Woman raised in Marton takes on education team leader role created by Whanganui provider Training For You

Naomi Patterson has been hired to fill the new education team leader role at Training For You in Whanganui. Photo / Supplied

Whanganui tertiary education provider Training For You has created a new role.

Based at their campus on Ingestre St, the education team leader will oversee five of the provider's education programmes.

Naomi Patterson has earned the role and she will join the team of 22 staff members.

Patterson was born in Feilding and raised in Marton where she attended Rangitikei College.

She married a Whanganui man from Kaiwhaiki and all but two of her children were born in the River City.

Her natural mother is Māori, with family hailing from Waitara. She was adopted by a Cook Island Mum and a Pākehā Dad.

"I was raised in a Cook Island kitchen," Patterson said.

"It's quite colourful in terms of who I am in my whakapapa and it helps flesh out who I am as a person through birth, as well as how I was raised."

Her own tertiary education commenced when her youngest child was three years old and the family was living in Auckland.

She started with a level two course in computing and business administration which re-
ignited a spark she felt in younger days at school when considering becoming a teacher.

She advanced to a level five diploma in social services with Northland Polytechnic, a precursor to social work.

"I remembered why I liked education," Patterson said.

"All the things around social work, at a macro level, were what I liked doing."

The diploma gave her cross-credits into a social work degree at Massey University in Albany.

In her first year at university she gauged her interest by doing papers in psychology, policy, sociology and then the ones in social work.

This helped her to decide that she didn't want to become a social worker.

"Working one-on-one with people is great in terms of feeling good and seeing those intergenerational changes," Patterson said.

"But making an environment where the impact is for more people to make the change, that's where I wanted to be. I'm a big-picture person. I think strategically."

She switched to a bachelor of arts majoring in Māori studies and social policy, with more focus on political processes and legislations.

Patterson was an active student politician as well.

"My time at university was actually quite interesting because I was Pasifika, I was Māori, I was a humanities student. I represented all of those things as a student politician.

"I wanted to be a full-time student forever, but it doesn't pay very well."

In the last year of her degree, Patterson was working full-time as a medical receptionist and considering careers in education or health.

When she graduated, she was teaching night classes at the New Zealand Management Academies in Auckland, tutoring a business administration course at the Otahuhu campus.

The student base there was mainly Pasifika, with many students working during the day, but studying in the evenings to get ahead.

She spent a year teaching and working with second-chance learners, before landing an advisory role with the Tertiary Education Commission.

As an adviser with TEC, Patterson looked after private tertiary education organisations in the central North-West region of Auckland, North Shore and Waitakere, with a caseload of about 20 providers.

Working within a team of four, she looked after the intensives, or the largest providers.

After three years and three restructures at TEC, a new role with a national focus followed when she joined Literacy Aotearoa.

Covering the country, she travelled to the smaller centres making connections with Māori and Pasifika communities to open up literacy opportunities.

She said Literacy Aotearoa has always been really great at bringing Māori communities on board because they are a Treaty-based, partnership organisation.

Her last move was with Quantum Education, visiting the sites of delivery and finding pathways for the graduates.

As a relationship manager Patterson helped to set up the international campus and developed the relationship policy and strategy.

"We needed to make sure the qualification that we delivered tallied up with what the needs were. We were looking for a seamless transition for the learners," she said.

"I like setting up processes. I like seeing things become automated. And in order to make that work, you've got to build in evaluation all the way through."

A break from Auckland called and she spent five years looking after her Mum in the Cook Islands, on the island of Aitutaki.

She did some work with climate change there and is a member of the Aitutaki Conservation Trust.

Upon returning to New Zealand, she came back to settle in Whanganui.

"Much of it hasn't changed, but what has changed is that a lot of people that I knew back in the 1980s are working in education now as professionals," Patterson said.

"Education has been opened up in New Zealand for Māori people."

The new role at Training For You appealed to Patterson because she likes to work in an environment where she can make changes.

She has found that the tutors do not attempt to hold on to learners if it is detrimental to their progress and will instead direct them towards other providers in the city.

"Any teacher, any tutor that is worth their salt will want to transition the learners on," Patterson said.

"You don't want to keep learners in place just because they feel comfortable with you."

Patterson is still connected with her some of her NZMA students via social media and she is pleased that some have gone on to do further training in their fields.

"All of them have moved forward with their life. It's about making them understand that it's achievable," she said.

"That's why we need to celebrate every success. Every success is a step in that journey that they are on."

Patterson will be tasked with mentoring, guiding and supporting the teaching team at Training For You and leading the delivery of programmes to maximise student achievement and satisfaction.

Training For You CEO Sue Turnbull is pleased with the newest appointment.

"I am delighted that we have been able to welcome Naomi, with her wealth of knowledge and experience in the educational sector, into our Training For You whanau," Turnbull said.

"Naomi, with her student-centred focus, will ensure that Training For You continues to have a positive impact on our student population and wider community."