Auckland students on aquatic pathway

A partnership between Swimming New Zealand, WaterSafe Auckland and Gateway is helping to get young Aucklanders started on an aquatic career pathway.

A group of teenagers from Otahuhu College, Manurewa High School, Birkenhead College and Mount Albert Grammar are just some of the most recent to begin their journeys.

The students aged 16 and 17 years all took part in the Swimming New Zealand Swim Teacher Award Course with SNZ Education Advisor Kay West last month.

They are now working towards completing the course for the opportunity to become qualified swim teachers and to earn 20 of the 43 level three credits available from the course.

Kay was left impressed by the girls after the training course, held in Auckland’s CBD, saying they all interacted well in both the pool and theory sessions.

To complete the course the students will now work at a swim school where they will continue to learn from the swim instructors, help run classes and be assessed on their time there.

The swim schools they will continue their training at are all Swimming New Zealand Quality Swim Schools. They are YMCA, Helen’s School of Swimming and Auckland Council (Manurewa Pool & Leisure Centre, Birkenhead Pool & Leisure Centre and Tepid Baths).  

As part of the partnership with WaterSafe Auckland the high school students also get access to do an additional five hours of water competence and water safety activities plus three and a half hours on Coastguard Northern Region educational boats for Day Skipper experience, first aid qualification and achievement standards for 400m freestyle and 200m medley.

The Gateway programme enables schools to provide senior students (minimum age 16) with opportunities to access structured workplace learning with many in Auckland already joining the aquatic pathway through the programme.

“So far 95 students from 29 schools have participated in the Aquatics Gateway programme to gain Swim teacher or Pool lifeguard qualifications and start pathways in the wet sector,” says Mark Cornaga from WaterSafe Auckland.

The next Auckland course will take place in Week 1 of Term 3 with places still available for interested students. For more information or to enrol contact kay@swimmingnz.org.nz or mark@watersafe.org.nz.