About 250 secondary students from Bay of Plenty secondary schools descended on Te Puke and Paengaroa horticultural businesses last week in a bid to give students an insight into careers in horticulture and apiculture.

The day involved a ‘Journey of Discovery' around six innovative businesses in the area including Comvita, EastPack, Eurofins Bay of Plenty, Trevelyan's, Plant and Food Research and BayGold.

'This is a chance for students to see the different opportunities available to them in the horticulture industry first-hand”, says Chair of Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower Upskilling Inc., Kate Longman.

'The skill-base is so broad, the opportunities are endless and we want to illustrate that to our future leaders.

'This collaboration allows students to participate in activities that excite them about career options in horticulture, rather than simply to inform students about which jobs are available.”

The one day interactive and collaborative event promotes the $7 billion dollar horticulture industry to secondary school students and debunks preconceived ideas of the industries by showing that horticulture and apiculture offer high-level careers in a range of scientific, technical and commercial areas.

Students were transported in from schools in Tauranga, Te Puke, Whakatane, Edgecumbe, and Rotorua. Each tour bus had two industry representatives on board to act as tour guides.

Students spent more than an hour at each business undertaking practical activities in the themes of information analysis, problem solving, communication and imagination, collaboration and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and adaptability.