Monster trucks and employment law don't often feature side by side in the same CV, but it takes a range of skills to make it in adventure tourism.

Off Road NZ guide Sam Edmonds has learnt a bit about both in the two years he’s been in the tourism industry, most recently as the first trainee on National Certificate in Tourism – Business Practice (Tourism Level 4).

Sam’s role includes helping customers navigate Off Road’s self-drive four-wheel-drive course and giving rides in the V6 4x4 Monster Truck.

“It’s a pretty wicked job,” he says. “I love it here, especially learning how to drive the truck. When I first came here I was just part time, so I worked four days a week just out of high school and after a couple of months I was offered the full time job, so I was pretty stoked.”

Sam is keen to get some training under his belt and move forward in his career. The Tourism Level 4 qualification offers him the opportunity to gain a national qualification and increase his knowledge of the tourism industry, while building foundation skills in people and business management.

He is working towards his training on the job, with the support of his manager Shane who is available to answer questions and help keep Sam on track.

“I enjoyed school but I felt like getting into work,” he says. “I like earning money, plus I’m doing this paper as well – so I’m learning and earning at the same time. That’s a big thing that attracted me to the training.”

Sam says it's great to be able to get a qualification without having to worry about a student loan, but it’s not all about the money. He has plans to move into a tourism management role and knew he would need to upskill in order to take that next step.

Sam says the content of the training hasn’t been too bad so far, despite his first unit standard being one based on employment legislation. He spends around an hour a night working through the programme resources and assessment tasks.

“I didn’t know about on the job training when I finished school,” says Sam. “I thought maybe I would go to polytech, but I’m happy to be doing this".

“I think learning on the job is a huge bonus. Employers would rather take someone who has work experience than someone who just has a piece of paper saying they can do this". “I love it here. I love working with people and I feel like we’re a big family here – it’s pretty cool.”

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