In a-lignment at Aoraki

TIMARU – At Aoraki Polytechnic in Timaru the Certificate in Carpentry course (which covers all the theory for National Certificate in Carpentry) is helping young people find a way into the building industry. It’s an intensive one year course which blends theoretical and practical skills training – and includes the students building a house which is then sold on the open market.

This year, the team have used Jenkin A-lign cladding for the first time.

“We’re always keen to show our students the most up-to-date products, “says tutor Eion Miller. “Trevor Nolan at PlaceMakers mentioned A-lign to me, and we decided to try it out.”

Eion and his students used the rusticated profile A-lign for the house they built – and were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to use.

“Usually, doing the scribers with rusticated is a nightmare of a job, but with the A-lign it was good.”

“It was just a lot easier and quicker than it would have been normally.”

“Overall, A-lign worked really well, and we got a very good finish.”

A number of local builders have been around to check out the A-lign house, and the word will spread as the students enter apprenticeships next year.

“Around half of our intake each year decide to proceed with an apprenticeship,” Eion says.

We’re hoping those apprentices will be looking to use Jenkin A-lign over the next 30 or 40 years of their building careers.