Digital design course for high school in 2013

Manurewa High School and Yoobee School of Design have struck up an innovative partnership that will see a foundation digital design course for students at the high school next year.

The Christchurch-based design school says it's keen to broaden its reach to Maori and Pacific Island communities. Students who graduate from the iCreate course will be one step closer to a higher level diploma. The initiative also supports the Government's Better Public Service programme.

Enrolled students will study one and a half days a week over 35 weeks for the NZQA-approved level 3 Certificate. Courses will be taught at the high school's Manurewa campus.

Manurewa High is a decile 2 secondary school with 1900 students - 75 per cent of whom are Maori and Pacific Islanders.

"Yoobee is giving Manurewa students a unique opportunity to explore all elements of design, illuminating the exciting career pathway options available in the field, and enabling them to accelerate their design career," says Ruth Cooper, general manager of education at Yoobee.

iCreate is a foundation programme that connects creativity with digital technology. Using still and video cameras and computers, students produce a wide range of original art that combines traditional and digital media.

They learn digital illustration techniques as well as creating images and pages suitable for web publication, how to capture and edit video, and how to create and animate 2D and 3D objects.

The course normally costs $1035 for domestic students, but fees have been waived for the Manurewa High programme.

"The partnership with Yoobee brings cutting-edge technical training to Manurewa students," says Sam Evanson, head of technology at Manurewa High. "We believe this innovative public-private sector partnership will help prepare and encourage our students to pursue further tertiary education in fields with high demand for skilled knowledge workers."