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Bring Forestry Back to School Curriculum

Prue Younger, CEO Message

Some 20 years ago there was an industry initiative, the Forest Insights Project, developed to promote the forest industry, science, processing, environment, and research to provide resource materials to every school in the country. Some of you may remember them, they took the form of resource boxes for each of five levels of schooling, juniors, standards, intermediate, lower, and upper secondary and were provided free of charge, compliments of the industry. The project was widely sponsored by forestry companies, forest owners, wood industries and FITEC, the ITO predecessor to Competenz and content was prepared by teachers for teachers. Unfortunately, the specific nature of some of the contact points, processes etc dated easily, content did not have an extended life cycle and required regular updating to remain current. Also, hardcopy was in the process of being superseded by online technology. Much of the general forestry content has not dated however but could still provide valuable reference using a great concept. The themes and content could and should be used as a base for programme development however, it is likely that most schools would have disposed of their resource boxes by now.

FICA in conjunction with funding support from the Te Uru Rakau - 1BT Partnership Grant engaged with schools this year to ascertain just how much forestry education was being included in the curriculum these days and how we could appropriate resources to bring it back. The investigation was carried out by a consultant and a final report compiled. As an overview, most high schools tend to be offering options for practically orientated students in Primary Industries, ‘trades’ and Construction without major focus on forestry and those high schools that offer specific forestry training generally have sound industry input to their programmes and a champion within their school. There are no teaching resources available specifically to attract teachers who may want to establish a forestry programme in their school.

It would be ideal to think forestry education and training in High Schools could be used as a recruitment means to employment. What we did find though was that recruitment would be enhanced if careers, entry points, training options, scholarships available and teaching resources were assembled in one place but with clear separation between categories. The discovery learning (‘constructivism’) approach to student learning, put up by Tauhara College has wider application to attract students to forestry (and other sectors). Our observations were there is a wide range of careers, recruitment, and training information available on websites, but this appears to be largely uncoordinated via any single industry agency. Wood Council sites show regional features presented without any standardisation but have the potential to be a focal resource for careers and recruitment. There also could be better organisation and presentation of information on the availability of grants and scholarships. The costs of various agencies creating resources and maintaining websites could be centralised and should be mitigated through some form of coordinated approach. This final report highlights that there has not been much movement in high school forestry training programmes in the last ten years or more. Programmes would do better if they emphasised machines and machine operating as a major skill set which put our learners closer to our change in technology and mechanisation. This offers the opportunity to provide more focus on these skills in addition to the traditional core introductory skills. The wide range of information sources and web sites demands alignment and a process for best presentation and sharing and coordination in these areas would make better uses of funding sources. A singular objective around taking an industry unified approach to linking school learning programmes to forestry recruitment, through courses such as the ‘Generation Programme’, would benefit both industry and jobseekers.

FICA and the industry believe there is intrinsic value in promoting forestry education and training in high schools and through the industry peak body – the new Forest & Wood Processing Workforce Council should advocate a single website administered and maintained by the forest industry which centralises information on recruitment, careers and career paths, entry points to industry, grants and scholarships, types of training, training options and teaching resources for high schools. In addition, it is suggested that a single point of contact exist specifically to receive, and direct enquiries and a single information source be available to clarify information sought by Government agencies. Interface should be maintained with any similar activities taking place in the Primary sector because of the RoVE (Review of Vocational Education). There should be generic curriculum for different forestry options by student years, developed for high schools to use along with up to date resources. Those resources and materials in the INZONE bus, engaged as a travelling billboard for forestry, need to be re-evaluated and aligned periodically to materials presented on the industry site. There is no reason why the Wood Councils cannot be set up as regional focal contacts and engaged via Regional Recruitment Coordinators, to share information with the central industry site in relation to careers, recruitment, scholarships etc. Subject to agreement with NZIF (New Zealand Institute of Forestry), Future Foresters could be contacted to evaluate how industry can best benefit from their inputs nationally with high schools. We discovered from Tauhara High School, Taupo the industry could take the option to evaluate the constructivism model as a promotion medium and consider the support which may be needed if this approach was to be more widely promoted to high schools. Likewise, at Napier Boys High School, they could benefit from being supplied a current training model as a dedicated high school’s resource that could then be offered through other secondary schools.

To avoid reinventing the wheel completely, there is merit in evaluating Forest Insights resources as a base for information for high schools’ programme development. We could even consider the House of Science model of learning with resource boxes allocated for various topics and across different levels of curriculum ie. Primary – Intermediate and Secondary, they have an excellent model operating across twelve different regions in the North Island from Whangarei to Wellington. In rounding up this discussion there is much already available, there is a willingness by the schools to engage with forestry but there needs to be a collective approach and alignment of resources and centralisation of contact.

Let us look across the Tasman and see how they are effectively managing their school curriculum resources, through a great website www.forestlearning.edu.au FORESTLEARNING AUSTRALIA aims to serve schoolteachers and educators, children, and the public with information on Australian forests and forest-based products, and provision and access to forestry teaching resources. It is further supported by links to key government, industry organisations and educational service providers. The site has been built and maintained by a network of forest educators and forestry communication specialists from organisations across Australia known as the Australian Forest Education Alliance (AFEA) All teaching resources are provided free of charge and for teachers to integrate forest education into their teaching programs across a range of key learning areas linked to national and state curriculum's including science, technology, history, geography and mathematics.

Note: Many thanks to the schools and other agencies and individuals who when contacted, contributed freely to the information gathering process and to Greg Steele Education and Training contractor, who worked with FICA in establishing an extensive report on Forestry Education and Training in High Schools and High Schools as a Recruitment Means to Employment. The full report is available on the www.fica.org.nz website.

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