Former miners trained for rebuild

1:17 pm on 6 November 2012

The team in charge of rebuilding Christchurch's roads and sewerage system is funding a training programme for miners who lost their jobs at the Spring Creek mine.

A recruitment bus was sent to the West Coast last month following the redundancies there, promising steady work for at least the next five years.

The first round of 20 miners have started training at Tai Poutini Polytechnic on the West Coast, in preparation for jobs repairing the damaged roads, water pipes and underground utilities.

The polytechnic expects those with experience as team leaders and managers in the mine will progress quickly up the ranks in the construction sector with their new skills.