The Havelock North High School/Heinz Wattie's Link
The industry perspective – Sandra Chambers, Wattie's
Student visit to Heinz Wattie's
There is a desperate shortage of Product Development Manager s throughout the country and Wattie's has a constant need for more in their Hastings-based factories. Product Development Manager Sandra Chambers was part of a team discussing ways Wattie's could help increase the number of students taking Food Technology at school and continuing it at university. They thought their best strategy would be to get into schools where they could talk about Food Technology before students had committed themselves to other careers or subject options. So, in 2006, Wattie's Product Development Manager s started working with three schools in the Hastings area – Havelock North High School, Woodford house and Tamatea High School (later replaced by Karamu High School) – and have since also visited Hasting Girls' High School to talk to students about their jobs.
Sandra says that when she and Rachel first started working with the Havelock North High School class, they were very much finding their way. It took a little time to establish the ways in which they could help, particularly in establishing the knowledge that Kate needed, for her own understanding and to pass on to her class.
The work with the 2006 class was so successful, Kate asked that Heinz Wattie's be a client again in 2007. Aware of the value of the link to the school, and loathe to ask too much of one individual Product Development Manager, they asked that perhaps another technologist be used. Jayne Glasson volunteered to work with the class, with even greater success than the previous year as Kate now had the knowledge she needed to make the most of the link. This was evident in such things as improved questioning from students, who had been better prepared for industry visits.
Rachel and Jayne have confirmed that this aspect was one of the most important benefits of their work with schools – improving teacher understanding of what happens in the industry and in development of a product. "If, long term, we can increase teachers' knowledge of what happens in industry, it would make it easier for everyone. Teachers are needed as the intermediaries – people who understand both the education and industry sectors.”
Sandra praised the school in its handling of the link, and how requests for time were kept realistic and always with the option of refusal. She says the cost of the link to Wattie's has not been big – a school visit once or twice a month for an hour, and the donation of some inexpensive ingredients.
While the link was made for pragmatic reasons – the company's need for more Product Development Managers – there is also a 'feel good' factor for staff working with schools. Sandra says they get a real 'buzz' from the relationship and feel they're achieving something with teaching the students. "It's a motivating thing, to feel that we're imparting some of what we know and hopefully inspiring students to follow that career path.”
She also says that, despite the initial difficulty in finding someone able to commit some time to it, the link can be sustainable, and that, as long as Heinz Wattie's can keep on finding young Product Development Managers to volunteer, they would like to roll out the initiative to more schools.
