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Mechanic Johan Ferrerra shows students what to look for when servicing a car. From left, Sem Morgan, Elsdon Monk and Owain Roderick-Clarke.
Whangaparāoa School is getting its students career-ready early in life by partaking in workshops at a variety of local businesses in an initiative called A Million Dreams.
After applying for the experiences they are interested in, groups of students from years one to six are given time out of class to visit workplaces and meet industry professionals.
A coaching workshop with Silver Fern Anna Harrison and an AUT millennium experience have been among the workshops so far, with a visit to Two Spoons café in Whangaparaoa and Estuary Arts Centre classes on the way.
Teacher Debbie Thompson says the school’s leader of learning, Jo Kember, came up with the idea following the school’s performing arts enquiry.
“We were astounded by the kids’ variety of talents and decided to start supporting them and their interests outside of school,” Debbie says.
“By applying for what they want, students learn to put themselves out there just like they would for a real job. For our art workshops, students have had to provide a small portfolio of their previous work.”
“They don’t have to decide what they want to do right now, but the school is supporting them by exposing them to things they may not have been aware of otherwise,” she says.
Activities at the workshops vary from hands-on participation to getting to view what happens in “a day in the life of” someone in a particular profession.
In the “mechanic for a morning” workshop at Auto Super Shoppe Carzone last week, the students got to look under hoisted cars, see how tyres are patched up, and learn the basics of how mechanics use iPads to find problems in cars.
An unexpected highlight for the student “apprentices” was picking up small items off the shop floor, and learning from the mechanics what they were and where on the car they came from.
The mechanics say they got something out of the visit, too.
“I was just like them when I was younger,” mechanic Johan Ferrerra says. “I loved working with my hands and figuring out how every piece of the puzzle worked.”
