The Wanganui City College/Rob O'Keeffe Joinery Ltd Link
The teacher's perspective – Chris Donaldson
For a number of years, Chris's Year 12 graphics class have done a major project designing an item of furniture, within which work on design history is incorporated, from which they could gain over half of their years' NCEA credits.
For this unit, Chris was determined to find a local joiner willing to act as a client, to provide for the students an element of realism in their work, and increase their motivation to do well. He had had recent experience of the value of such industry links – in 2006 he had a class working on a sign-writing project with a local catering company and found the level of student motivation was very high, to the point where there was direct competition between one design and another among a group of students.
After unsuccessfully approaching a number of local companies, he finally contacted Wanganui Incorporated (WINC), the business development arm of the Wanganui City Council. This resulted in the link with Rob O'Keeffe Joinery.
Chris visited the factory to discuss how Rob could be of help to the students. It was agreed that the students would design an item of furniture that Rob O'Keeffe Joinery could manufacture for sale. Rob would act as client to the students, and advise them on aspects of design and suitability for manufacture.
In terms of outcomes, the link is a critical one, with the potential to produce a marked increase in the quality of the students project work, something Chris puts down to the benefits of having professional feedback – both technically and in the fact that a professional is seen to be taking each project seriously.
"There's no point in the student producing something just because the teacher told them to. If you can get the student to see real value in doing it, then there's a personal commitment there and the motivation to produce a quality outcome. Manageability for the teacher then becomes so much easier.”
"Students will listen to what someone actually working in industry is saying. We teachers can tell them until we're blue in the face what its like out there, but they won't buy into it. It needs someone from outside to say, 'Hey this is what you've got to be able to do, these are the attributes we're looking for in a young person, this is what's needed if you're going to succeed in our industry'.”
Chris also sees real benefits to teachers and the people from industry in maintaining these links "I'm a relatively young teacher with a reasonably diverse background in industrial experience, but industry has changed a lot in the last 15 years or so. Working with these companies gives me the opportunity to become much more aware of how things are developing out there in industry.”
"I can also see some benefits to Rob in working with the students. Students are excited about providing him with a range of design ideas. They know they won't be making a million dollars from it, but they can see real purpose in what they are doing. They have provided a pool of concepts which may give him a few ideas for work he does with his clients.”
With plenty of experience of the frustrations experienced in making the right links in the first place, Chris is well aware of the importance of working to maintain the effectiveness of the links once established. "People from industry who are coming into school are very busy, so you've got to work to make it as easy as possible for them. It's all about maintaining contact.”
Industry visits can be problematic, he says. Schools are stringent about procedures to minimise risks to students and there is a need for a good deal of advance planning and a high level of documentation. "But if there is a will on both sides to make things work then the links can be managed effectively.”
Chris is confident that these sorts of links between school technology programmes and local enterprises can be sustained and that the easier it is for teachers to make the links the more will do so, and come to appreciate their relevance and value. In his case he saw a fellow teacher at the school forming a link with the local Kindergarten.
"I saw how enterprising that was and I could see from then on it that it was the only way to go.”
He is sure that the type of brokering provided by Wanganui Incorporated would encourage more teachers to become involved.
"Teachers will very quickly realise the potential of these types of community-linked or client-based projects in terms of improving outcomes for the kids. And that's what we're all here for – to get the best outcome for the kids in terms of qualification success, the finished quality of what they produce and their own personal development and self confidence.”
