St Paul’s Headmaster Grant Lander announced the School’s plans to launch an innovative Centre of Excellence in Agricultural Science and Business at an address to key agricultural leaders during the Waikato/BOP Young Farmers Regional final.
St Paul’s Collegiate School will introduce their Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Science and Business into its curriculum by 2014. The school aims to build a vocational pathway that includes NCEA and ITO accreditation to attract top quality students to the agricultural sector. The curriculum will include areas such as Applied Science, Information Technology, Economics and Agri Business.
“Many schools in New Zealand run academies for their sportsmen or top musicians but there are few secondary institutions providing an academy that produces top quality graduates who meet the needs of the agricultural industry,” says Grant Lander, Headmaster at St Paul’s Collegiate School.
“We want to be a school that promotes and grows the talent, skills and abilities that enables our young people to be much more marketable for the large number of careers in Agriculture Business,” says Mr Lander.
For the first time last year St Paul’s introduced Agriculture as a subject for Year 11 and Year 12 students as a way to determine the level of interest within the school. The large uptake has shown there is considerable student interest in this initiative. St Paul’s expects Agricultural Science and Business to become a significant curriculum area within their school.
At a school where 55% of its boarders and 18% of its day students are from the rural farming community, the Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Science and Business not only addresses a market demand, it is also closely aligned to the original purpose of St Paul’s defined by its Founders; the need to help children of rural families to have a place to learn, grow and excel.
Jacqueline Rowarth, professor in Agribusiness at Waikato University says that farms are multi-million dollar businesses.
“New Zealand’s agricultural industry forms the backbone of our economy. Bright young people have tremendous opportunity here to contribute and develop their careers. Despite all Jim Anderton’s urging we are still not recruiting enough people to really make the most of New Zealand’s potential. This initiative at St Paul’s is terrific for the country as well as for the young people who see the light and get involved,” says Professor Rowarth.
St Paul’s Collegiate will link with tertiary providers, business and the community to gain input and on-going partnerships to enable the development of a credible and sustainable Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Science and Business. Key industry players in the rural sector will be invited to form an advisory group to ensure the programme is developed to meet genuine industry needs and tertiary requirements.
