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Welding student Stewart Cathcart took up a family tradition when it comes to studying welding.

The 65-year-old graduates in May from Welding micro-credentials at our Manukau campus. He mirrors the skills of his father who started an apprenticeship as a welder in his homeland of Scotland at the age of 14. At 16, Stewart’s dad falsified his age to enlist in the Black Watch Regiment and served in the war in Europe and Egypt. Returning to Scotland, he found himself unsettled and immigrated to New Zealand to further his career in welding. “A comment he often made was, ‘Welders are born not made’,” Stewart says. “From the early age of 13, I would pick up his welder and practise. As I am retired and have an invested interest in flying, perfecting the art of welding has been one of my main goals, following in my father’s footsteps.” A highlight of the programme has been meeting others with similar interests keen to hone their skills, Stewart says.

The sky is the limit when it comes to his creative skills. He also builds paramotors or powered paragliders. Stewart’s goal is to take Make-A-Wish children playing in the clouds on his flying machines.

The welding aficionado has a talent for other trades. Born and raised in West Auckland, he took an apprenticeship as a carpenter/joiner, bought his first home at 20, and started his own building company at the age of 23. He started small with renovations and alterations. “By the time I was 30, I was building high-end architectural homes with some clients waiting up to two years. Over a period, my three brothers and several apprentices qualified in the industry with my father working alongside us in welding and fabrication.”

Stewart spent eight years of painstaking work building in Glendowie, Auckland his own home, designed by leading Kiwi architect Jack Manning. In 2006, Stewart’s creation won the NZAI Supreme Award for all of New Zealand.