Students from across the Bundaberg Region put their heads together at a recent Industry Intrapreneurship Day to seek out sustainable solutions for the community.
Hosted by Bundaberg Regional Council and delivered by Young Change Agents, the workshop had 100 students from nine high schools across the region engage with industry representatives before collaborating in teams to solve problems and generate solutions.
The event centred around Towards Net Zero Bundaberg, the road map guiding the region in moving towards a more sustainable future by exploring the themes of circular economy, social responsibility, energy, transport and the built environment.
CQU student teacher Maddison Westbury attended the event through her practical placement with Kepnock State High School and she said it was good to see what the students were experiencing.
“I think that it’s such a good opportunity to see how involved the students are in a different type of learning,” Maddison said.
“This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to get outside the classroom environment, which is really helpful for me from a practice point of view, to see how the students are engaged.
“I think it’s really interesting to hear from the industry professionals and hear how they’re working towards sustainability.”
Leaders of tomorrow
Member of Towards Net Zero Bundaberg cluster group and Global Power Generation Australia Stakeholder Engagement Officer Philip Beattie said the event had been fantastic.
“The engagement with the kids is really good and you can just see them interested in everything that is being said,” Philip said.
“When we broke into little focus groups and they came and asked questions… they were asking some really interesting and relevant questions and some of them were tough to answer but we got there.
“It seemed like they wanted to understand what was going on.”
Philip said he hoped his input would give the students a better understanding of renewable energy and the need for it.
“The reason we’re talking about sustainability is for the youth,” he said.
“They are the future, it’s not people like me who are going to get the value out of any of this stuff, it’s the youth of today and they are the leaders of tomorrow and they will be driving the sustainability.”
Council’s Industry Intrapreneurship Day was supported by the Towards Net Zero Bundaberg Cluster including representatives from the Greensill Farming Group, JRZ Homes and Liveable Homes Australia, Global Power Generation, Evolution Mining Pumped Hydro Project, Gina’s Table and SSS Strawberries and Phronis Consulting.
