More than 30 high school commerce teachers attended Te Kura Umanga | UC Business School’s professional development day, which included a series of six sessions delivered at the UC campus.
UC Dean of Business, Russell Wordsworth welcomed guests and highlighted the significance of the day as “…an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues in a year that has presented many disruptions and challenges”.
The event was presented in partnership with MYOB; their Education Manager, Shailan Patel said the number of high school teachers that attended the 2020 event was particularly pleasing.
“MYOB was delighted to continue our support of the UC Commerce Teachers’ Day this year,” said Shailan. “Providing teachers with the opportunity to connect with leading academics and industry professionals is incredibly valuable. Especially when they take the insights and knowledge from a range of creative topics back to their classrooms which further helps the development of their students.”
The sessions covered a variety of topics ranging from the future of our cities; the current state of the economy to inspiring innovation - the full list of topics includes:
- “Accounting and business studies review” Sue McVeigh, NZQA
- “An overview of smart cities” Anna Earl, Lecturer MBA Programme
- “The economy: on a ventilator or is it just a bad head cold?” Stephen Hickson, Director and Associate Head of Department of Economics and Finance; Tom Coupe, Associate Professor and Liz Kendall, Senior Economist, ANZ Bank
- “Supply chain management: responding to COVID-19” Diane Mollenkopf, Associate Professor
- “The driving mindsets of innovation: curiosity, creativity and clarity” Christian Walsh, Lecturer UC Centre for Entrepreneurship
- “Reviving the service notion of accounting” Julia Wu, Lecturer; Nicky Hudson, CA ANZ; David Winter, EY; Lisa Mead, Social Currency; and Marisca MacKenzie, PwC
The sessions were followed by tours of the Vodafone 5G Innovation Lab in central Christchurch and the MYOB offices. The day concluded with a panel discussion and networking drinks hosted by MYOB.
Shailan Patel added “The MYOB team welcomed the opportunity to share their experiences studying commerce and where this has taken them as their career has developed.
Holding various roles across different departments at MYOB, this highlighted to the teachers how wide-ranging the options are for their students, whatever they choose to study."
Feedback from the day has been extremely positive with attendees congratulating the team on a well-organised event and highlighting the relevance of the sessions to their needs in the classroom:
“The tangible resources and information the lecturers and ANZ provided that can directly be applied to my lesson plans.”
“The economy analysis sessions were relevant and at a level that would enable us to transfer the concepts straight back into our teaching.”
“Many great speakers and inspiring and informative presentations. The economy one was great as related to my teaching and interesting presentation and ideas to take back to class.”
“Honestly one of the best PD days I have ever attended and I could only make half of it!”
Te Kura Umanga | UC Business School wishes to thank MYOB for their ongoing support for this event and the teachers for their enthusiastic participation in the day.
Resources have been provided from some of the sessions and can be accessed here.
For further information on professional development or resources for teachers, contact Outreach Coordinator Samantha Armitage samantha.armitage@canterbury.ac.nz
