Onslow College first school in Wellington to implement Secondary School Employer Partnership (SSEP)

In 2025, the Year 9 Maths programme at Onslow College plans to introduce an exciting initiative that involves collaboration with various employers. This programme will provide students with the opportunity to see how mathematics is applied in real-world contexts. The delivery of the programme will involve close cooperation between employers and Maths teachers, including in-class visits by professionals and site visits by students.

This award winning initiative, set up by SmartNZ called the Secondary School Employer Partnership (SSEP), has been successfully running in Waikato schools for over 10 years, and Onslow College will be the first school in Wellington to implement it. The programme helps students understand the relevance of what they are learning in Maths while also exposing them to different career paths, which is a key aspect of careers education.

The commitment involves two in-class visits and one site visit per term, for three terms. You do not need to have a child in Year 9 to participate—your willingness to support our school, teachers, and students is all that’s required.

To make this programme a success, we are looking for employers to collaborate with us. If you’re interested, we would love to hear from you. Specifically, we are seeking to help students understand the real-world application of measurement and geometry, this could mean employers in Engineering and Construction.  We are also wanting to demonstrate the use of general maths such as percentages, there will be a large variety of businesses here, which could include bankers, food businesses, IT or accountants.  We are also after employers who use data this could include employers in the High Performance Sports, Fitness, IT and Marketing. There will be many other jobs and professions that can contribute, so if you’d like to get involved, please don’t hesitate to contact us.