Students from Alfriston College talked about their involvement in the development of Randwick Park to over 50 business leaders and school representatives at an Education-Business forum facilitated by COMET today.

The students have entered into a partnership with the Manukau Beautification Trust and Manukau City Parks Services where they have a level of 'managerial leadership and ownership' in future park developments.

Today's forum focussed on ways that schools and businesses can work together to best prepare students for the future and how to introduce 'relevant learning for real life experiences'.

Some of the businesses involved today include Vodafone, McDonalds, National Bank, Auckland Museum and Hawkins Construction.

Russell Stanners, CEO of Vodafone says that working directly with school students is very rewarding. "Schools are teaching our future workforce," he says. "If they can gain some knowledge and understanding of the business world before they leave school, this will help them to succeed in the future."

Making learning relevant is essential for today's students and the revised curriculum, which must be implemented by schools by March 2010, offers real potential for schools to work alongside businesses, giving students the opportunity to work on meaningful projects with real outcomes.

Education for Enterprise (E4E), a government initiative, is a platform for schools and businesses to link up and work on projects together and COMET facilitates E4E projects in a number of schools in Manukau.

Today's forum also showcased E4E projects from Edgewater College, James Cook High School and Aorere College.