Māori & Pasifika Trades Training expands

  • Te Ururoa Flavell
  • Steven Joyce
Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Maori Development

The Government today announced further expansion of the Māori & Pasifika Trades Training initiative with the selection of three new consortia to join the scheme.

The three join 12 providers already chosen to assist young Māori and Pasifika people to gain qualifications, New Zealand apprenticeships and employment in trades that are in demand across the country.

“This unique programme provides the opportunity for young Maori and Pasifika to develop a trade and get into meaningful employment that will benefit them right through their working lives,” says Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce.

“With a growing economy, the demand for skilled tradespeople will only increase over the next few years.  This programme brings together employers, trainers, students and their families to provide a seamless path to fulltime employment.”

Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell says the trades initiative has been developed to ensure training is aligned to the needs of both employers and learners.

“The expansion of Māori and Pasifika Trades Training in to new regions is a welcome development and will help create sustainable opportunities for individual and their communities.

“Local Māori and Pasifika people can take up the opportunity to pursue apprenticeships and work towards trades careers.”

The three new groups will co-ordinate and deliver trades training to Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty, and were selected through a two-stage tender process. They are:

  • Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapāhore Trust in the Western Bay of Plenty
  • Taranaki Futures Trust in Taranaki
  • Te Pū Wānanga o Anamata in the Eastern Bay of Plenty

The 12 groups chosen last year provide trades training in Hawke’s Bay, East Coast, Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Wellington, Rotorua and Canterbury.

More information is available at: www.mbie.govt.nz/what-we-do/business-growth-agenda/skilled-safe-workplaces/maori-pasifika-trades-training-initiative