Ten line staff from Tonga Power Ltd. left for New Zealand today to undergo a two-weeks evaluation boot camp in East Tamaki with a view to winning employment contracts with Northpower Ltd.

John van Brink, the Chief Executive of Tonga Power Ltd., said the line staff,  including one woman, would be evaluated on their skills and they would learn how Northpower operates.

The group will return to Tonga after the two-weeks  training, and if they have fulfilled the requirements they may be offered jobs with Northpower and migrate permanently with their families to New Zealand in early October this year.

“This is a step up in skill development because the line staff would be doing high voltage and live line work that can’t be done in Tonga and we are hoping eventually they would come back to Tonga,” he said.

Expertise

He said at this stage Tonga Power was not planning to repeat this exercise as this is the first and only group to go over to New Zealand.

“We have got a lot of work coming on, including the upgrading of 33 villages under aid programs, and another project to upgrade the Nuku’alofa Urban Areas. These big projects would last for at least five years and require a lot of line staff and skilled staff, which is why we are doing this as a one off because we have got to work and keep a level of expertise in Tonga,” he said.