Long time no talk. Its been almost six months since we have moved to Queenstown and I made the change from desk to building sites, and what can I say? I LOVE IT!

Some of the first weeks were pretty hard, VERY physical, and with starting in the peak of summer we were hitting 35 degree days, I was shattered by the end of those few months. Tying steel, lifting massive 5-meter posts (about a dozen of these), lifting frames, laying flooring, floor joists, putting up GIB... and well, a lot more.

After some thinking, and asking a million others what their thoughts were, I've decided to take the next step and begin a BCITO carpentry apprenticeship! Before I made the decision, these were some of the thoughts I had about joining up at this point in time.

Have I been working long enough to know I'm ready to take on an apprenticeship just yet? Do I start now or do I wait until I know more, saving me money in the long run because I don't have to be signed up for as long?
These are just some of the questions in my head prior to making the decision.

Because I have previously been to uni, I don't qualify for the governments' new scheme of free fees for the first year (rather silly when they're trying to get more people into trades and wanting people to "trade up" except if they have already studied there is no incentive to make them want to get a trade qualification) so, I would be dipping into savings to pursue my trade qualification. My boss told me, in the end, it was totally up to me as long as I felt comfortable that now was the time to sign up. Otherwise, I wait a year, have a lot more knowledge and as long as I am taking notes and photos of my work, I can backtrack and fill my books in when I finally do sign up. I did consider this option...

BUT..

At the same time, I feel like I loosely know enough of what I'm doing to be able to complete the work required, even though I've only seen theory books from years ago so have no idea whats currently in them and live with two builders who can help explain things to me when I need it. With the books in front of me, I can understand what I need to be doing to be able to get to the end of my apprenticeship as fast as possible.

So I took the leap! Because I already have a job in building, it made signing up to BCITO a breeze! I went to their website filled out the form, 20 minutes later I had a phone call from the team to confirm a few details and I have someone coming out to talk to me on Monday, all within the week.

It was so easy, I'm kind of kicking myself I didn't do it sooner. Can't wait to get into the books and see how much I've already learned.