Phoebe catching up with her Business Degree mentor Dr Stephen Hinge following her industry-based learning project in Tauranga

After going as far as she could with a major Australian surf company, Phoebe Riddell decided to return to Gisborne and study for a degree in business management at EIT.

Phoebe, 24, had already acquired a Diploma in Business Management when she joined RipCurl in Brisbane. She had a management position there but felt she could not progress any further and toyed with the idea of studying in Australia.

“I would have had to pay the full cost myself and realised I would have to work and study part-time so it made sense to come home where I also have the support of my family.”

She was able to cross-credit most of her diploma papers towards the degree which meant she was able to achieve the degree in 18 months.

As part of her final year she completed an Industry-Based Learning Project (IBL) and as part of this was placed with a Tauranga company harvesting and exporting kiwifruit. Her task was to help them address a shortage of labour.

This lead her down the path of human resource management, an area she now wants to specialise.

The company she worked with approached her about a permanent role in that field but she felt she wanted to gain more experience in the field before taking on a managerial role.

She is now exploring a few further options in that field but is hoping a suitable position will become available in Gisborne.

She is a strong advocate for the EIT Bachelor of Business Studies programme.

“I really liked the smaller class size and the strong relationships we build with our lecturers,” she said.

Her senior business management lecturer, Dr Stephen Hinge, had been her academic supervisor since she first started. He was still taking an interest in her career development which was encouraging for graduates first starting out.