JNP Aviation Training provides courses that take a holistic, hands-on approach, equipping learners with real-world skills, industry insight, and confidence. It was born from a need identified by CEO and founder Josh Payne, who had already established the company JNP Aviation, providing ground operations services for Air
New Zealand.
He developed a way for his highly skilled - but not formally qualified - team to gain recognition for their on-the-job learning. With a particular focus on Māori and Pasifika, JNPAT helps people to rise strong, no matter where they start.
The kārearea is used in the company’s logo as a reminder that with the right support, anyone can rise above life’s challenges and forge their own path.
Leona’s story
Leona enrolled in the JNP Aviation Training course, facilitated by Pacific Growth, as part of the obligations of her jobseeker benefit.
She’d fallen on some hard times after her return to New Zealand from Australia and was living at Women’s Refuge.
Although she had no experience or particular interest in aviation, she saw the course as an opportunity – to network with new people, to get back into the workforce and as a step towards living independently again.
Leona says the training was something she would not have otherwise done, but it provided her the chance to upskill.
She feels more empowered for having done it and says she “absolutely” recommends it to others.
At the end of the course, Leona assumed she would be going back onto the benefit. Instead, she took another opportunity. This time it was to get her Certificate of Approval which would allow her to work in private security.
“I wanted to do anything that would help me get fulltime work, or even just in the door.”
Leona is now in permanent employment with a security company in Tauranga. She has a house and says she now feels secure and stable with a solid foundation – she’s currently thinking about setting up a garden that she can tend to when she’s not working or spending time with her moko. Leona is aware that a quick summary of her story might make the journey seem easy. It wasn’t.
What she knew going in was that systems and groups offering help in this country only work when you do. She knew standing still would only get her one place: still dependent on the system.
Leona says her motivation didn’t stem from proving anyone wrong. Rather, it was about loving herself enough to work for the life she knows she deserves.
Pacific Growth is incredibly proud of Leona and all she has achieved. She has grown so much since we first met her. Today she is radiant and we can see that her heart is rich. It’s an honour to walk alongside her.
Uate’s story
Uatesoni arrived in Tauranga by foot. There was some biking involved too, but for the most part, he walked from Auckland to his new home of Tauranga.
He says he was sick of getting stuck in the same place – both physically and metaphorically – and so he started walking.
Uatesoni walked to Paeroa, where he picked up a bike and was able to cycle to Waihi. Then his tyre popped, so he walked to Katikati, got the puncture repaired and did a combination of walking and cycling the rest of the way to Tauranga.
The whole journey took him about a month. Uate stayed in a backpackers and secured a job at a packhouse during the kiwifruit season, but eventually the work slowed down, and WINZ referred him to Pacific Growth, which invited him to join the JNP Aviation Training course.
Though it was a solid opportunity, Uate was being drawn south. He headed off again before the course started and found himself in Turangi.
There he decided to climb Mount Tongariro – but he fell and rolled down part of the mountain, becoming stuck and needing to be rescued.
He took the experience as a sign he should return to Tauranga and participate in the JNP course, which he described as like nothing he’d done before. It allowed him to see behind the scenes in aviation and exposed him to the wide range of roles that are involved in getting planes from A to B.
Uate had to sleep in his vehicle for two weeks during the course due to accommodation shortages in Tauranga, but he remained committed to his learning.
He says he left the course with confidence, a reminder on how to present himself, and when to say yes and when to say no. It’s the first course he has not only completed but passed, gaining micro-credentials along the way that have since helped him into employment.
Uate said yes at the end of the training to participating in another course that earned him a Certificate of Approval, allowing him to work in private security.
It was something he’d looked at before, but he had not considered it as being a real option for him.
One of his barriers previously was that he’d been stuck in drug use. He says some candid words from the Pacific Growth team were instrumental in steering him down another path.
“Meeting Aifai and Dee was like a breakthrough.”
He has now been offered a full-time permanent position in private security in Tauranga. There’s still part of him that wants to continue his journey, to explore the South Island.
His focus though is on saying yes to the permanent job opportunity. While employment could allow Uate to make the trip by a mode of transport other than by foot, he’s determined to do so as an act of discipline.
“I want to walk. I believe a long walk can condition our body and our mind to be disciplined.”
Pacific Growth is thrilled about where Uate’s journey has taken him, and we’re honoured to have been even a small part of it.
