Eleven tauira from Kirikiriroa secondary school Tai Wānanga got a hands-on experience across different functions within Te Wānanga o Aotearoa during a three-day Work Inspiration programme last week. 

The Work Inspiration programme is a UK model and provides secondary students with an opportunity to experience the roles and career pathways available within various organisations to inform life and career goals.  

The Year 11-13 tauira visited Te Wānanga o Aotearoa for three days as part of a partnership between Rātonga, iNative, Youth Services Mātātahi Mataora, the Tertiary Education Commission and Tai Wānanga.  

Day one was at Raroera Campus where strategic analyst Travis Timoko and Te Waenga Aukaha Tangata Joe Graham discussed leadership styles. This was followed by a self-realisation session around personality types and jobs suited to each one.

The second day was in Te Awamutu where they were inspired by Tumurātonga Keri Milne-Ihimaera and Tumukahuroa Hone Paul, Kapuia national coordinator Raniera Harrison and social media advisor Ross McDougall. The tauira also participated in interactive workshops within the creative team at Te Ipurau.  Here they tested their artistic, musical and technical skills by completing 3D artworks, flying drones and they even recorded a track, which will soon be part of a podcast  

On day three, guest speakers Natania Katene, executive officer for Te Waenga, and TARM Kaiako Merewanaka Whiu shared their career journey at Mangakotukutuku Campus.  In a series of workshops, tauira got to play with new technologies brought in by Hangarau innovation hub specialist Kane Milne.  Tatou Pounamu enabled the tauira to shadow call centre kaimahi for a time and the marketing and recruitment team got them to plan and execute their own marketing event strategy.

Tai Wānanga head girl Waimihi Paki says it was a good opportunity to see different career opportunities and hear from inspirational and interesting speakers before their secondary school years ended in a few months.

“It was cool to learn about different personalities and identify where your personality fits in different roles,” she says.

 “I really enjoyed the sound engineering work we saw, so much work goes into the little details.”

SME Youth Development Jade Chase says the programme is an excellent way to show tauira some of the opportunities available and to raise the profile of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa among young people as both an education provider and potential employer.

“We were able to test a kaupapa-driven approach to Work Inspirations to better cater to the needs and interests of our rangatahi.  Each of our presenters brought something unique and special to the kaupapa, which contributed significantly to a super successful and enriching experience for the rangatahi,” she says.

Aukaha Kirimana and Youth Services Manager Angeline McCormack says that feedback from tauira, their whānau and TEC partners was extremely positive.