Major Contract Win For New Martinborough-based Vocational Training Business

WoMoLife has been awarded a $1.36m contract to train 150 new and upskill a further 120 existing shearers and wool handlers through 2021. The contract is with Kaiaka Wool Industry Training NZ, a Trust formed to facilitate the provision of training to the shearing and wool harvesting industry with funding from the Provincial Development Unit.

Kaiaka board chairperson Dr. Gabrielle Wall said “We appreciated WoMoLife’s innovation of blending a traditional hands-on training model with an online platform. We know there’s no substitute for having experienced trainers working with trainees in the wool shed. With this approach, trainees will have the best of both worlds by combining hands-on training with access to online resources 24-7.”

Students will learn about career opportunities within the wool harvesting industry and complete a series of training modules online – penning up, crutching, shearing and wool handling and pressing – before venturing into a woolshed for hands-on training workshops. Videos feature world class trainers Nathan ‘Stratty” Stratford and Carmen Smith – so each student will learn from the best.

Martinborough resident, Alister Shennan, identified the opportunity to improve vocational training by combining high quality, up-to-date knowledge on line with complementary hands- on training in the field.

With a vision of launching 50,000 new careers by 2025 he set up Ecadame and started to work with another Martinborough resident, Ron Ainsbury, who joined as Executive Chair.

Their first venture is in partnership with a movement, biomechanics and performance coach from the Hawkes Bay, Laura Hancock, who applies Work Movement principles to shearing, hence the name ‘WoMoLife’.

The arrival of COVID-19 slowed but didn’t stop development and production of ground- breaking videos under the guidance of another local, Celia Jaspers – experienced Country Calendar producer. As the start-up developed Alister has put together a formidable team of Wairarapa residents to manage the new contract.

“Ecadame is a means to bring together top, professional trainers and connect them to people of all ages seeking a new path or wanting to enhance their current career”, said Alister. “My vision is to provide young people with online access to a range of short videos that will introduce each industry and highlight potential career paths – perhaps opening up career choices they had not previously considered.”