First announcements from Māori Trades and Training Fund

Published: Oct 27, 2020

Tagged with:

  • News and announcements
  • Hawke's Bay

Three programme providers in Hawke’s Bay and Wellington have received a $5.76 million investment from the Māori Trades and Training Fund.

  • Ngāti Toa Rangatira Incorporated - $2,750,000

    The Ngā Kaimahi Kainga o Toa Rangatira programme will offer up to 50 Māori apprentices paid training and business development opportunities in building and housing-related trades.

  • K3 Development Limited Partnership -  $2,025,000

    The Takitimu Tuanui apprenticeship programme will support the iwi housing and career development visions of Ngāti Kahungunu, helping 50 Māori apprentices to participate in ‘earn as you learn’ training.

  • Sapphire Consultants Ltd. - $990,000

    The Māori Internships programme will help up to 45 Māori jobseekers into paid training initiatives in growth sectors such as construction, heavy trades, security, contact centres and administration.

These are the first announcements to come from the $50 million Māori Trades and Training Fund established as part of the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund announced in Budget 2020.

The Fund partners with Māori organisations to support delivery of employment-focused training opportunities that are by Māori, for Māori.

Find more information on the Regional Apprenticeships Initiative.

Ben Kingi - Sapphire Consultants Māori Internships programme

Transcript

Duration: 1:19

I'm Ben Kingi and I'm one of the directors at Sapphire Consultants in Wellington. The whole aim of our Māori trade training programme and Māori Internships is to create a better connection between our young people or any Māori that's been affected – that could be displacement from COVID or if they've lost their job.

It's just looking for that new opportunity, connecting them with the employers, and wrapping decent amount of pastoral care and support around them so we give them every chance to succeed. We also want to see them go into higher value roles within those organisations, so they don't stagnate or end up in the same job for long periods of time. We believe it's a good idea to start investing in future leaders, future managers and future high value staff.

We're extremely grateful to have government support for this because there's a lot of expense and time that goes into providing the mentorship. We have wage subsidies available if we need it, and a lot of investment in training. Having the funding for this project means we are a central source, we can take care of it ourselves, we don't have to go to multiple agencies to get that support. It means our interns have one key point of contact.