APPT- 5110: Week 1

This week I was introduced to the APPT 5110 course as a required course as part of my Bachelors of Applied technology Degree. My specialisation within this degree is Marine. The purpose of the APPT course is "to develop fundamental academic capabilities in the context of occupational health and safety and sustainable practices in New Zealand'.

Coming into the first week of this course i had very little understanding as to what this particular course may entail. I now understand that the general purpose of the course appears to be to help us as students develop our abilities around such topics as, Critical thinking, Problem solving, Communication in a variety of ways, along with working collaboratively with other group members. Throughout this course it appears the onus will be put on us as students to further our learning whilst simply being guided by the tutors. Personally i feel this sounds like a very positive way to face the course as i believe it will allow myself as a student to grow and develop my own ideas whilst undoubtedly incurring some issues along the way that will also require to me think and develop skills i may not have known i had.

For 50% of this course i will be asked to work collaboratively with a small group of my peers on a project based around the question "What is ONE of the BIGGEST problems facing YOUR industry today?" within our group we are now required to come up with some creative solutions to whatever it is we feel the largest problem facing us in the marine industry at this current time. For our initial research as a group we thought it wise to contact some people currently working within the industry. We firstly spoke to marine tutors at unitec, who all seemed to have a universal opinion on one of the largest issues we face. Along with these individuals we also thought it would be wise to contact some members of the working industry, for example members of staff at some of New Zealands largest boat building/design companies. We have yet to hear from any of these individuals, however we are all very interested to hear there opinions. Within our first brainstorm as a group we came up with our own opinion on some of the issues we face, among these were;
Rising fuel costs,
Lack of skilled workers,
Lack of Demand for product,
Kyoto Protocol.
These were some of our suggested ideas. However we have not as of yet drilled down into any of these ideas to decide what our final project will be based around.

For myself the first week of the course was very interesting and I am looking forward to working towards some of the learning outcomes set out for us. I also look forward to devolping our ideas as a group and investigating into some of the issues we face alot further in the coming weeks.