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Minibike Competition revving up now for late October! Print
The 2009 New Zealand Mini Moto GP will be roaring into life at Manfeild Raceway, Feilding on Monday 19 – Wednesday 21 October and there’s an exciting line-up of guest appearances, prizes, and over 200 competitors now all confirmed for this year’s event.

 

This event is the culmination of the technology and engineering students’ project work, helping them achieve valuable credits that can go toward engineering industry training while having heaps of fun.

 

A prize pool valued at close to $4,500 is up for grabs for individuals and high schools racing in the event. Prize packs include tools, equipment and much more that will come in handy for our budding engineers of tomorrow.

 

Former World Superbike Championship rider Aaron Slight will present the overall winners for each riding class with their prizes, there will also be presentations from F3 Champion Glenn Williams, plus Steve Bagshaw and the Racing 125cc Racing Academy.

 

“We’ve secured great support from industry and Tools4Work as sponsors of this event. Everything from prize packages to T-shirts for all competitors have been kindly donated to help make the event the success that it is,” says event organiser Roger Emmerson.

 

“Right now we’re busy collating final details from all participating schools for the event programme. It’s shaping up to be an amazing event.”

 

This is only the second time this event has been held, yet the popularity of the Minibikes project in schools and the competition itself have grown exponentially. Riders from high schools as far afield as Nelson and the Coromandel will be converging upon Manfeild Raceway to race against competitors primarily from Manawatu, Central Hawkes Bay and East Coast regional high schools.

 

The 2009 event will be incredibly diverse with the following six distinct racing classes distinguished by engine type, rider weight, and modified/non-modified bike types:

 

- A115 standard bike kit (no modifications, under 72kg rider weight) sponsored by Gary Worsley Motorcycles

- A115 standard bike kit (no modifications, 73-84 kg rider weight) sponsored by Freedom Suzuki

- A115 standard bike kit (no modifications, over 85kg rider weight) sponsored by West Coast Machinery

- A115 engine (open modifications and rider weight) sponsored by Mara Marketing

- 39cc water cooled engine (no modifications, open rider weight) sponsored by Trade Tools

- Side car (Loncin engine, open rider weight) sponsored by Trade Tools

 

Tools4Work are sponsoring three trophies that will go to the non-modified minibike category winners, and we’re proud to be playing a part in bringing the event to fruition.

“The high level of participation from schools and the event organisation on the part of the committee has been amazing. The work they’re doing with the Minibikes Competition can only support and grow interest in mechanical engineering industry training and careers – it’s a winning partnership,” says Brian Lane, Tools4Work representative and Competenz’ national moderator for schools.
 
New series of ‘Just the Job’ TV show – coming soon! Print
The latest series of the Just the Job TV show is hot out of the editing suite and coming to your TV screen starting this weekend. Competenz has partnered with two industry groups for this series to promote two very different career and training pathways.

The Interislander segment promotes a career in hospitality onboard their ship ‘Kaitaki', with the National Certificate in Maritime (Commercial In-shore Vessel Passenger Hospitality Crew Member) (Level 2) as the training pathway.

Our other segment focuses on the National Diploma in Engineering (Level 6) as the training pathway for a career as a Mechanical Engineering Technician. This was filmed onsite at JMP Engineering in Avondale and at Automac Engineering - a relatively new business who manufacture machinery for food packaging solutions.

Both of our segments will feature in Programme 4, scheduled to go to air on TV2 on Saturday 24 October at 09.30am.

The full Series 5 of Just the Job will air on TV2 each Saturday at 9.30am, starting this October 3 running through to December 5.

To view all of our industry training case studies, including those filmed as part of the 'Just the Job' TV show, click here.
 
Otago Southland Grass Karts Competition fast approaching Print
Seventeen teams hailing from 15 Otago, Southland and even Canterbury-based high schools are primed for this year's Otago Southland Grass Kart Challenge. This is the fourth annual event, accelerating into action on Friday 16 - Saturday 17 October, at Taieri College in Mosgiel.

This event is the culmination of the technology and engineering students' project work, helping them achieve valuable credits that can go toward engineering industry training while having heaps of fun.

All teams and their karts will be judged based on four broad categories; Appearance, Construction, Record Keeping and Performance. For each category, teams will be given a mark out of 100. As well as winning teams for each category, the team/school with the highest total across all four categories will be deemed the Overall Challenge winner.

