Education providers gather at Cooks Gardens for workshop about highlighting River City as place to learn

Anya Satyanand spoke to a room of over 20 people representing education providers in Whanganui about the importance of working collaboratively. Photo / Lewis Gardner

About 25 people representing leading Whanganui education providers gathered at the Cooks Gardens Events Centre on Tuesday for a workshop.

The Education Champions Network event provided an opportunity for newcomers to the education sector to meet each other and discuss how they can work together.

The guest speaker for the event was Prince's Trust New Zealand CEO Anya Satyanand, who was invited by strategic lead - youth and education at Whanganui & Partners Hannah Kelly.

Kelly contacted Satyanand after hearing about the good work she has done with agency collaboration and was pleased with her response.

"She was really excited to come and work with us. She didn't do a guest speech as such, she outlined work that she's done in the past and what she's doing now," Kelly said.

"She really took an active role in facilitating the workshop. She put everyone through a few crazy activities, we made marshmallow and spaghetti towers and stuff like that."

The purpose of such a task was to get everyone working together and then talking about how they could do so on a larger scale in their profession.

Providers represented included UCOL, Training For You, Ag Challenge, principals from local secondary schools and more.

Kelly was happy with the turnout as educators wrap up their holidays in preparation for the start of school and training in early February.

She said the workshops might run two or three times a year and attendees discussed how they could continue to build Whanganui's reputation as a place to live and learn.

"We have an opportunity to do something that isn't really being done anywhere else in New Zealand and that is genuinely working as a collective.

"Otherwise with education, you can end up all competing with each other and that's of no benefit to anyone."

There's plenty coming u[ in the education field, including a collaboration between Whanganui & Partners and Massey University to bring a business opportunity to the River City.

About 65 executives enrolled in Massey's Executive MBA programme will visit from February 22-25 where they will be based in a pop-up school on Victoria Ave.

The hands-on programme will give Whanganui businesses the opportunity to engage with the executives and work collaboratively on real business problems.

Other coming events include the international student mayoral welcome on March 6, lanterns on the awa on February 22 and UCOL orientation week from February 18-22.