Hundreds of Maui middle school and high school students will learn about Hawai'i's cruise industry and the careers it offers as part of a pilot program between NCL America and the state Department of Education.

It's a new step in NCL America's plan to boost the number of employees from Hawai'i. For the Maui schools, it's a way to expose students to different careers and make classroom lessons relevant.

"We do need. long-term. to start building ... potential candidates for employment and people who might be interested in working in the industry someday," said Robert Kritzman, executive vice president and managing director of NCL America's Hawai'i operations. "But it's also just general education. Education about our business and industry in the community is going to be very helpful for us."

The pilot program started this month with more than a dozen Maui public school teachers going aboard the Pride of Aloha to tour the ship and learn about the company and crew.

The teachers will incorporate that information into their lessons, and in March, about 300 students from the participating schools — including Maui Waena Intermediate, Kalama Intermediate, Maui High and Lahainaluna High — will go aboard the ship.

It won't just be a field trip to tour a ship. Students will learn about the kinds of jobs available in the cruise industry and see how subjects such as math, science and language arts can be applied aboard the ship, said Kathy Kawaguchi, assistant superintendent for the state Department of Education's office of curriculum, instruction and student support.

"Especially with middle-school kids, you have to show it to them," Kawaguchi said. "It's so much more powerful if someone like a chef is telling students, 'You really need to have the math. Please make sure you pay attention to fractions.' "

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.