BCITO boosts deaf participation in construction

To coincide with New Zealand Sign Language Week, BCITO launched a new website called Building Abilities aimed at demonstrating the opportunities for deaf Kiwis in the construction industry

With more than 4,500 deaf users of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) and around 23,000 New Zealanders who use it regularly, BCITO joined forces with Deaf Aotearoa to celebrate New Zealand Sign Language Week (6-12 May) and raise awareness of deaf people’s ability to succeed in building trades careers. To do so, it launched the Building Abilities website, which features stories about deaf Kiwis, who have completed apprenticeships and have careers in the trades, alongside resources from BCITO and Deaf Aotearoa for learners and employers.

“Sometimes employers have no experience or knowledge of deaf people and/or NZSL, so they are hesitant. Yet, more often than not, when deaf people begin a job, the employer realises that the deaf individual is more than capable of doing the same work as their hearing workmates,” said Lachlan Keating, Chief Executive of Deaf Aotearoa.

Hidden gems

The employment figures for Kiwis with disabilities makes for stark reading. Disabled New Zealanders are around 50% less likely to be employed when compared with the general population. Members of the deaf community are included in those figures, as the exact number of unemployed or underemployed deaf people are unknown.

Greg Durkin, Director of BCITO, said he is focused on providing all learners with a path to employment in construction, which could help fill crucial gaps in the industry.

“Providing all learners with the right resources to have meaningful careers in construction is our reason for being, and we’ve focused on developing strong partnerships with organisations such as Deaf Aotearoa to break down those misperceptions and barriers. At a time when the industry is still facing a shortage of skilled workers, we need to do everything we can to inspire and empower more people to consider a trades career or gain a trade’s qualification.”

Baz Kay is a construction worker, who almost slipped through the net. Born profoundly deaf, he spent 20 years doing low-skilled work because of negative perceptions about his ability. It was only after he was supported by a family friend into the industry with Trent Builders in Invercargill that he was able to upskill himself.

Belief and support

Thanks to help from BCITO, Kay is now a qualified carpenter and an eager advocate for deaf people in the industry.

“My training advisor, Andrew Green (BCITO Principal Advisor – Learners with Disabilities), supported me through the process. He visited me every two weeks to go through the things that were challenging me. This included using imagery to define building terminology and explaining certain words that I wasn’t able to understand. My wife would help out by translating into sign,” said Kay.

“Deaf people [are often] very visually orientated and very good with their hands. A lot of deaf people do have barriers in employment, so it’s worth giving people an opportunity and treating deaf people the same as hearing employees, because the only difference is that we can’t hear.”

Improved processes for everyone

His boss, Richard Trent, said working with a deaf person has improved the whole company’s processes.

“I never thought communicating with Baz would be a challenge, as there are always ways to work around things. In fact, there have been several benefits to hiring him. For example, it has made our communication to all our staff a lot clearer. Now we write the daily plan down on a whiteboard, as well as extra work to do if we get finished ahead of schedule, which makes our workflow a lot clearer to everyone.

“Our staff meetings are now more professional and our communication is clearer and we’re more descriptive of the work we require.”

Trent added that it can be easy to be “on the defensive” as a boss but encouraged anyone considering hiring a deaf person to do so.

“There is a range of tools available to make communication easier, such as the NZSL app, plus Baz can lip read. At the end of the day, our business is better off having someone like Baz on site – and that’s not even taking into account that he’s great socially, works hard, is never late, and has fantastic attention to detail!”

To access the Building Abilities website and find out more about opportunities for deaf people in the trades, visit www.buildingabilities.co.nz .