Men love nothing more than making, building, and repairing—even if they’re not particularly skilled at it! While one study found that males are better at building IKEA furniture, another one done over 30 years concluded absolutely that males have better spatial ability. Give a man, or a boy, tools and they feel like conquerors.
The Edge Workshop is BB’s local community engagement through schools across New Zealand, helping to raise confident, disciplined, and fulfilled young men. Edge Workshop works with boys aged 8-11 to give them confidence in basic hand tool use; mentoring them with positive values, learned competency and positive self-esteem, attitudes and behaviours.
Teaching future generations that to build is better than to break
Supported by school principals and teachers throughout seven regions of New Zealand, Edge Workshop nurtures imagination and fosters inventiveness. As the author of The Boy’s Book of Mechanical Models, William Stout, wrote in 1916: "Give the real boy some tools and a workshop, and half the problem of bringing up the next generation is solved."
Edge Workshop began in 2010 directed by Stu Thompson with the support of BB New Zealand and has grown over the last decade and is sort after by principals and teachers across the country.
Edge Workshops now operate in 25 schools and across 7 regions nationwide and continues to experience high demand due to the effective results produced.