New Architecture Tutors Brings Wealth of Experience
Chris Parry is excited to bring his two career paths into one as he starts his new role as an Architecture Tutor for NorthTec | Te Pūkenga in Whangārei.
“When I first left school, I trained as a primary school teacher,” Chris explains. “After that I travelled for a while, before coming back to work as a relief teacher. Much later I finally got the opportunity to try something I always wanted to do, study Architecture. Now I get the chance to combine both of those skills and teach at NorthTec | Te Pūkenga.”
Chris, although originally born in Wellington, moved to Whangārei at a young age and has lived in Tai Tokerau for most of his life. He’s keen to give back to the community in a new way and will start his inaugural teaching year in February.
“I actually studied and graduated from NorthTec’s architecture course myself, so it’s a bit like coming full circle really. I can take two separate careers, teaching and architecture, and bring them together for this newest journey.
The current tutors at NorthTec have been doing this for a while, and these opportunities don’t come up often, so when the job came up, I knew I had to go for it. I’m excited to bring a fresh perspective to the course.”
After five years out working in the industry, Chris has a lot of experience to offer.
“After I graduated, I worked for a group home builder doing consent work and plan checks, basically getting everything you need to get council consent. I moved from there to industrial commercial buildings where I was doing contact administration, claims, variations, and then drafting of precast concrete. I also did garden design while I was the UK and did a qualification there.”
Chris also has some great insights for new and prospective students around what to expect, both from the industry and from study itself.
“Something a lot of people going into architecture don’t realise is the amount of communication skills they need. You can learn the technical drafting side of things and you can learn the industry standards. But where people can come unstuck is really effective communication and getting clarity on what's being asked of them. You really need to be a good communicator to do the job. It’s something I think everyone should be working on. Miscommunication leads to mistakes, and mistake can be costly.”
“One piece of advice I do have for students is to use your in-class time. Turn up on the Friday and take advantage of the student directed learning time then. Really put the time in because it will make a big difference at the end of the year.”
