Students Get a Taste for Tourism at new Gateway Camps

15 July 2011

Students Get a Taste for Tourism at new Gateway Camps

An innovative new partnership is helping school students from Auckland and Northland gain hands on experience in the tourism industry.

ATTTO (the industry training organisation for aviation, travel and tourism) has worked with new Maori tourism venture Te Hana Te Ao Marama to launch New Zealand’s first Tourism Gateway Camps.

Forty Year 12 students from 18 Auckland and Northland schools will participate in the project’s first week-long camp, which begins on Sunday 16 July with a powhiri at Te Hana, just north of Wellsford. Forty Year 13 students will take part the week after.

As an extension of ATTTO’s Tourism Gateway programme, these camps will give students a taste of what it’s like to be on a working marae with a Maori tourism focus, while they complete NZQA unit standards in tourism.

ATTTO Chief Executive Elizabeth Valentine says this is an exciting partnership that will help students gain a real understanding of tourism in a rich Maori culture setting.

During the camps the students will experience a working marae and take part in activities such as carving, weaving and visits to Tane Mahuta and Paihia/Russell.

“This is a model we plan to role out into other selected regions, working with marae and Maori tourism operators to help them shape and support the next generation of tourism employees,” says Ms Valentine.

“As well as providing a unique learning experience for students, this programme will help businesses like Te Hana up-skill their own staff and build capability.”

Ms Valentine says ATTTO will work with the host organisations to mentor their staff so they are well equipped to run future camps independently and gain skills that will help them train and up-skill their own teams.

A camp at Maraehako Bay in the Western Bay of Plenty is also scheduled for these school holidays.

Gateway programmes are funded by the Tertiary Education Commission and designed to provide structured vocational learning in a real workplace, while students continue to study usual school subjects at school. ATTTO works with schools nationwide to offer Gateway programmes for tourism, travel and aviation.

“It can be a challenge for schools to find suitable work placements for Gateway students. These camps are an ideal solution,” says Ms Valentine.

ENDS

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