As a recently appointed Co-Leader for one of the network’s four regions or rohe; who resides in Kerikeri, I think it’s important for readers who live, learn and work in regional New Zealand to understand we are not placing decisions in the hands of ‘highly paid, largely anonymous state employees using algorithms,’ with as he puts it, ‘Data, rather than humanity, assuming a greater importance.’
Instead, the new model we are moving to has many potential benefits for Kiwis in our regions.
In March, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga and I were named as leaders for Rohe One, an area including Te Tai Tokerau, Northland and Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Both of us have long associations with these provinces and have worked at NorthTec, MIT and Unitec in recent years.
It’s our job to make sure Te Pūkenga as a national network listens and responds to the needs of locals in Moerewa, as much as it does to those in Manukau and Manurewa.
As Mr Cain points out there is a high level of diversity within the communities we serve and given our experience recently with Cyclone Gabrielle, needs and priorities can also be fast changing.
Under the reforms of vocational education, there is a clear requirement for communities to not only gain access to a range of training options locally, but also offer leadership and insights as experts in their own rohe.
Te Pūkenga which brings together the country’s polytechnics and industry training organisations is a major outcome of the reform. Regional Skills Leadership Groups are another. The groups are independent bodies made up of locals who understand the opportunities and challenges to economic development for their communities.
Their reports along with data collected and research commissioned by other major reform outcomes, including Workforce Development Councils and Centres of Vocational Excellence offer a clear, up-to-date picture of skills needs across the country present and emerging while developing strategies to deliver to them.
Toa Faneva, executive director of region one, Te Pūkenga.
Building a national network with collaboration rather than competition at its heart will also help regional learners.
Under the previous model of competing, standalone providers; 19 fulltime learners were required to be enrolled in a qualification for it to be offered on a financially sustainable basis at a given location throughout the country. If numbers dropped below that consistently, it might lead to a course closing thereby jeopardising that training option for a region.
Te Pūkenga offers us the opportunity to work together to find ways of supporting the needs of learners outside the main centres, as well as hold honest conversations about how we are meeting the needs of those who have been traditionally underserved in our education system.
I also take Mr Cain’s point about the importance of Māori flaxroots leadership which was on display during the country’s fight against Covid-19.
As someone who, with his iwi leader’s hat on, held responsibility for coordinating the efforts of 13 iwi to make sure our whānau were safe and cared for, those lessons from the pandemic are never far from my mind as we move forward with Te Pūkenga.
- Toa Faneva MNZM, is the Executive Director, Region 1, Te Pūkenga Tumu Whenua ā-Rohe 1
