WATERSAFE
Our beaches are beautiful. We want to keep our tamariki safe while they are in and around the water. The Top Energy WaterSafe Programme teaches primary and intermediate school children water survival skills. The goal is to achieve zero preventable drownings and reduce hospitalisations due to near drownings in Northland. WaterSafe have achieved over 309,000 lessons across Northland since it began 24 years ago.
FAR NORTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FAIR
The Science Fair motivates students to exhibit topics which challenge their imagination and encourages the development of investigative and problem-solving life skills. Nicolas Powell investigated optimising the school solar power system, and Pippiana Voakes investigated traditional sore throat remedies, were the joint winners of 2022’s Top Energy Far North Science and Technology Fair.
ENGINEERING SCHOLARSHIP
Top Energy Scholarship Programme provides $8,000 for a Far North student to study engineering, or who is already enrolled in a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours).
Our 2022 engineering Scholarship winner Rosey Robb has finished her second year of her Mechatronics degree and is interning at Top Energy for the summer. This means when she starts applying for jobs, she will have work experience already under her belt.
YOUNG ENTERPRISE SCHEME (YES)
We want our young people to thrive. YES fosters entrepreneurship in secondary students from Northland who form start up companies, become directors and follow their own business plans to develop products or services which they market and sell.
Sky’s Surf School has ridden the wave of success and has won Top Energy YES Northland Company of the Year for the last two years, and has achieved third place nationally. This inspirational start up encourages girls to take up surfing.
Other great examples of businesses and winners from last year are Ball.drobe which is a social enterprise to help with the costs of attending high school balls, Māu Designz which celebrates Te Reo Māori with a range of wrapping paper, gift bags, cards and envelopes, and Iwa of Kaitaia College selling stylish handcrafted harakeke coasters and placements. These students may be our future Business and Community Leaders of Northland.
