The Wanganui City College/Rob O'Keeffe Joinery Ltd Link

Chris Donaldson is the HOD Technology and Graphics at Wanganui City College, a Year 9-13 co-educational secondary school situated in central Wanganui.

In 2007, Chris established working links between his graphics and technology programmes and two local companies – Rob O'Keeffe Joinery Ltd and The Axiam Group, a comprehensive manufacturer of high-tech, high-value componentry.

The link with Rob O'Keeffe Joinery Ltd was important for the teacher and the senior graphics class – this was a major design project that would benefit greatly from an industry perspective. It comprised the engagement of joiner Rob O'Keeffe as a client, to give students both technical feedback and a client's perspective, from both a customer's and a tradesman's perspective – to say 'Yes that will work, it can be easily made' or 'No, that's not that practical' – and to give ongoing advice and support.

Rob saw the link as an opportunity to share the positive aspects of his work with students, and, by extension, to show soon-to-be school-leavers the benefits of a career in his industry.

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.”

The principal's perspective – Brian Woolhouse

Relevence/value

"From my perspective, I've become increasingly aware of the need to cater for a large number of our students by thinking outside the formal academic structure. Developing links with our local polytechnics and the business community and determining and developing the skills required for our students to succeed in those links, are critical. Any links are going to be of benefit to our students, many of whom, after all, are inevitably going on to tertiary study and/or work in industry, local or otherwise.”

 "We talk a lot to our students about being good citizens – about being reliable, about being able to get on with people, about having the basic skills and general knowledge that will help them bridge that gap between school and employment. And by linking the classroom programmes to the community, students come to recognise just how much the community values those attributes – it reinforces what we are telling them in school.”

 "From our school's perspective these links not only open up opportunities for our students, but also change the approach that our teachers have as well. That's one of the things that will be critical in the future. The curriculum needs to be opened up and expanded, and what better way than to link with local businesses and enterprises to make the curriculum much more relevant for our students.”

Manageability

"It's becoming increasingly difficult to manage the range of links involved across the school. We've become heavily involved in programmes such as 'Gateway' and 'Transition to work' and there is a cost – in terms of student time and in terms of continuity of lessons within the school. To ensure the continuity of our teaching programmes we have looked at strategies such as restricting the release of students for such extra-classroom activities to two specified days a week, so that the rest of the teaching programme can continue smoothly and the students can build up their NCEA credits. But again, we've got to balance that."

"I think there are other things that need to be addressed as well. We need to step away from our formal 9am-3pm curriculum, and start to expand that so that students go to these businesses from 3pm to 5pm, say, or maybe on a Saturday. But again, we've got balance that –  with sport, with culture, with outdoor education. And I believe it is possible to achieve that balance.”

Sustainability

"In schools we are becoming much clearer about our processes and our expected outcomes, and how to report those outcomes so that they are meaningful and justifiable in terms of the extra time and effort required. In classroom programmes where we are making these links we stress the need to clearly identify the objectives, the main methods of delivery, the signposts and evaluation processes so that we can be sure that what we are involved in doing is actually adding value to our students.”

"Local groups like Wanganui Incorporated have an important brokering role for these links. There must be many businesses gems in Wanganui that we're largely unaware of in schools, companies that could in fact be linking with us. I can think of the big companies, but there are other little businesses out there where good innovative work is being done that our students could benefit from, and finding them will take some of the load off the larger companies.”

The industry perspective – Rob O'Keeffe

When Chris approached him, Rob was happy to help out. Not only was he impressed with what Chris was doing in his courses, but Rob also has an interest in supporting young people who are just about to move out from school and into the workforce or tertiary education.

"With young people, it's a case of being able to talk to them and know that I can convey to them what I want to say, and leaving with a feeling that they've listened and taken it in it in a way that I've wanted them to.”

Rob was keen to talk to students about some of the things that he was doing and show them a side of the business of which they might not be aware.

"We're always looking for apprentices and, believe it or not, its extremely hard to find apprentices these days. Kids need to know that they don't necessarily have to head straight into tertiary study. There are good employment opportunities out in the community and tradesmen don't drive round in beat-up old vans anymore – these days we can make an income in our business that would be the equal of many professions.”

"In the past we've had schools say to us that a particular kid's not doing too well at school, and he'd make a brilliant tradesman. Well that's dead wrong – we actually don't need that sort of kid."

"We've got a new machine in here worth $50 000. It's computer controlled, with a digital readout. You can't risk putting a kid who hasn't been acting responsibly at school on a machine like that. You need someone who has shown that they can put an effort into things and think about what they're doing. Which doesn't mean that they have to be a rocket scientist to have those attributes. But we have found that the apprentices we've had who've done well at school have generally done better as apprentices.”

"So it's a good opportunity to share information on new materials and new techniques and how things are changing in the traditional trades.”

Rob also sees links with schools as an opportunity to showcase what his business does. "In business, we're always trying to sell ourselves so it gives another opportunity to meet another group of people and tell them about what we do. To make them more aware of the joinery industry and the type of business we're running here.”

Rob points out the obvious difficulties that all small businesses have in working with schools in this way. "I'm not too sure that we could do much more really. The most valuable commodity that we've got is our time and so the only way we could be more helpful would be to give more time - and realistically, that's one thing a small business doesn't have that much of.”

Rob believes that these sort of links can and should be maintained, and that schools can help by making it as easy as possible for the business and, "making sure that the students we are working with are receptive to what we are saying .. and that its not just another part of the course they have to do to get a pass.”