Students dig deep to get results   4 Sep 2015

Steven Joyce, Simon Bridges

4 SEPTEMBER, 2015

Students dig deep to get results

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Transport Minister Simon Bridges have today congratulated students from Rutherford College and Green Bay High School for winning the Waterview Connection Schools Challenge.

Over the past three months 2,592 Year 10 students from across Auckland have been learning about engineering careers by taking part in the challenge about the Waterview Connection, one of New Zealand’s most complex roading projects and one of the most important infrastructure developments ever to take place in New Zealand.

Today 45 of those students from 15 schools gathered at the site to assemble a scale model of a section of the Waterview Tunnel and to solve engineering puzzles. In the lead up to the event, schools took part in activities including presentations by engineers through the Futureintech Ambassador programme, Waterview virtual field trip facilitated by LEARNZ (CORE Education), visits to engineering departments across five tertiary providers and workplace visits.

‘The Waterview Connection: A Learning Pathways Challenge’ programme is a cross agency initiative sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the Tertiary Education Commission and was supported by the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Well-Connected Alliance, which is constructing the Waterview Connection. It aims to support students when they are considering subject selection post-secondary school.

“I am truly impressed by the skill levels these students demonstrated. It’s encouraging to see schools, students, industry and tertiary all working together on this programme. These are the types of opportunities that provide an ideal context for learning and decision making about career pathways. I hope that these students have been - and will continue to be - motivated by this experience,” says Mr Joyce.

“This project will encourage engineering as a career option. In Budget 2015 the Government committed $11.4 million over four years to increase the number of engineering graduates, including $5.2 million for more engineering places, and funding for activities to raise the profile of engineering and support more people to become engineers.” Mr Joyce says.

Mr Bridges says engineers make an important contribution to New Zealand’s future.

“Since becoming Transport Minister almost a year ago, I’ve met hundreds of people working in this industry and am constantly impressed by their skills and attributes. Not only that, but they’re playing a key role in helping build infrastructure that will grow New Zealand’s economic and social success.

“Engineering is an exciting industry which allows us to compete on the world stage. The challenge is that we need to be producing significantly more engineers to meet industry demand today and in the future,” he says.

Rutherford College won the tunnel building challenge, while Green Bay High School won the challenge to create a power point or video.

The winners of the Tunnel Building Challenge won a SkyWalk around the Auckland Sky Tower, a Harbour Bridge walk and a piece of the tunnel boring Machine Alice’s tooth. The school that won the presentation received a $3000 technology grant and also a piece of Alice’s tooth.

Pictures of the event are attached.

Related Documents

• Waterview 1 (JPG 81.91 KB)

• Waterview 2 (JPG 107.12 KB)

• Waterview 3 (PNG 270.33 KB)

• Minister Joyce with Green Bay students (JPG 3.31 MB)

• Minister Joyce with Rutherford Students (JPG 4.33 MB)

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