CRL For Kids

Students from Cape Reinga to Bluff are getting the chance to “visit” New Zealand’s largest transport infrastructure project – Auckland’s City Rail Link (CRL) – without leaving their classrooms.

Video technology will turn the project into a virtual classroom for students from all over New Zealand, allowing them to access videos to see how the project is being built while also highlighting careers available in the infrastructure industry. 

Through online field trips, rangatahi (young people) can see the diverse opportunities within a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and/or Maths) project, and get to travel online and follow the environmental, cultural, and social sustainability stories from the CRL project.

“City Rail Link is committed to leaving a strong legacy for New Zealand – we’re a huge and complex project with a lot to show and share – and we’re delighted we are contributing to this classroom initiative,” said Link Alliance Project Director, Francois Dudouit.   

CRL’s virtual classroom programme starts on 8 June and a design competition for students kicked off Monday 24 May to coincide with the start of New Zealand’s Techweek. 

The virtual classroom and design competition is a collaboration between the Link Alliance, which is delivering the main CRL stations, tunnels, and systems, the Ministry of Education and online education group LEARNZ, part of CORE Education.  

One of the biggest challenges facing the construction industry is the shortage of people and skills throughout the sector, impacting its capacity to deliver the growing pipeline of construction projects. Women make up only 18 per cent of the construction-related workforce in New Zealand and Māori and Pacific are under-represented in the skilled professions and at leadership level.

Dudouit says as well as all the mahi involved in construction, the programme will showcase CRL Māori, Pacific and women workers, and highlight the project’s partnership with mana whenua.  

If you know of a school that might be interested in taking part, send them this link to enrol: https://www.learnz.org.nz/futurejourneys212.

More details are available at www.cityraillink.co.nz/resources-for-students-teachers-city-rail-link.