The St John's College / RML Automation Link

In 2006, St John's College teacher Steve Andrew established a number of links with a range of industries in the Hamilton area for his senior technology classes. With only six students in his Year 13 class, Steve had decided to match each student to a different local industry to provide individual mentoring for their year-long major technology project.

"I wanted students to go out into the community and become more aware of what's happening – to give them a better idea of what they could do when they left school, and also to reinforce that what we were doing in school was pretty close to what's happening in industry these days.”

In setting up these links, Steve was fortunate to have access to brokering help from WECA, the Waikato Engineering Careers Association. WECA works with secondary schools, raising awareness of mechanical engineering careers with teachers, career advisors and students. Students are given opportunities to visit the workplaces of WECA members, to understand roles and working environments.

The links formed for this class were highly successful, for the students and for the industries involved. They have since continued and expanded in 2007, using a different format for the Year 13 Technology programme because of substantial increase in student numbers, and now also involve both his Year 12 and Year 11 classes.

The teacher's perspective – Steve Andrew

Steve was initially apprehensive about approaching industries himself and was glad of the WECA help. "My initial WECA contact person was amazingly supportive – she understood what was going on in schools and what I was hoping to do. Between the two us we soon fixed up initial contact between individual students and industries.”

Steve got the students to do up a CV and folio, and then went with each to their first meeting with the industry link contact where the students presented their folios and explained what they had been doing in their technology programme. Because of the small size of the class, these meetings could be comfortably fitted in over a three-week period.

Steve planned things so that, from then on, students took individual responsibility for managing their own link, organising the times of the visits around school and industry commitments. This left Steve free to monitor the effectiveness of the contact.

Although Steve knew what he wanted the get out of the contact he did not realise just how much value would come from the links during the process. "I wanted the boys to have somebody other than me to sit down and talk to about their project – somebody from outside the school that would understand what they were doing and who would listen and offer additional advice and guidance. It turned out that, by doing this, they weren't just learning the technical stuff, but also all the inter-personal and self-management skills that go with such interaction. I hadn't really considered that when I set things up.”

Steve, himself, has also benefited from the links. "When you come into teaching from industry as I did, for four or five years you still have those links that you can use. But they slowly drop away as you focus more on the teaching environment. It's important to keep them going. Through these links, I've got a broader knowledge of the local industrial climate and a willing pool of local resource people to tap into when we need help. It has also shown me that what we are doing in school is pretty close to what's going on in industry. We're not teaching kids specifically to be fitters and turners or plastics engineers – we're teaching them in such a way that they can be any of those if they want to be.”

Steve sees the arrangement as being of genuine benefit to industry as well. Having contact with these industries gives the students a greater awareness of the working environment and a better realisation of what they can do when they leave school and where they can go.

"A number of school-leavers do a polytechnic course or to university simply because they're not aware of other options. Now I can say to them, 'do you realise that these industries will take you on and train you – you can actually start earning from the time you sign on, and they will train you and put you through the qualifications'.”

Steve is now approached by the industries to identify likely students when opportunities open up for employment and he is happy to assist, confident that the students will be getting a high level of technical training, advice and guidance in the industrial setting.

"These companies are the industry leaders in this region, and they are prepared to spend time with the students because they can see the importance of it.”

He also sees it as an opportunity for the industries to keep in contact with what's going on in schools and in particular to "give them an understanding of the technology curriculum and what it can do for them.”

Through taking the time to set up the links properly, Steve is confident that they are both manageable and sustainable. "If things are set up professionally and properly in the first place, then keeping them going isn't a problem. Then you've got a real two way situation, and whenever there is a need for contact it can be easily made.”

"A lot of good things start with a hiss and a roar and then they just fizzle out. We need to make sure that doesn't happen here. They won't fizzle out from the industry side – it'll be from the school side. It'll just seem too difficult and time-consuming when sometimes all that it really needs is making time to have a bit of a chat. Even if I'm not working with a particular industry at the moment, I've learnt to make time to phone every now and then to let them know how things are going here at school.”

"One of the things I'm conscious of is not losing contact. If you want the link to be sustainable you have to be prepared to put the time into working to keep the channels of communication open. A five-minute phone call or a quick email solves a lot of problems."

At the end of the first year Steve invited the industry mentors and WECA contacts for an afternoon tea at the school, where the students could talk to the group about their project and the importance of their link with the industry. At that meeting Steve expressed concern that the link may have been taking too much time from the industry side and was surprised and delighted to find that this wasn't seen by them to be an issue.

"This was a really valuable feedback session and for me it provided closure for that year – the opportunity to show how much we had got out of it and to say 'thank you very much'. That tidied things up very well.”

A much larger Year 13 class in 2007 forced a change in the format of the links, with the mentors now coming into school to talk with groups of students on specific issues.

"I knew the range of skills covered by our mentors and now ask a specific person to come and talk about a particular thing. All the mentors have been more than willing to work that way. And when I've had a student with a problem, I know who I can phone and ask to talk it through and help out. And when I do, they just say 'bring him down'.”

Now the links are well established they are easily manageable, he says. There is a high level of trust, with both sides working to ensure the maximum benefit to the students.

