Mihara Mayor Yoshihiro Okada (centre) with Palmerston North City Council representatives Kate Harridge (left) and Gabrielle Loga, and English Teaching College representatives John Brunsden and Shiho Shindo.
Mihara Mayor Yoshihiro Okada (centre) with Palmerston North City Council representatives Kate Harridge (left) and Gabrielle Loga, and English Teaching College representatives John Brunsden and Shiho Shindo.
Palmerston North residents are being encouraged to open their doors to international students and become homestay hosts.
Students are returning since Covid-19 border restrictions were lifted and demand for homestays is high.
International students have returned to all Palmerston North institutions, English Teaching College (ETC) owner John Brunsden says.
“It’s amazing the turnaround in interest in coming to New Zealand.”
ETC and other education providers are looking for families who want the cultural experience of having someone from a different country in their home.
Homestay hosting is a great way to learn about another culture from a young person’s perspective, Brunsden says. Students are encouraged to prepare a meal from their country for their hosts.
It is also an opportunity to share your knowledge of Palmerston North and New Zealand.
Palmerston North City Council international relations and education adviser Kate Harridge says the shortage of homestay hosts is a national issue.
There is a lot of interest from overseas institutions in sending groups of students to Palmerston North for short stays.
Overseas partners prefer homestay accommodation as they want their students to experience immersion into a Kiwi family and culture, she says.
Hosts gain a sense of joy in providing a safe space for someone so far away from home and lifelong friendships can form.
Homestays can be as short as one week and up to five years for high school students.
Hosts are paid a weekly fee by the institution.
Harridge and Brunsden went to Japan in March to meet with high schools and tertiary partners. One of the places they visited was Palmerston North’s sister city Mihara in Japan’s Hiroshima prefecture.
March and July tend to be the most popular months for international students to come to Palmerston North.
“Our schools simply don’t have the homestay capacity to be able to host everyone,” Harridge says.
“Unfortunately, they’re having to make tough decisions about how many students they’re able to host at one time and potentially having to turn away other groups when opportunities present themselves.”
Brunsden visited Vietnam last year and Harridge this year.
Vuong Dinh Hue, chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam, visited New Zealand last December with an entourage of 175 officials.
Vietnam’s population is nearly 100 million. By 2035, there would be 3.5 million Vietnamese students in need of tertiary education and New Zealand with its advanced education system was well-placed to meet that need, he said at the time.
This information was in a report from international relations manager Gabrielle Loga to the city council’s April Economic Growth Committee meeting.
Last November, Harridge helped host a delegation from Waseda University, ranked second in Japan with seven subjects in the world’s top 100, and its network of affiliated schools from Tokyo.
Being a homestay host has many benefits, Kate Harridge says. These include fostering lifelong friendships, creating memories and being financially compensated.
Brunsden says ETC has three types of homestay - regular, farmstay and demi-pair.
For each, the student is provided their own room and three meals a day, seven days a week. The host includes the student in everyday Kiwi experiences.
For farmstay, the host lives on a lifestyle block or farm. The student is introduced to farm life and participates in farm experiences.
A demi-pair looks after children and helps around the home for 15 hours a week, in exchange for accommodation. The student attends ETC for 15 hours a week.
Homestay hosts could be a family, a sole parent, a woman on her own, or a retired couple. They are encouraged to stick to their normal routines and the institutions provide back-up support.
Homes are visited for suitability and a police check is required.
Anyone interested in being a homestay host should contact the institution of their choice: Massey University, IPU New Zealand, UCOL Te Pūkenga, English Teaching College, Awatapu College, Freyberg High School, Palmerston North Boys’ High School, Palmerston North Girls’ High School, Longburn Adventist College or St Peter’s College.
