Jordan Ormsby

Trailblazing builder who broke gender mould - on and off the tools 

Words Jill Nicholas

Pictures/video Stephen Parker

Twirling around the floor in a glamorous bridesmaid’s gown, Jordan Ormsby boldly asked her dance partner for a job on a building site.

He was commercial builder Graham Barry, the owner of GB Builders -  and the bride's newly-minted father-in-law. 

He didn't give Jordan the brush off she feared. Instead he suggested that she come and see him on Monday.

She took him at his word. He signed the then 16-year-old up on the spot.

It was the foundation for a trailblazing career in an industry where  women builders were virtually unheard of.  Jordan was the first to join the GB Builders team.  

For starters she spent two days a week clocking up work experience on the Energy Events Centre (EEC), which was then under construction.

Once her pre-trade training course was done and dusted she asked Barry what the chances were of working for him full time,

"He said 'the chances are great. What Monday are you starting'?"

That was 20 years ago. Today the fully certified builder is a  Kaitohutohu  - Maori advisor with BCITO (Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation).

It's a role in which she helps mentor Maori apprentices across the country, encouraging them to achieve in the construction industry.
Her mission statement is to break down barriers for marginalised akonga (learners).

 "I strive to give them confidence in themselves and their abilities.

"Last year we ran a pilot programme, Mana Whakatipu Mana Tangata, in Able Tasman National Park alongside Whenua Iti Outdoors. It's for young Maori showing leadership potential who need encouragement to take the next step in their career.

"It's my passion project. I'm hopeful it will become an annual programme."
Her role is a two-way street.

"I also encourage our training advisors to build and support their learner and employer relationships. 

"If I can touch one learner’s life I know it's going to make a huge difference.

"I love working with the organisation. I intend to keep this job until I'm in my 70s."

Jordan is a front row cheerleader for apprenticeships.

"I tell our learners 'Succeed in this career and you have a trade for life. With an apprenticeship you are paid to learn. That's better than university where you're in debt straight away'."

It was BCITO that oversaw Jordan's apprenticeship with GB Builders. 

Woodwork classes, tools inspire future career

She's the first to admit it's a tad ironical that she's now entrenched in education.  Although she enjoyed school, sport took precedence.

It wasn't until she started woodwork classes at Rotorua Girls' High that she took learning particularly seriously. 

"They had this beautiful workshop. We had the best of equipment, the top machinery. It would be my dream set up if I won Lotto. 

"We started learning how to dress timber, use a band saw, all this cool stuff. I fell in love with the wood turning lathe.

"We had to make a kid's toy. I made a beetle car with a clicker. It was pretty cool. My son plays with it now.   

"I made Mum a coffee table and Dad a bowl. They were surprised but quite impressed.

"I didn't know then I wanted to be a builder. I just wanted to work with tools. They were the attraction." 

Lynmore Primary was Jordan's first school. Straight shooter that  she is, she owns up to spending a lot of time sitting outside the principal's office with her best mate Bryce Gordon.

"We had desks on either side of his door."

They met at Frances Day Care.

"We got 'married' there when we were three years of age. His wedding present to me was a pair of smelly socks. I was best woman at his wedding a couple of years ago. That was pretty cool.

"I was an inquisitive sort of kid. I wasn't a bully. I would bully the bullies." 

Jordan was nine and at Whangamarino Primary when it was discovered her education was being hampered by restricted sight in her right eye. 

For the record this affliction has never put the brakes on her building career.

"I loved Whangamarino. It was a cool school, I have lifelong memories of it.

"I had this teacher, Sheryl Pearson, who made me feel valued as a person. She was really impactful."  

Not a "girly girl"

Glamorous bridesmaids gowns apart, Jordan's never been a "girly girl".

"Most of my mates were boys, I only had a couple of girlfriends.

"I was not one to be afraid to get down and dirty.

"When we moved to Okere Falls Dad had me out slashing tracks through the gorse, dragging irrigation systems to Koro Fred Whata.

"Mum and Dad brought me up to be quite resilient. I'm an only child. I was Mum's daughter and Dad’s son."

Dad is Clive Ormsby, a now retired Rotorua police officer.

"When I was born he was a cop in Wairoa. Mum [Wai Ormsby] worked for Child Youth and Family. I had a nanny, Shirley Bath, until we came to Rotorua when I was three.

"Her whanau had a big part in my upbringing."

Jordan spent most school holidays at Mahia Peninsula with Shirley, her husband David and their twin sons. 

"I was fortunate to get the best of both worlds, Rotorua's lakes and mountain biking and getting a good grounding in self-sufficiency at Mahia.

"There was a lot of fishing, hunting, diving, scavenging on the beach. I learnt to bake there. I'd make David's lunch. It was always lettuce and marmite sandwiches. He was the maintenance guy at AFFCO in Wairoa.

"He'd take me to spend time breaking in wild horses. I have a love-hate relationship with horses."

Jordan taught herself to drive on Mahia's "rough as" farm roads. 

"I was 12 years old and would jump in the truck and just go for it."

At home she spent a lot of time "pottering" in her dad's shed.

"Dad was a sparky before he was a cop. He's a pretty clever handyman. He drove me to be self sufficient.

"Mum tried to teach me how to cook but I wasn't interested at the time."  

