed to attend a job rather than one, has seen the training side of the business become critical.
“We’ve decided that rather than poach staff from other companies we’ll bring in young kids and train them up – not as labourers but as skilled members of the team,” says Paul.
“We believe that by hiring these youngsters we have the ability to give back to society in the longer term. It’s not just a job − we’re giving them an opportunity.”
Tino says they have tapped into Porirua City Council’s Youth 2 Work Movement and become an official partner.
The Council is committed to the Youth 2 Work Movement and believes that children and young people should be at the centre of city decisions and has the wellbeing of Porirua’s children and young people as one of its strategic focus areas.
“Porirua City Council has a good process in place through the Youth 2 Work Movement for finding these people, which has saved us having to go out and look,” says Tino.
“We’ve taken on three young people in Wellington, two in Auckland and one in Tauranga – we’ll be taking on another one in Auckland and would like to do the same in Christchurch. All of them have come through the Youth 2 Work Movement via Work and Income, which is also a partner in the scheme.”
