Travel Careers and Training (TCT) have opened their newest training facility and I’m confident that they’re the only tertiary education provider in NZ to have a  jet plane in their front window. TCT tell me the facilities were purpose-built, which is lucky, because most buildings don’t allow for jet planes…

The facility is in a prime situation at Auckland airport – on a side street between McDonalds and Countdown, parallel to the main George Bolt Memorial Drive. It’s only ten minutes’ walk from the terminals and Pacific Blue has a base there and uses the training facilities. There are 10 classrooms and TCT hope to have 150 students on site next year. They were thinking about closing their existing Auckland city campus, but with the uncertainty around numbers at their Christchurch campus, they’re keeping it open (most providers in Christchurch are facing enrolment drops post-quake).

You may wonder why they have a jet plane – it’s because they offer flight attendant training and the fuselage allows them to train on emergency exits and (mainly) serving customers. As you can see in the photo below, there’s no cockpit, as they don’t offer pilot training. Update:Hmm, as you can see in the photo above, there is a cockpit, but it is the tail that is missing. Luckily TCT knows one end of a plane from another, but I was having difficulties at my end!

The new facility was opened on 19 August 2011 and Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman and CEO Nicole Domett did the honours. Since I don’t like boring shots of dignitaries opening things, here’s a shot of the confetti being dropped J.

Thanks to Guy Domett for the great photos – such shots make stories on new buildings really pop.

Thumbs-Up is my somewhat irregular series celebrating good ideas or outcomes in the tertiary education sector. It was pointed out to me that I could rename it to “Thums Up” after the Indian soft drink and seek sponsorship (HT Melanie Chapman). Maybe I could change ED Blog’s tagline to “Taste the Thunder” too…