Our series of Inspiring Food and Fibre Futures in Schools events is off to an exciting start and is heading to Auckland next.
In late September, students from Haeata Community Campus in Christchurch took day trips to Orton Bradley Park and National Trades Academy. There, they met role models from a range of food and fibre jobs, including an arborist, a quarantine officer, a forestry field services advisor, and a waste minimisation consultant.
They all took part in Inspiring the Future events, which included guessing the role models’ jobs, discussing their career pathways in the food and fibre sector in small groups, and a question and answer session.
Students also had the opportunity to get stuck into some on-farm activities. They set up portable sheep yards, rounded up sheep, handled lambs, took a guided walk around the farm, and watched highly trained dogs herd sheep.
When asked for a quick ‘five finger’ evaluation, around 80 percent of the students gave the experience a full five fingers, indicating ‘outstanding’.
A Haeata Community Campus teacher told us, “The students enjoyed finding out about different career pathways and opportunities and talked about it afterwards. The hands-on aspect was well suited to the experience and helped to spark some different interests.”
“It was great seeing how engaged the students were,” says Islay Gould, Inspiring the Future School Engagement Coordinator. “They really enjoyed learning about a day in the life of the amazing role models who talked about their jobs, what they love about their work, and why the food and fibre sectors are so vital.”
Calling food and fibre role models in Auckland
More events are coming to Auckland in November – hosted at Donald’s Farm, Whitford. We’re on the lookout for people who work in the food and fibre sectors to be role models for these. If you’re interested, you can find out more and express your interest using this form.
Inspiring Food and Fibre Futures in Schools is a collaboration between NZ Young Farmers, Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), Tertiary Education Commission and GoHort. The aim is to help show young people the range of exciting work in our food and fibre sectors.