CANTERBURY RUGBY LEAGUE TEAMS UP WITH BCITO SPORTS IN EXCITING NEW PARTNERSHIP
Canterbury Rugby League is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with BCITO Sports, an innovative programme helping athletes build a career in the trades.
BCITO (Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation) is New Zealand’s leading building and construction apprenticeship provider, focusing on training apprentices and helping them build successful careers, as well as working with employers, educators and industry stakeholders, and offering grants and scholarships.
BCITO Sports delivers a customised programme for athletes at all levels, enabling them to build a long-term career in the trades, and providing support for clubs and employers.
“We are thrilled to form this partnership with BCITO Sports,” Canterbury Rugby League CEO Malcolm Humm says.
“A key goal within the CRL Strategic Plan 2023 -2026 is that ‘participants develop holistically through the support of CRL personal development programmes’. We believe this partnership is going to support us in achieving this goal.
“CRL wants to support its community in a variety of ways. Through this partnership we will enable rugby league participants and our membership to develop careers in the building and construction industry.
“A key reason CRL wanted to partner with BCITO Sports is they are about helping people change their lives by supporting them to create successful careers and lifestyles.
“BCITO Sports connects school leavers and others within the construction industry with apprenticeships through their sports club and/or schools. To date, BCITO sports have enabled 55,000 people to become trade qualified professionals.”
BCITO Sports got off the ground about five years ago, emerging through COVID disruptions and changes in vocational training to hit its straps.
“A guy I went to school with, who had played Sevens for New Zealand, Super Rugby and was knocking on the door of the All Blacks, rang me up and asked for a building apprenticeship,” BCITO General Manager Growth & Marketing Communications Paddy Kymbrekos recalls.
“I wanted to dig a little bit deeper around his time spent in professional sport and what development was offered to them. I sat down with this player, sounded them out around what they did day-to-day when they weren’t training or when they weren’t traveling or playing, and it became quite apparent that not a lot of time was spent on the other side of life – that development outside of the sport.
“It has changed a lot now but back in the day, you’d go to training in the morning then you’d wait until training in the afternoon and not really have a lot of time during the day to do anything else.
“We hooked into one of the National Provincial Championship rugby teams and started working with them to make sure their academy guys had an opportunity to do apprenticeship training alongside their footy.
“And that merged into a bigger picture, for those that hadn’t done anything and had now made it as a professional. We designed packages to bring them into the fold, to let them have the same opportunities to get something behind them, so that when they finish their sport they had something to fall back on.”
As well as assisting sportspeople with putting their ‘plan B’ into place, one of BCITO Sports’ key areas of focus is helping retiring athletes to transition into new careers.
“Those careers that do work out, the average age of retirement from professional sport in New Zealand is 33,” Kymbrekos continues.
“There’s still 32 years of work that you’ve got to worry about. And we’ve seen it a lot where big-name professionals come out of their sport and they feel a bit lost, they’re almost starting again. You see some really sad stories in that space. We want to help athletes better their situation for when the day comes that you’re not a professional sportsperson anymore.”
Meanwhile, assisting athletes and clubs at grassroots level – a key factor in forming the partnership with Canterbury Rugby League – has expanded into becoming a vital part of BCITO Sports’ framework.
BCITO Sports prepares sportspeople for their future in the trades without having to sacrifice the game they love, nurturing the skills and qualities that cross over from the field to the workplace, and customising programmes for athletes at all stages of their sporting journey to build a long-term post-playing career.
“It became apparent early on that, yes, we can do this work for professionals, but we’re actually missing a big piece – if you rewind the clock back to what New Zealand was like in the seventies and eighties, the sports club is where you went to get job opportunities,” Kymbrekos says.
“We’ve put a big focus now on the local club level, because we know that all our employers are involved in these clubs, as well as these people that want an opportunity in the trade.
“We had an example here in Wellington where we’re working with a club and they had 19 young men that wanted an opportunity, then in the club there was about 10 employers that were actively advertising for staff. So even just showing the club that actually the opportunity exists within your community was a real eye-opener.
“It’s been great – we say, ‘work local, play local, stay local’ – especially for our more remote communities. You don’t have to leave Gisborne anymore to come to Wellington or go to Auckland for an opportunity. Those opportunities are within the clubs in your town, so stay around, play for your community.
“Get your roots down into the ground because that generation of today’s player, they’re your next coaches and managers and your eventual sponsors. Keeping it all together is quite powerful for the clubs.”
BCITO Sports also offers resources and opportunities for clubs navigating perennial – and increasingly difficult – player recruitment and retention challenges.
Career security can be a decisive reason for athletes to choose a club, offering players an opportunity to play and build lucrative skills for themselves at the same time.
“ You might have one or two in a club that push on to higher honours, but it’s those players that leave school at 17 or 18, they’re still at your club in 30 years.
“From a club’s perspective as well, there’s a bit of a duty of care there to look after your own. Make sure that those people that are turning up for you twice a week for training and then every game, that the rest of their life is sorted – family and work and all those other things that we often overlook.”
Canterbury Rugby League joins Wellington RFU, Auckland Tuatara and Mainland Pouākai basketball clubs, and Weedons Cricket Club in becoming a formal partner of BCITO Sports.
“We’re making more and more connections in this space and this is a massive one for us because of who you guys are and your membership base – we know that Canterbury Rugby League is really motivated to try to achieve what we’ve set out to achieve as well.
“It’s an exciting partnership because we really feel that Canterbury Rugby League is right behind this, they really want to see this succeed.”
For professional athletes, club athletes, clubs and employers seeking more information about this proven apprenticeship programme and other opportunities, head to BCITO Sports’ website.
Alternatively, you can contact Jeremy Benton, BCITO National Development: Jeremy.Benton@bcito.org.nz or 027 261 6586.
“The real key in all this is without an employer, it’s really hard to place someone into an apprenticeship opportunity,” Kymbrekos emphasises.
“There will be employers out there that have been associated with league in the past, or they want to give back a little bit, or they want to support their club in some way. This is a great way to do it, because it’s providing that opportunity.
“The last thing we want is 150 young people saying, ‘yeah, I want to do an apprenticeship’, but they don’t have the opportunities for them to be placed into.
“And the community in which those young people are coming from, they understand the training schedules and the nature of the game – it’s a bit easier on that player if they get injured while they’re playing for the boss’ club.”
