Marae-based trades training campus opening

A  marae-based trades training campus is being launched to support the growing demand for trades training in New Zealand and create a fully sustainable educational pathway for the Māori community of the Hoani Waititi Marae.

The on-location vocational campus rounds out the marae’s existing education offering of early childhood, primary and secondary education – providing a skills-based tertiary learning opportunity for its youth and community.

The trades programmes delivered by New Zealand Management Academies (NZMA) will take place at a new purpose-built West Auckland training facility based on the Hoani Waititi Marae site at Parrs Park in Glen Eden.

In the past 12 months, NZMA has seen 320% growth in trades enrolments with a significant increase in Māori and Pasifika participation. 43% of NZMA students across New Zealand are Māori and Pasifika.

As one of New Zealand’s earliest pan-tribal marae, the Hoani Waititi Marae serves not only it’s Māori community but also the people of the surrounding West Auckland areas. Based on this, the trades training will be available to people living within the immediate marae community and the wider West Auckland communities.

NZMA CEO Kylie Wilson says the NZMA team feel incredibly privileged to partner with the Hoani Waititi Marae Trust to further enrich the educational offering on the marae and empower the communities it serves, helping locals gain in-demand trades qualifications for employment while sustaining the marae.

“This innovative and collaborative education delivery model fosters reciprocal learning and the partnership serves to address a number of priorities outlined in the Government’s Tertiary Education Strategy such as providing the ability to meaningfully incorporate tikanga Maori into the everyday life of the place of learning,” says Wilson.

“The skills-based trades training programmes offered at the campus will include carpentry, plumbing and gas fitting, and painting and decorating. In addition to the curriculum learning taking place on a true ‘worksite’ environment, students will also be provided with career and employment advice, pastoral care support and goal setting opportunities.”

Hoani Waititi Marae Chairman Eynon Delamere says this exciting partnership is part of a wider Marae strategy which focuses on providing educational opportunities for Māori and the wider community.

It also is another step forward in the establishment of Te Whare Wananga O Hoani Waititi Marae (a traditional Māori institute of higher learning utilising Mātauranga Māori and Maori epistemology).

Lifelong learning is an integral part of the marae ethos and encapsulated in the whakatauki “Hāpaitia te ara tika pumau ai te rangatiratanga mo nga uri whakatipu” – Foster the pathway of knowledge to strength, independence and growth for future generations.

The Agreement between NZMA and Hoani Waititi Marae Trust will be in place for a three-year duration.

Auckland Māori and Pasifika Trades Initiative supports the Māori & Pasifika Trades Training (MPTT) programme in Tamaki Makaurau.  “We welcome the establishment of this partnership between urban Māori and vocational education leaders NZMA.  NZMA is an active training partner for the MPTT consortium.”  Chairperson Stuart Lawrence reiterated the consortium’s kaupapa of transforming Māori and Pasifika into the trades sector through whanau and leadership, “this fits our tikanga!”

Enrolments are open to students of all ethnicities. When on-site, all students will be required to adhere to tikanga Māori protocols, particularly when tangihanga are held on the marae.  Participation in these practices showcases the true bicultural opportunities this partnership provides.

As part of the partnership, NZMA will renovate four existing prefabricated classrooms on the marae grounds and will build permanent campus classroom structures (Houses of Learning) and a Carving Workshop (Whare Tapere), which will become the property of Hoani Waititi Marae Trust upon completion of the build.

The build of the campus will be undertaken by students as part of their practical learning components.

Hoani Waititi Marae Trust will give all staff and students at the campus free access to marae-based learning programmes such as Te Reo language classes, Marae experience, ahuatanga Māori (Māori tradition), tikanga Māori (Māori custom), Kapa Haka, Mau rākau and cultural competency education as part of the partnership.

Watch the One News Te Karere coverage here.