Kiwi Business Story: Coworking Space – BCITO

Richard Mason is the Central Auckland Area Manager for BCITO. BCITO manages apprenticeships for the building and construction industry in New Zealand. It has the largest occupancy of all The Icehouse’s coworking tenants.

(Richard: back row, fourth from right)

Location:  Wellington (head office)
Business:  Training and Education
Relationship with The Icehouse: Coworking Tenant

What does BCITO do?

BCITO is part of Te Pūkenga Work Based Learning, a subsidiary of Te Pūkenga – the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology. We build the people that build New Zealand by offering qualifications in 15 sectors of the construction industry. 

 
Tell us about your role?

I am the Central Auckland Area Manager. Our office is one of 15 areas nationally. I have a team of 16 Training Advisors who look after approximately 100 apprentices each – guiding, mentoring and assessing them to achieve their chosen trade qualification on the job where they can earn and learn at the same time. I have been with BCITO nearly 17 years and it is always great to see young (and old) graduate with us (nationally 38,000 qualified tradies and counting, since 1992!). 
 

How does 2022 look for the business compared to 2021?

In the period June 2020 to Dec 2021, BCITO grew from supporting 12,000 apprentices to 21,000. So last year was busy for sure! We don’t see it slowing down any time soon. Late last year, BCITO became part of Te Pūkenga which moved us from a partly government-funded organisation to a Crown Entity in Oct 2021.

During this year we (Te Pūkenga) will all be working together to form a new operational model. This involves discussions with other industries (now also part of Te Pūkenga) to create a unified approach to Vocational Education with an ultimate goal of putting the learner right at the centre. These discussions are underway and anticipated to be in place by the end of this year.

What are the current challenges facing the business? 

The construction industry is screaming out for new trainees as construction continues to ramp up. With NZ’s unemployment rate only around 3.2%, skilled staff are hard to find. Added to that is students straight out of school have so many more options before them as all trade industries are competing for the same resource. Needless to say, BCITO is also growing its team of Training Advisors to support growth.  

How did you find out about The Icehouse's coworking space?

With the lease coming up for renewal in our Newmarket office in June 2020, I started looking around for other options for office space. At the time, due to the uncertainties that Covid imposed on us signing into a three-year lease was risky at best. I was sent a link to various shared workspaces around Auckland City and started to look into The Icehouse as an option. 
 

What are the benefits to BCITO? How does it help you? 

I have found over the past few years that running a dedicated office is quite involved. We have leased a studio and a pod of desks just outside it at The Icehouse. This shared workspace takes away ‘running’ the office and lets me focus on my team and industry stakeholders.

I am no longer performing time-consuming admin-like contracts for air-con servicing, cleaners, couriers – to name just a few. I’m not buying milk each day and re-cutting keys when they get lost. In fact, due to the shared space being open during normal hours, I am the only required holder of an after-hours e-card.  

It also see my team interacting with others in the space to socialise and/or discuss each other’s work which is very beneficial to our business. This is very cost effective and can be long or short term to suit. There are no downsides here!

Any advice for any organisations thinking about coworking?

This is the first large area office where BCITO has taken on a shared coworking space. BCITO head office asked things like: Where would they be setting up the IT data box? Nowhere, we just need to use their Wi-Fi. Where are we going to set up the phone system? No need, all our staff have mobile phones. When can we deliver a new printer? Never, we will use the three already at The Icehouse. How many desks do you need? None, they are already here. Car parks? I sorted six parks via The Icehouse and if we have a team meeting they can use the AT Park app. So you can imagine how cost-effective setting yourself up here can be!

Follow the link for more information about BCITO and how it supports apprentices.