Stratex Group’s Sione Taueli Tonga received the PrintNZ Apprentice of the Year Award in an emotional onstage presentation at Sky City.
Sione Taueli Tonga
Almost speechless, an extremely proud Tonga felt overwhelmed with the win. He appreciated that his drive to seize the life-changing opportunity presented by his employer had received such recognition. He said, “I knew the apprenticeship was the only door open, I didn’t think anything else would open for me, I knew that was my only chance and so I worked hard on it, I really did. Stuart Wells, general manager of Stratex, said Tonga showed a distinctive application to finish his apprenticeship with aplomb and well ahead of time, despite juggling various family and other commitments. Wells said, “Early on he did say he wanted to be Apprentice of the Year. He was true to his word and it is not a surprise given his drive. In other training awards, Oji Fibre Solutions Hamilton facility manager Tony Antoniadis took out the PrintNZ Trainer of the Year. He said he has very much enjoyed and developed a passion for training staff over recent years. He said, “We have had a lot of semi-skilled or unskilled people who joined with few qualifications and I have seen the joy and excitement they have received from gaining their first certificate.†PrintNZ named NZME Ellerslie as Training Company of the Year. Russell Wieck, operations manager at NZME Ellerslie said his firm earning its third such award in the past five years represented the “culmination of a lot of hard work.†He added, “The culture is to train. We believe there is a future for the industry and we’re going to keep pushing and promoting for the industry and bringing young people through.â€