The industry perspective

For the industry perspective on the St John's College links, this case study focusses on RML Automation, who worked with Year 13 student Matthew Baird on his project to design and create a hand-held mechanical 'grabber'. Matthew had identified that the available grabbers were expensive, not robust enough and also could be improved in their ability to do delicate tasks.

RML Automation is a New Zealand company with over 25 years' experience in designing and manufacturing end-of-line automated machinery for a wide range of local, regional and global industries. The original link with St John's College came about through WECA, of which RML was a member. The company wanted to work with students of a particular quality and a particular area of expertise – a profile that fitted many of the students in teacher Steve Andrew's Year 13 Technology class at St John's College in Hamilton. Director, Peter Botting was made aware of Matthew Baird's Year 13 technology project.

"We wanted to get students to come on site and be involved wherever possible so they would get a real feel for what the industry is all about,” says RML Director Peter Botting. "We found out what Matthew was looking to do and the most logical thing was for us to get involved from the beginning of his project work - that would give him the opportunity to get a good look at our industry.”

"We could see that Matthew was a high-calibre student, just the sort we're looking for. He showed me what he'd done in his previous years work. He took me through his whole portfolio and I was staggered to find that in Years 12 and 13 they were doing exactly what we do as a business – but doing it very much 'by hand'. We had the opportunity to show him how it was done in the real commercial world. That's why I wanted to get involved with him right from the beginning - to show him how we do it so he could match that to his situation.”

While RML weren't involved much with Matthew's stakeholder interaction, they put at his disposal the wide range of expertise available in the company, so he could work with them on all components of his project. "Firstly we offered expertise in project management and showed him to how we do it. We provided him with the forum for his design reviews and to brainstorm his ideas – which I think was really valuable. Then he sat down with one of our designers to draw it all up. We helped him plan his time and the processes required to develop a successful outcome for Tony, his client.”

As part of his project work, Matthew did a case study of RML's design and manufacture of a stacking machine commissioned by Nestlé Ice Cream in Melbourne, which he presented as part of the evidence required for assessment against the Level 3 technology achievement standard AS 90686 – Explain knowledge that underpins a Materials Technology outcome.

Working with Steve Andrew and the Year 13 students at St John's has provided Peter and his staff with a unique opportunity. "It's given us exposure to the school system more than anything. We probably wouldn't get that in our ordinary course of business, so we've been able to link back into the community that we use as a feeder. For me personally, running a business like this and getting to know what the schools are doing is great.”

Peter points to the real shortage of students who want to work in the manufacturing industry in NZ at the moment. He considers the best chance of increasing the numbers is in getting them involved at an early stage.

"As a business, we'd hope that the students may like what they see and come back here to work. For a student like Matthew, that'll be when he gets his degree. Also that the schools will be promoting our industry a bit more positively to high calibre students than they may have done in the past.”

"We're not alone in wanting to get more young people seeing what's involved in the industry. It's not an old fashioned workshop any more - its got much more depth to it and there are many more opportunities for bright students to get involved. So we'd be hoping there would be some longer term benefits for us in that way.”

"And there's also the fact that these links are one of the few ways available for a company like ours to give something back. It's a way to support our community.”

Peter puts down the success of this link to three key components – a good teacher, a good student with the right attitude and a company open and willing to help.

"You need a good teacher, or coach or whatever way you describe his role – someone who believes in the value of what they are doing. The key person is the teacher – if they have incentive, they'll go out and make the right links. But I do appreciate that some of them may be a bit nervous about making a first approach and having some form of broker could help."

"You also need a student who wants to get the maximum benefit out of the project – they have to be self motivated and willing to learn. If students just want someone else to do the hard bits for them, then it won't work.”

"I guess the success we had is in part due to our openness as a company as well. Our door was always open, because Matthew wanted to get so involved. But as a company you've got to be prepared to put in the effort if the student is to get maximum benefit from it.”

As well as the obvious assistance with the development of a high quality outcome Peter also feels that Matthew has gained hugely from the exposure to his staff. "They're all skilled people – either trade or university qualified - who are passionate about what they're doing, so he'll have seen a different side to the manufacturing industry.”

Having talked enthusiastically and positive about the relevance and value of the links Peter concedes that there are difficulties on the industry side in maintaining them. "The difficulties are mainly around timing. There are times when we're really busy, with a number of complex projects on the go – and that coincides with a point when the students want to come on site and get our input into what they're doing. That's quite difficult to manage because they're constrained by the school day, whereas we're constrained by the workloads - so that can be a bit tricky.”

Looking at ways to improve the effectiveness of the links Peter points to the advantages of knowing well in advance of projects which would benefit from his support – so that they can plan ahead to help avoid some of the inevitable time pressures. But he says, "It's hard for us, because our priority as a company is to get our manufacturing jobs completed and it's hard to go looking for more involvement while you're trying to do that.”

He agrees that having greater opportunities for brokering of links might help with some of the initial communication problems, but still points to the motivation of the people involved being the key factor.

Peter is certain that these types of links are sustainable and is confident that when an appropriate project next pops up at St John's then Steve will be comfortable in approaching RML again for assistance.