What our Students are Saying
Toi Ohomai is home to an amazing community of students.
Come to campus and you'll hear our talented music students jamming, taste the delicious food served up by our hospitality students, get fit with our passionate sport and recreation students, and get the latest industry insights from our engineering team.
We're continually inspired by our students - read about some of their amazing journeys.
When Kelly Talbot left high school and became a teenage mum, she never dreamed she’d one day win the New Zealand Young Nurse of the Year Award.
Kelly now works as an acute clinical nurse specialist at Rotorua Southern Cross Hospital…
Carpentry and Construction, New Zealand Certificate in Construction Trade Skills (Level 3), Carpentry Strand
It wasn’t easy but Jayden Jensen knows what can be achieved through perseverance after becoming a qualified builder.
Jayden’s journey started while he was still at school in Tūrangi and he studied carpentry through the Trade Academy…
Jade Rodgers was happy to find the architectural course she wanted was available close to home.
“The course was local - it was very convenient for me and Toi Ohomai offered what I wanted to do, whereas no one else around me did.” …A broken ankle prompted Dylan Austin to switch from driving a digger in the bush to getting behind the wheel of a heavy truck.
“I came back after six weeks’ leave and couldn’t push the foot pedals of the digger because I’d lost…
Caitlyn Desanges has always enjoyed maths and problem solving, but was keen to stop studying and switch from part-time wages to a full-time job when she left school.
She started chasing full-time retail roles, without success.
…Dannie Allan recently moved from Rotorua to Wellington and had no trouble finding a barbering job.
“I applied for two shops the first week I moved down here. The week after, I had two interviews and they both wanted me.”
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Georgia Bartlam had a lot of options when she left school with NCEA Level 3, but she knew she didn’t want to head off to university or rack up a big student debt.
She’d always enjoyed pulling things apart and fixing them and decided an…
After moving to New Zealand from Germany in 2008 to work as a ski instructor, Jens says he eventually realised - with a girlfriend and a life in New Zealand - he wanted to stay here. And he knew he needed a career that would allow him to build a…
Developing a passionfruit orchard on a Tauranga lifestyle block is a far cry from working in Auckland’s public transport sector, but Christine Herbert has no regrets about her decision.
Christine and her partner moved to the Bay of Plenty…
A newly qualified builder, with experience in project management and a swag of industry awards, starts a new business just before lockdown.
It sounds like the start of a bad story. Instead, Cameron Diack is proof of what can be achieved…