Education/industry partnerships: working together for mutual gain

Abstract

Almost all New Zealand secondary schools have relationships of some kind with local businesses, but only a few can be described as effective and innovative partnerships, where both the school and the business achieve mutually beneficial benefits. For this study, six secondary school students, their principal, and a personnel support manager from a large company were shadowed while collaborating together in an education/industry partnership project. On completion of the project, each was interviewed to ascertain their perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of being involved in the partnership. The results show the advantages of participating in an school-business relationship outweigh the disadvantages, but in the short term, the students and the school receive most of the benefits and there is a need for businesses to increase their gains. The results also show that issues other than benefits and disadvantages need to be addressed to ensure successful outcomes for education/industry partnerships.