Hooked on hockey 

The conversation loops back to Jordan's affinity with sport, hockey in particular, and how it introduced her to her life partner, Jessie London.  

Both were in the Bay of Plenty Under 11 hockey squad.

Their son Barrett is six, their daughter Pria is 14.

"She came into my life when she was two. We are 'Mum Jess' and 'Mum Jordan'. Sometimes we're called Dad too."

The two Js remain hooked on hockey. They coach the Western Heights High School girls' 1st X1.

Jordan's relationship with schoolgirl hockey was a rocky one.

Despite moving up the grades in BOP rep hockey she didn't make it beyond the Second X1 at Girls' High. 

Yet in one of those twists sport is renowned for she played for the school at an Australia-New Zealand secondary schools' invitational tournament in Sydney. 

Despite not initially being selected, Jordan was roped into the team when another player was chosen to trial for a national tournament. The dates clashed.

"Mum ended up managing the team. We played at the Olympic stadium. We were the top qualifying New Zealand team, third in the championship."

As well as hockey she represented the school at mountain biking and golf. 

Passion for woodwork

Back in the classroom her passion for woodwork didn't go unnoticed by the head of technology, Conrad Simons.

"In Year 11 he came and said 'Hey Jord, I have this opportunity for you but it means leaving school at the end of this year'.

"It was to go to G&H Trade Training for classroom and practical work before going into the workforce. 

"My parents would have preferred me to stay at school but said 'Okay, if this is what you want to do but you have to take it seriously.' 

"I did. I was the only female student and became the student rep."

Jordan was midway through the course when she made her dance floor job-seeking approach to Graham Barry.

Her life was already hectic. She had a weekend job in builders' hardware at Bunnings.

That had to go when she went on the tools full time at the EEC  and her apprenticeship began.

"It was a real eye opener working on a construction site that had 10 different trades on it." 

Apprenticeship hard yakker

"It took me six years to complete all the components before I could qualify. It was hard work. When you're on construction sites you can spend a lot of time on one [component]. 

"When we moved to the hospital site we were virtually underground for a year. It's not like a house build where you can be in and out in a few months."

During her six years with GB Builders as well as the EEC and hospital sites she constructed kilns at Waipa. That was followed by a lengthy spell at Ohakea erecting helicopter hangars.

She went on to build transportable homes, erect giant-sized concrete panels and do precast concrete work for culverts.

"Graham also owned a concrete panel yard." 

As a young female tradie Jordan denies finding it difficult fitting into such a male dominated workplace. 

"A few guys were a bit cheeky at first but I never really had any issues. If anything they held me back slightly because they wanted to be supportive and help me, but they soon learned I wanted to do things myself." 

Once her time at GB Builders was over and she had her  qualified builder's "ticket"Jordan's CV became a documentation of job variety across the industry.

Not all offered the fun and banter that big construction sites did. There were an unhappy few months doing maintenance work for the then Housing NZ.

"I didn’t like going to houses where the mother was beaten black and blue, there were dirty nappies on the floor, fleas. We were repairing walls damaged in meth-fuelled rampages."

She was, she says, fortunate to land back on her feet with another large Rotorua construction company, Ronaynes. 

Jordan spent four years there and made life-long friends, including her son's godfather, Darcy Hall.

On becoming a teacher

Jordan was offered a job with a privately-owned company teaching carpentry, maths and English to at-risk kids.

"That was a bit of a laugh. When I was at school my parents  invested a lot of money in extra tutoring for me at Kip McGrath.

"Mum visited me in the classroom and pinched me to make sure me being a teacher was for real."

Jordan taught until the business was sold. She went into partnership with long-time friend Jimmy Chesterman.

They called themselves J&J Builders. 

"After 18 months I realised I wasn’t business oriented. I enjoyed the work but I didn’t like coming home and working again [on the paperwork].

"It was at the time Jess and I were considering having another child. 

"I guess I panicked a bit about not having a guaranteed income. I sold the business and got a job with another construction company. It was predominately insurance work."

BCITO offers dream job 

While she still had her business a training job was advertised with BCITO. It was work she'd always hankered after.

"When I was an apprentice I said to my BCITO training advisor I wanted his job one day. He said he didn't think I had what it takes."

Yeah, right to that. 

Although she missed out the first time she applied, when the position became vacant again she threw her hat in the ring.

"The guy who beat me to it the last time came and saw me and said he was leaving, that I should go for it.  

"I discussed it with my trusted advisors until Jess said she was sick of hearing about it."She said 'Just do it'.

"I put my CV in the night before applications closed. I was ecstatic, blown away when I got the job. 

"I've been there seven years. It's my dream job. It's a real opportunity to sink my teeth into an area I'm passionate about. It's a great working environment

"I'm hands off the tools now. BCITO was always my end goal.

"It allows me to focus on the education side and give people the opportunities I've had and help them realise that the industry is a career that offers girls the same opportunities as boys.

"It's done so much for me. I've met many wonderful people. 

"The knowledge you pick up on the journey is not only about building but the life skills that come with it."   

Jordan's happy to have broken the construction industry’s gender-specific mould.

"I'm an independent sort of person. I will go out to get firewood for my family. I cut the tree down then bring it home, split it, stack it. If my chainsaw’s playing up I'll pull it apart myself, have a look on YouTube to see if I'm doing it right, put it back together.

"I'm a classic example that women can do what they want if they put their mind to it."