Adventure tourism pioneers AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand has come up with a novel way of attracting young people to the tourism sector.
The company has launched two new business studies achievement standard resources for secondary school students in a move designed to appeal to quality talent and raise the profile of tourism in secondary schools.
Currently being piloted in four schools around the country and now available to all secondary schools, the two new business studies resources, one in HR and the other in marketing, both with a Bungy twist, are Level 3 Achievement Standards.
Developed by AJ Hackett Bungy NZ in conjunction with tourism and education specialists Lesley Immink, Cherie Freeman and Sandi Eickhoff, the standards include credits that count towards University Entrance and sit within Business Studies, making them available to Business and Commerce students, as well as Tourism. The HR paper analyses a ‘human resource issue affecting business’ and the marketing paper asks students to ‘develop a marketing plan for a new or existing product’.
Bungy co-founder and managing director Henry van Asch says the development of the resources is outside the company’s usual offering but is something the team feels passionate about.
"Choosing a career in tourism isn’t just cool, it’s smart business and we wanted to show young people the diversity of our exciting industry," he says.
"With industry figures predicting a people shortage, we were looking for ways to attract students into the industry and showcase the wide range of jobs available, at all levels."
The new resources include real-life HR and marketing examples from Bungy designed to give students and teachers a better understanding of the industry and real business.
Currently tourism employs more than 230,000 people (8.4 per cent of the workforce) in New Zealand, with an additional 168,000-plus indirectly employed. Recent figures from Tourism Industry Aotearoa reveal an extra 36,000 full-time equivalent workers are required to service the industry by 2025. Many of these roles will be high level positions.
The resources can be purchased online through education distribution company Ratfink – which has produced numerous teaching resources for New Zealand schools.
