Friday, 12 December 2014 14:54

Whangarei students achieve EPIC challenge

Written by 

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has congratulated a group of Whangarei school students for their work promoting the primary sector to their peers.

 

The Huanui College students from Whangarei are this year's winners of the Enterprising Primary Industries Careers (EPIC) Challenge, with their winning entry "Bee in the Scene" which encourages students to consider a career in the apiculture industry.

Launched this year, EPIC is an initiative that hopes to attract students to the primary sector. EPIC challenges year 10 students to identify different careers within the industry and develop a marketing strategy to promote them to their classmates.

"The winning entry highlighted the variety of careers within the apiculture industry, from bee keeping, to microbiology and biochemistry," says Guy.

"The four students identified their target audience and developed a creative, modern marketing campaign – which included brochures, advertising, social media, and interviews with those working in the industry."

Overall, the EPIC challenge received 121 entries from 117 schools across the country; Huanui College also came first in the Dairy category of the competition.

"Many students don't realise that working in the primary industries goes beyond the farm and covers a whole range of careers – from robotics, chemical engineering, food science, genetics and policy, right through to marketing our products internationally," says Guy.

"The EPIC challenge is just one of a whole raft of initiatives to attract the best and brightest to our sector."

More like this

Featured

Te Radar celebrates kiwi farming heritage in latest release

Undoubtedly the doyen of rural culture, always with a wry smile, our favourite ginger ninja, Te Radar, in conjunction with his wife Ruth Spencer, has recently released an enchanting, yet educational read centred around rural New Zealand in one hundred objects.

Waireka Research Station leads biodiversity restoration in New Plymouth

For more than 50 years, Waireka Research Station at New Plymouth has been a hub for globally important trials of fungicides, insecticides and herbicides, carried out on 16ha of orderly flat plots hedged for protection against the strong winds that sweep in from New Zealand’s west coast.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Political colours

OPINION: Your old mate welcomes the proposed changes to local government but notes it drew responses that ranged from the reasonable…

True agenda

OPINION: A press release from the oxygen thieves running the hot air symposium on climate change, known as COP30, grabbed your…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter