Eighteen-year-old Building Surveying student Nadia Naseem can’t wait to get started in her new job with Hamilton City Council.

Nadia enrolled in the New Zealand Diploma in Building Surveying with Future Skills last February.

She says she worked hard in high school but decided to leave after Year 12 to pursue something that interested her more. Her class was asked to do some research and work out what they wanted to do for a career. That’s when she learned all about Building Inspectors and what they do.

She initially thought she’d have to spend a few years studying towards a university degree to get into the field and didn’t really want to spend that long getting to where she wanted to be. So, she continued reading and came across the Future Skills programme, which included in-class and in-employment components.

“I did my research and found out about this programme and I was like, this is a dream.”

Nadia’s loved her time at Future Skills.

“I learned so much. There’s a lot of experienced builders in the class but our lecturer took the time to slow things down and I learned so much new information. That’s what I wanted to get out of this programme – it’s all things I can use.”

Now Nadia is at the end of her first year of study and will complete her second year while working.

She initially applied for a cadetship with Hamilton City Council, but they thought a Graduate Building Review Officer role would be a better fit.

“For one year I’ll work with them, and they’ll help me finish off the diploma, then after that straight away I can join their team and become a Building Inspector or Processor,” she says.

Nadia will begin the new job in February.

“I’m actually really excited.”

Hamilton City Council Building Unit Manager, Cory Lang, is looking forward to having Nadia on the team.

“We’re delighted to have Nadia join our team as a Graduate Building Review Officer. It’s a fantastic opportunity for Nadia to gain experience while completing her studies and it’s graduate programmes like these which really promote putting theory into practice,” he says.

“With Nadia already completing Year 1 of the diploma it’s been the perfect opportunity for her but also, it’s perfect for us knowing she’ll be able to hit the ground running. She shows great enthusiasm and we know she’ll be a great asset to our team.”

Building runs in the family for Nadia, who arrived in New Zealand from Malaysia when she was just two years old. Her father is a Quantity Surveyor, one sibling is studying Quantity Surveying, and two siblings are studying Engineering.