A significant shortage in the trade sector has prompted Patton Engineering and other local businesses to partner with Hastings Boys' High School to entice the next generation into engineering.
The structural steel engineering business has been taking on up to eight students on rotation every second week for hands-on work experience.
And a new welding workshop with individual welding bays has been installed, adding eight welding machines to the existing one - donated by One Foundation Trust in Rotorua (which funded six), Weldwell (which funded one) and Best Forsythe Electrical (which funded one).