Before the fast and furious racing begins on the Saturday, teams will convene on Friday with their respective Karts for final registration at Taieri College. Each Kart will be inspected by officials to ensure they're safe to race, and to be judged against the Construction and Appearance criteria.

A ‘People's Choice' award is also up for grabs for the Kart that makes the best first-impression with students, parents, and officials present at the registration evening.

Come Saturday, teams will be ‘chomping at the bit' to start racing their machines against each other. The race-day format will test the overall performance of each kart, with slalom and speed-test races as well as the individual and team lap races.

Teams must then give a PowerPoint presentation on their experience building the kart, working in a team dynamic, and describing how they got around any challenges they met along the way. Combined with their logbooks documenting the work and man-hours spent on the project, teams are then graded on their Record Keeping skills.

Immediately after the racing and team presentations is the prizegiving ceremony, where the category and much-coveted Overall Winner's trophies will be presented in front of a full house.

Southland Boys High School took out the Overall honours last year - watch this space to see who takes out the competition for 2009!

The Otago Southland Grass Kart Challenge is a joint venture between Tools4Work, Otago Polytechnic, Southern Institute of Technology, Southern Group Training, and the Royal New Zealand Navy to promote the mechanical engineering industry as a viable and worthwhile career choice to students. It provides students with an innovative, exciting and engaging opportunity to learn and gain unit standards toward engineering industry training while they're at school.
 
Minibikes Competition set to be huge for 2009! Print

The ‘NZ Secondary Schools Mini Moto GP' is shaping up to be an amazing event. Fifteen high schools and over 200 individual students from all over the North Island will be taking part in the big race-days scheduled to kick off 19 - 21 October at Manfeild Raceway in Feilding.

Last year's inaugural event attracted students from five schools and was such a success that the number of confirmed schools and students signed into this year's event has increased by 200%.

In addition, the 2008 event consisted of one class of minibike and an open weight grade for competitors. The 2009 event will be incredibly diverse with the introduction of these five distinct racing classes:

- A115 standard bike kit (no modifications - under 75kg rider weight)
- A115 standard bike kit (no modifications - over 75kg rider weight))
- A115 engine (open modifications and rider weight)
- 39cc water cooled engine (no modifications, open rider weight)
- Side car (Loncin engine, open rider weight)

The organisers, teachers Roger Emmerson (Feilding High School), Richard Dawson (Central Hawkes Bay College) and Ross McDonald (Lytton High School), say that means more work for them - but the students' enthusiasm makes it worthwhile.

"It's really got them fired up," says Roger Emmerson. "We've had a huge increase in students signing up for engineering this year, and a lot were inspired by the challenge. Last year's contestants were so keen they were queuing up for the workshops in their lunch breaks.

"Firms like Trade Tools and Weldwell New Zealand have offered support; the build up for 2009 has been great."

Competenz National Moderator for Schools Brian Lane says teachers find combining the Tools4Work resources with an event like this is a great way to inspire students.

"What is particularly encouraging is that these initiatives attract high calibre students to mechanical engineering. They are talented and motivated, and love the sense of purpose and achievement that comes from building and racing their own machines."
 
‘Just the Job’ TV show provides even more career guidance Print

Competenz, the ITO behind the Tools4Work schools programme, are also promoting careers within the engineering and food related industries by partnering with industry groups. Right now they're filming for series 4 of the ‘Just the Job' TV show to promote careers in mechanical engineering (with the National Diploma in Engineering as the training pathway) and maritime hospitality onboard The Interislander fleet.


The ‘Just the Job' TV show is now entering series 4, and the show has acquired quite a following with students, teachers and careers advisers across New Zealand. The show features on a number of TVNZ channels, including online, plus the new-series DVDs are issued to every high school in New Zealand.

The show takes a young ‘trainee' through a day ‘on the job', with mentors from real companies showing them what they'll need to learn on the job and discussing the underpinning training that's required for that job. It's an entertaining, informative show that young adults looking for genuine career information can really relate to.

The new series of the show will go to air on TV2 early in 2010, and replay on TV2 and TVNZ6 throughout the year. Back issues of this show are also available online at the TVNZ ‘On Demand' portal.

For more information about ‘Just the Job' and a schedule of current re-run times on TVNZ6 click here.
 
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