Secondary school principals around the Western Bay of Plenty went to business school this week to learn what skills will be valuable for students, with visits to four innovative Tauranga employers.

The day trip organised by Priority One's industry-school linkage Instep, saw nine principals take part in water sampling and laboratory testing for Waikato University's Coastal Marine Field Station and make candles for Mount Maunganui's Candles of New Zealand.

Western Bay secondary school principals learn about water sampling from Marine Coastal Research station technician Rex Fairweather.

Instep manager Lyn Parlane says the day was a huge success with principals valuing the chance to hear from the business coalface about what skills and attributes are needed in future employees.

'It was fantastic. It really highlighted to them the importance of innovation and showed how we need innovation to grow our economy.”

Candles of New Zealand co-owner Nicola Farrant says it was a great opportunity to talk to the principals about important attributes for staff and to encourage them to challenge students to be entrepreneurial. But based on the candles they made Nicola says she would be hesitant to offer any a job without any extra training.

'They didn't seem that comfortable making the candles, but they loved the whole experience.”

Nicola, who has owned the candle manufacturing and business with her husband Steven for five years, stressed the importance of good old-fashioned qualities of loyalty, hard work and being a team player. In contrast Locus Research managing director Timothy Allan emphasised fostering innovation and creativity.

Timothy says both his product research company and Woods the Creative Agency – a brand-building agency also visited in Mount Maunganui – were keen to see more senior secondary students compete in Instep's Young Innovator Award.

He called on the schools to find a way to incorporate the product innovation competition within its classes because of the invaluable learning opportunity it offers.

'Schools are very busy places, so it would be great if it could be better integrated into the curriculum.”

Tauranga Boys' College principal Robert Mangan says the annual principals day out was always a great way to keep in touch with changing employment opportunities which they could feed back to teaching staff and students, saying he was particularly impressed with the opportunities the Coastal Marine Field Station offered.

'It offers some wonderful opportunities right on our doorsteps for those interested in biology, so I'll be sharing this and other insights with teaching staff and will be looking at ways senior environmental science students can get involved.”

Robert says he is a big fan of the Young Innovator Awards, but says the strong focus at senior secondary level on earning NCEA credits meant anything which did not earn credits, like the competition, would struggle to get student attention

He says a tour around top Chinese businesses three years ago had reminded him of New Zealand's strength in innovation, 'Kiwi ingenuity and creativity” and believed it was important to foster this.

It was the seventh year the principal's tour has been held and Lyn says a few other regions wanted to copy the programme. Previously principals have visited organisations in the horticulture, trades, manufacturing, science and technology, engineering and local government industries.

To future proof employment skills Lyn Parlane recommends developing clear communication skills, the ability to think outside the square, creativity, and a risk-taking ability not constrained by a fear of failure.

'These kinds of things are really important to us because as a country we need to add value and innovate so we can compete on the global marketplace.”