Did you know? About half a million Kiwi students drive or are driven to school every day. Projects include school surveys, video and website production, workshops, lesson and resource development, teacher panel events, communications and school engagement planning and implementation.

Ready Steady Go! and On the Go! are fun and engaging programmes being delivered in schools across Auckland reaching thousands of primary school students.

Watch the Ready Steady Go! ‘Ignite’ video filmed at Mount Roskill Primary school.

Take a look at On the Go! the online programme developed for year 7 and 8 students.

A communications professional with more than twenty five years’ experience of developing and delivering projects that make a difference. A science graduate with a marketing and communications background in the technology sector, Catherine is a practical hands-on project manager with a passion for education. She worked for the UK Department of Education to implement policy including as Communications Lead for Extended Schools - a national transformation project across 23,500 schools part of which was the development of the School Improvement Planning Framework. She worked with clients such as Sky, WWF and Auckland Transport to develop engaging educational programs to reach thousands of schools. Catherine moved to Auckland from London in 2017, sat on the board of her local primary school and has recently completed her IAP2 certification in Community Engagement.

Rachel grew up in rural Southland and began her career in education as a classroom teacher at an Intermediate school in Auckland, before moving to the UK. There she spent a decade teaching at a school for girls in Hampstead, London.  She was head of Design Technology and later became the Head of Science where she brought the laboratory to life with the delight of practical science. Back in New Zealand, Rachel co-founded a Not-for-profit company, The TestPod. The Testpod worked collaboratively with both the industry and education sectors to create science experiences for school pupils and university students as well as creating public events showcasing latest innovation. She is currently writing a science series for New Shoots Publishing.

Eleanor has a background in consultancy and is a programme manager for a charitable trust working within the NZ educational sector to enhance the strategic planning and leadership capability of school principals. With KPMG in the UK she specialised in strategic planning and implementation, change management and transformation – both in business and the public sector. She has spent several years in the education sector working with schools and local authorities to implement Government policies aimed at improving outcomes for children and young people. She has a master’s degree in Business Administration and her roles have included project management, facilitation, skills transfer and training, stakeholder analysis and coaching. She is passionate about education and the difference it makes to the lives of young people.

We have extensively researched existing  programmes in NZ and internationally and believe that there is a gap when it comes to providing  financial capability education in a meaningful, measurable way. And it seems  that many organisations and pupils themselves agree with us.

Dr. Pushpa Wood from Massey University has written a research paper on  financial literacy that focuses on breaking the cycle of poverty, particularly  in Maori and Pasifika families. She found that if you can teach seven year  olds the basic principles of budgeting and saving, they are concepts that they  will understand and use throughout the rest of their lives.

In a CFFC survey of 1000 pupils:

• 82% said they wanted to learn about money in class time rather than extra-curricular
• The top two areas that students wanted to know more about was budgeting and borrowing
• 74% said they learned most about money from family

Whether you are currently running financial education initiatives in schools or would like to find out how best to start, NZSP is here to help.

The future of work is unfolding rapidly. The acceleration of artificial intelligence and cognitive technologies is challenging the way we work, where we work, who or what we work with and how we build capabilities to get into and remain relevant in today’s workforce. Technology is transforming the nature of work and forcing organisations to redesign jobs to remain competitive. A result of this redesign is the reconfiguration of jobs where transactional activities are removed and replaced with more automation. This leaves a need in the workforce for more uniquely human skills, such as creativity and emotional intelligence.

The jobs of today are more machine-powered and data –driven than in the past, and they also require more human skills in problem-solving, communication, interpretation and design.
— Deloitte Human Capital Trends, 2019

Due to the accelerating rate of technological change, we need New Zealand’s workforce to continually learn and develop new skills.

Within this new world, personal success will largely depend on accelerating learning throughout one’s lifetime. This becomes even more difficult as the lifespan of one’s skills continues to shorten, providing more pressure on individuals to continue learning whilst maintaining a fast pace of life.

Researchers from Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work and Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute have already found that 39% of businesses cannot find employees with sufficient skill sets. And this is having a negative impact on their organisation’s ability to deliver.
Rather than relying on employers to shape a career, individuals will need to take the initiative to shape their own personalised careers. As work evolves, they will benefit from a learning mind-set, always alert to building high-value skills. Young people entering the workforce for the first time need to have the capabilities required to work in a dynamic environment and keep up with the rapid changes in technology. This is now urgent. A multi-skilled education for a multi-career future is what is needed in our New Zealand classrooms.

80% of CEOs now believe the need for new skills is their biggest business challenge
— Harvard Business Review, 2019

It is crucial that New Zealand schools are equipping students with a full toolbox of life long learning skills that will empower them to be successful in an innovative, dynamic and exciting workplace of the future.

Given that 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that do not yet exist is a learning challenge we now need to lean into.
— World Economic Forum

NZSP is here to help connect business to education.