Ainsley Harris is one university student who doesn't believe study is only about books and theory – and the not insignificant sum of $400,000 helps prove her point.
At 22 Harris is six months away from completing a Bachelor of Communication at Massey University. At the same time she has honed skills learnt in the lecture room by helping The Good Registry social platform raise a large chunk of the almost $400,000 dollars it has given to charity.
The platform, established three years ago, enables people to donate to charities of their choice in a loved one's name instead of receiving physical gifts and one of its co-founders Christine Langdon says much of this success is thanks to the communications work carried out by Harris.
"Her work has been priceless," she says. "She does a lot of our social media, blogs, has made videos and has handled our engagement with media. We always get comment on how good our social media is and it's only because of the work of students like Ainsley. I couldn't do it on my own as I don't have the time or the skills she and some of our other interns have."
Harris and The Good Registry first came together when she did a summer internship working for the platform one day a week for 14 weeks.
"She made an incredible impact on our work," says Langdon. "She has such a great attitude and skills we didn't want to lose her. So we created a communications position for her and she is now employed four hours a week."
Harris is a product of Massey University's focus on developing close partnerships with industry sectors and paving the way for students to be placed into businesses for internships and work-integrated learning. This gives them real-world experience and the chance to gain credit towards their degrees.
Her story comes against a backdrop of growing nervousness among students over employment prospects, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Stats NZ figures show the jobless rate was at four per cent (to the end of June) while the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) June quarterly labour market report reveals 25 per cent of workers fear there is a high chance of losing their job or business in the next 12 months.
Massey Business School's Director of Teaching and Learning, Associate Professor Elizabeth Gray says research shows that evidence of work experience can be the 'make or break' factor for employers when choosing from similarly qualified job applicants.
She says this expectation is a response to the major increase in the number of degree holders (Stats NZ figures show 29.8 per cent of adults had a bachelor's degree or higher in 2015 compared to just 8.3 per cent in 1991).
"With increasing competition students must differentiate themselves not by grades alone, but by more majors, postgraduate studies, extracurricular activities, internships and/or volunteer work," she says. "Massey's highly practical teaching allows students to gain this real-world experience."
Langdon says she does most of the day-to-day running of The Good Registry herself, devoting around two days a week by fitting it in around contract work in communications and PR. Since launching she says the $400,000 raised has effectively replaced 13,000 physical gifts that would have been given for corporate occasions, secret Santas and family events such as birthdays and weddings.
She says the platform has taken on six Massey communication interns over the last two years including Harris: "They work well and with Ainsley it was good to see her grow and develop and take the opportunity to learn new skills."
Harris, who has been studying at Massey for almost two years, says her internship at The Good Registry was an amazing experience and opened many doors. Not only has it led to the four hours paid work with the platform, but she has landed a summer job working with the Wellington-based communications team at the Department of Internal Affairs.
She says she sees these work-experience opportunities as a stepping stone: "I want to work in the communications industry and especially in marketing. I would love to own my own business and I think I am definitely more employable because of the practical side of my study at Massey.
"We get a lot of assignments that involve real clients whether it is a PR or marketing proposal or helping a not-for-profit," she says. "I couldn't imagine coming out of university without work experience."
Massey University also offers a number of practical on-campus experiences for students. These include Grand Ideas an annual business ideas competition (the winners receive $5,000 worth of seed funding to turn their idea into reality) and the Massey University Trading Room, the first fully-functional trading room in a New Zealand university.
It contains Bloomberg financial terminals, a live stock price ticker and information and news screens to give students real-life fund management experience.
Student Enterprise@Massey helps nurture an entrepreneurial mindset with a range of activities including networking events and workshops to help students develop the soft skills required to enhance their employability.
The university also has many student clubs some of which are business specific in areas such as accountancy and entrepreneurship.
For more information on Massey courses go to: Massey.ac.nz/study-business