Ngā Māhuri o Ngāti Hine Bears Fruit for Trainees

MEDIA RELEASE
Ngā Māhuri o Ngāti Hine Bears Fruit for Trainees

1 July 2019

Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust celebrates the completion of their inaugural Mānuka plantation training programme “Ngā Māhuri o Ngāti Hine”.

Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust Chairman Pita Tipene says “A great feature of the kaupapa has been “the earn while you learn”. This enables the trainees to undertake their forestry training while maintaining an income for their whānau.”

Twenty trainees from Moerewa and Kaikohe commenced the programme in February this year and all trainees completed successfully their Level Two National Certificate in Forestry. “The trainees received a full suite of training including health and safety, forestry operations and life skills” says Jack Johnson, of Johnson Contractors Ltd, the Ngā Māhuri o Ngāti Hine training provider.

Planting over 200ha of Mānuka seedlings has seen the trainees build skills and experience preparing them to enter the workforce. Transitioning from the classroom to the forest has transformed the trainees – learning to overcome challenges and barriers, with pastoral support provided by Ngā Tangariki o Ngāti Hine. “As a Ngāti Hine kaupapa, we sought to work with Ngā Tangariki to provide localised pastoral support for our trainees that is consistent with our key values such as being transformative and achieving self-reliance” said Pita Tipene.

On Friday 5 July, 3:30pm at Otiria Marae Moerewa we come together with the trainees and their whanau to celebrate their completion and moving into full time work.

Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust will launch a second intake of Ngā Mahuri o Ngāti Hine in early 2020 to complete the plantation training programme with a further 20 trainees.

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