EDUCARE TRAINING TRUST

Wendy Richards from Volunteering New Plymouth

Graham Ault, Volunteering New Plymouth’s volunteer show interviewer & I had the privilege of Donna General Manager / Tutor and the wearer of many hats and Courtney Marketing Manager and Public Relations from Educare Training Trust as guests on our Radio show Volly Voices with Access Radio Taranaki 104.4fm which is aired on Sundays at 2pm.

Donna and Courtney share interesting information about their roles at Educare Training, as well as explain how they are able to offer training in the support and education sector for free. They also proudly share a couple of wonderful success stories of people who they have helped from the very start and their journey to employment in the sector.

The team at Educare are warm and caring and based in New Plymouth. As a charitable Trust, they provide the programmes for free, ensuring those passionate about support and education are given the opportunity to pursue their choice of career. They have been leaders in early childhood and support since the programme began in 1987. They are the qualification developer for New Zealand Education Support Level 3 and Level 4 and the education programmes have earned the highest accolade from NZQA. They were awarded Highly Confident in Educational Performance an Self-Assessment sectors. Only 23% of New Zealand’s tertiary providers receive this Category 1 status.

They genuinely care about each person who walks through the Educare Training doors. The staff are trained to support each student through their studies providing quality care and education. It is the dedication of the team that makes the Educare Training experience one of the best in the country.

They believe support is fundamental to the well-being and success of their trainees.
For this reason, they have several support systems in place to ensure that the trainees are able to fulfill the requirements of the programmes. Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) fund the training programmes and provide an allowance for travel assistance for those who are eligible for Youth Guarantee, which Educare administers to ensure that the trainees are able to attend their practicum (Placement with an education centre that relates to the current module) or classes at Educare Training. For those aged 18 or older the trainees are able to apply through Study Link for a student allowance or living costs.

Educare Training is dedicated to offering free training for level 3 and 4 programmes. This means the trainees will not need to apply for a student loan to cover programme fees. The nature of the programmes are completely supportive and they aim to ensure that all students on the programmes make it through to completion and go on to further training or employment.

Sorting Support - To support these programmes they are starting another service and working to ensure that all trainees have clothes, so that they feel confident about attending their practicum. They have been talking with Dress for Success Auckland, and have been donated an amazing amount of suitable clothes, which need to be sorted – so they are looking for a wonderful volunteer who can support this mahi.

There is another possibility to engage with this great training centre. They are about to go paperless – this means that they will be digitizing all the records and after this they need to clear out the old files; so, they are looking for someone to help them do this.
If either of these sound interesting to you then contact us at Volunteering New Plymouth and we can refer you to these volunteer roles.

Where can you learn more? If you are interested in learning more about Educare Training Trust or the Volunteer Sorting roles that they have created listen to Access Radio on Sunday March 2nd at 2pm. This show is also available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Podcast on the Monday after the show has aired - to find this go the either Access Radio Taranaki website and these recordings can be found under Community or to Volunteering New Plymouth website and look under Volunteers and Volly Calls.

Who can you contact? If you are curious to learn more and do not have access to going onto the internet, then contact Wendy (Monday to Thursday) at Volunteering New Plymouth on 06 758 8986, Email admin@vnp.nz or Ph / Text 022 571 4228 for more information.