Originator/Sponsor: Sow the Seed
Portfolio Managers: Fiona Windle
Status: Completed
Planned delivery date: September 2024
Lead Agency/Service Provider: Dr Lesley Petersen
Introduction/Background:
The trial internship was sponsored by Mr Apple, Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers’ Association, and Sow the Seed—an agricultural and horticultural science advisory team collaborating with the Horticulture and Agriculture Teachers Association (HATA), to support primary industries in education. The programme aims to provide valuable industry exposure.
The evaluation of this trial programme determined its impact on students’ career paths and offered insights for other New Zealand food and fibre sectors in developing similar internships. This will contribute to enhancing employment opportunities for secondary school-aged students and fostering interest in careers within the primary industries.
The use of Food and Fibre CoVE’s Vocational Excellence Framework rubrics guided the evaluation design, identified programme structures and processes that effectively support interns in their learning, and highlighted examples of good practice within the programme. Using these rubrics provided a structured and reliable framework to assess and enhance the overall effectiveness of the internship programme.
Objectives:
1. Determine the impact and benefits of the internship experience on students, schools, and the food and fibre industry.
2. Analyse the programme processes to understand what is working well and what could be improved, and what opportunities might be missing.
3. Investigate the underpinning evidence that similar internship programmes in New Zealand, and internationally, could leverage to enhance industry value and student education and career outcomes.
4. Develop a base model that other food and fibre sectors can adopt and adapt to implement a similar programme.
Key insights and learnings from these evaluations may expand the scope of this programme and complement other projects that Food and Fibre CoVE is exploring within the context of secondary school and food and fibre career pathways.
An article summarising the evaluation can be viewed here.
The final evaluation report can be viewed here.
A Mr Apple video of the internship programme can be viewed here.
The above information was current as at 6 September 2024