The Havelock North High School/Heinz Wattie's Link

The Wattie's/ Havelock North High School link was doubly inspired. The school's Technology department was searching for a Food Technologist to work with a Year 13 class. At the same time, Wattie's was concerned at the growing shortage of Food Technologists in New Zealand and was looking at ways to promote the career to students in schools. A mutually beneficial connection was made through the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST) and Futureintech.

In this link, Wattie's Product Development Manager, Sandra Chambers and Food Technologist, Rachel Johns acted as client and stakeholder for students in teacher Kate McLennan's Year 13 Food Technology class. The class was required to develop a product using excess fruit (plums and berries). They were required to follow the product development process to come up with a new product formulation. Students observed the technological process during an initial visit to the Wattie's factory. Sandra and Rachel visited the school at various times to talk with the students, and mentor them through the product development process. When the students had each developed a new product formulation, Sandra and Rachel selected the most suitable product to be made in the factory. This new jam product was then produced in the pilot plant by the whole class.

The teachers' perspective

Teachers in Havelock North High School's Technology department had previously established a range of community links, both formally and informally. "I'm very good at leaping on people and saying: 'I think we could use you,'” says Co-HOD Carol Rimmer. When a student teacher brought her food technologist sister along to the school Open Day, Carol discussed the possibility of having a food technologist work with the school. This led to a meeting with NZIFST and subsequently talking to a group of 18 food technologists about how they could be used in schools.

This relationship extended to making a formal link with Futureintech , which trains young technologists to work as Futureintech Ambassadors in schools. When these two organisations started looking for food technologists to work with Havelock North High School, their planning came together with that of the Wattie's team. Carol has been encouraged by the appointment of Futureintech Facilitator , Jenny Dee, for the Hawke's Bay region and notes that, "the industry/school links have now become much easier to manage."

Kate found the experience of working with the Wattie's food technologists invaluable for both herself and her students. She found that her class took their work more seriously because they were working for a client outside school. Having their jam produced at Wattie's pilot plant was a great end to the project.

Carol says the gains to the students of such a connection are immense: "They pick up a lot of knowledge and build up more confidence in their own work. A good example is the student who, having experienced with an industry link, then had the knowledge and self-assurance to approach people she'd never met to get code of practice information she required for her work.”

"The department wants to bring technologists' expertise into the classroom because people teaching any of the technologies in schools are teachers, not necessarily technologists, and there is a difference. Bringing technologists in and showing them what the department is doing, and getting students out into industry enriches the whole programme and makes it more authentic for everyone. It also raises both teacher and student awareness of future careers in a particular technology area.

"The fact that we are working with industry links in the classroom also helps make the community more aware about the depth of work going on in schools, and how far education has moved since they were last in the classroom themselves."

"When requesting a link, it is important to make personal contact to arrange a meeting rather than write a letter, and, when meeting, to make the most expedient use of that time. We are very aware of the fact that time is money in industry, particularly when we are working with very small businesses, and try not to put pressure on an industry contact for time they are not happy to give. When making arrangements for a visit, our teachers try to be as efficient as possible: organising and collating class questions, sharing information and photos on the intranet rather than having each student do their own thing."

"However, if the industry is acting as a client, individual feedback is usually required, and that can be time-consuming. Students may send a fax or email where they need the response by the next lesson but often don't get it. The student's logical process then gets out of order, because they need that answer to go down a particular pathway. They may have to try another direction until they can go back to that original one.”

"We have our time constraints that limit the number of links the school can sustain. Because of this we have kept industry relationships to our Year 12 and 13 classes. There are so many technology classes (five at Level 1) that if industry links were brought in at each level, a teacher with Level 1-3 classes would have a tremendous amount of management on top of their daily routine.”

The industry perspective – Sandra Chambers, 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.”