Print Apprentice of the Year Sione Tonga won the Pacific Leader award at The Edge Got a Trade? Got it Made! Future Business Leader’s Awards this month.
Tonga completed his print apprenticeship at the end of last year and is now a senior printer at Stratex NZ.
The awards event celebrates the achievements of young New Zealanders working in trades and services.
“I didn’t expect to win, but I was really happy and honoured to be chosen,” Tonga said.
“It means a lot to my family
“My goal is to one day become a manager running a department.
“It is every Pacific teenager’s dream to become a boss in a company, starting with nothing to become something.”
The judges said Tonga had “an amazing work ethic” and had made a number of positive changes in his life through his personal and professional development.
Stratex NZ Print Manager Ross Halliday said Tonga was a hard worker who deserved everything he had achieved.
Tonga finished his print apprenticeship last year, and has just started a Diploma in Print Industry Management (Level 5).
When not working, the 33 years-old father of three is passionate about music.
“Before becoming a printer, the only thing I knew I was good at was singing,” he told the industry web site gotatrade.co.nz.
“I took opera singing lessons while in high school back in Tonga so that I could be the lead singer when I was just 13-years-old. Now I am the lead tenor in a choir of around 200 members.”
The awards were held as part of a forum bringing together New Zealand’s future business leaders for Got a Trade Week, the national campaign to raise awareness of the careers that exist in 140 trades and services in New Zealand.
The main points
- Print Apprentice of the Year Sione Tonga won the Pacific Leader award at The Edge Got a Trade? Got it Made! Future Business Leader’s Awards this month.
- Tonga completed his print apprenticeship at the end of last year and is now a senior printer at Stratex NZ.
- “I didn’t expect to win, but I was really happy and honoured to be chosen,” Tonga said.
- “It means a lot to my family.”
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