Work experience for teachers

Auckland Girls Grammar career advisor Maggie Hames (left) in discussion with Year 12 students Elizabeth Taka and Lucinda Maasi (right). Photo / Jason Oxenham.

Hundreds of teachers will take a break from the classroom today to visit the type of workplaces that their students could end up in.

Teachers' Workchoice Day runs in Auckland and Christchurch and aims to help give teachers the knowledge and confidence to become career advisors to their students.

Participants will attend morning conference-style sessions where business leaders from organisations including Trade Me and Vodafone will talk about what kind of talent they look for and recruitment trends.

Later in the day teachers will visit an industry of their choosing, including companies such as Fletcher Construction and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.

The day is the first after running as a pilot last year, and aims to reduce youth unemployment.

Maggie Hames, careers advisor for Auckland Girls' Grammar School, took part in the pilot together with five teachers from her school.

While students were often encouraged to visit the industries they were considering, it was equally important for teachers to have such an insight, Ms Hames said.

"Teachers are meeting our students on a daily basis, and they have a lot of influence to encourage or suggest ideas for students that maybe they hadn't thought of, because there's so much choice now.

"Teachers have come from a fairly traditional progression, so I think it really is something that they value and feel that they are much more in touch with what's going on."

Ms Hames, a trustee at the event organiser and charity Workchoice Trust, visited Parnell-based LanzaTech, who are developing gas-to-liquid technology to make low-carbon chemicals and fuels that displace petroleum.

Today a media teacher from her school will visit The Edge radiostation, a science teacher a health provider, another to Vodafone and a geography teacher to Contact Energy.

Ms Hames said a particular strength of the day was a focus on apprenticeship pathways for students, which she felt some teachers could be more aware of.

Demand for trained tradespeople is set to rise by an average 3 per cent per annum for the next five years.

"I think secondary schools have been so focussed on university, because that's the experience of the teachers and what often parents are encouraging too, but in many ways...these apprenticeships are really the way to go."

Today's initiative is organised by Workchoice Trust in conjunction with industry training organisation The Skills Organisation.

• Staff from 48 schools will today visit workplaces to gain an insight into the careers their students may wish to pursue.

• Teachers' Workchoice Day aims to reduce youth unemployment.