Business Education Partnership

Latest Business Education Partnership news:

	NEW: Unique Opportunity for Bay of Plenty Principal Expressions of interest invited from secondary school principals in the Western Bay of Plenty region to join the Mayoral and Business delegation to the Shanghai World Expo 2010.
	NEW: Perceptions of Asia survey The results of the latest Perceptions of Asia survey are available now. Conducted by Colmar Brunton in August and September 2009, it can be downloaded here.
	NEW: Free language courses open to New Zealand Principals Euroasia is offering two free places on a standard Asian language course for principals of New Zealand primary and secondary schools to support the Partnership. View our opportunities section.
	NEW: Bell Gully's engagement with Asia Why the leading New Zealand law firm hopes the BEP will encourage a greater understanding of the Asian region.
	Connecting Bay of Plenty schools and businesses on the importance of Asia The INSTEP programme successfully links secondary schools with the local business community.
	Outlook 11 - Intersections: Southeast Asia and diaspora engagement The latest report in Asia:NZ's Outlook series was launched in Singapore on 14 December 2009.
	Report on Asian business graduates launched First report in this three year longitudinal research project shows large majority enjoy studying in New Zealand.

A new partnership between companies, peak business associations, employee organisations, and education institutions, was launched in Wellington on 16 November by Education Minister Hon Anne Tolley (view media release). Initiated by Asia:NZ, the Business Education Partnership aims to encourage schools to prepare young New Zealanders for a future with the Asian region by increasing the amount of Asia-related material included in the curricula of New Zealand schools.

The organisations signed up to the partnership cover a wide range of influential entities that play a leading role in the New Zealand economy. Click here for a full list of partners. Asia:NZ Chairman Hon Philip Burdon explained why they signed up in a recent opinion piece in the Sunday Star Times.

Asia:NZ executive director Dr Richard Grant citing newly commissioned research on the lack of focus on Asia in New Zealand schools comments, “We need greater emphasis in education on the Asian region to prepare young New Zealanders for a world that’s very different from the one we grew up in.”

“It is an urgent call for the New Zealand public and educationalists to think deeply about how we prepare our young people for a future increasingly dominated by Asian economies,” Dr Grant added.

The declaration, in setting out the motivations behind the initiative, notes that understanding what is happening in Asia is the key to New Zealand’s future: “Building our knowledge of Asia, its cultures, its languages and its peoples, is a priority task for our education system, so that New Zealanders can become more informed about the region and better equipped to deal with it.”

The launch is accompanied by the release of the New Zealand Curriculum and Asia Guide . The guide includes school stories and comments from principals, teachers and students already engaging with Asia and Asian communities as well as a series of questions to trigger discussion in schools about how to become more Asia Aware.

This initiative is being championed by the Action Asia Advisory Group, a representative group of New Zealand business leaders, for which Asia:NZ provides the secretariat.

Read more:

• NEW: Bell Gully's engagement with Asia - Why the leading New Zealand law firm hopes the BEP will encourage a greater understanding of the Asian region.

• Outlook 11 - Intersections: Southeast Asia and diaspora engagement launched in Singapore. It argues that the Southeast Asian diasporas in New Zealand and the New Zealand diaspora in Southeast Asia represent a growing impetus for closer links with Southeast Asia.

• Case Study on connecting schools and businesses on the importance of Asia in the Bay of Plenty.

• Media release

• Declaration

• Partner organisations and businesses

• Focus on Asia: Facts and Challenges

• Action Asia Advisory Group

• Preparing young New Zealanders for Asia, an opinion piece by Asia:NZ Chairman Hon Philip Burdon, published in the Sunday Star Times on 15 November

• New Zealand Curriculum and Asia Guide
  

Media coverage:

• Firms want to see more Asian studies in schools - Radio New Zealand

• Leading business groups push Asian education in NZ schools - TV3

• Teach more about Asia, schools urged - The New Zealand Herald

• Asia:NZ executive director Dr Richard Grant discusses the Partnership on Radio New Zealand's Sunday Morning with Chris Laidlaw programme on 22 November.'

• Asia becomes more important for Kiwi trade, says new survey' on the New Zealand Herald's website on 18 February 2010.