A Year Of New Beginnings For Vocational Education

In their recently released 2022 annual reports, Skills Active Aotearoa and its new subsidiary Te Mahi Ako each reflect upon a pivotal year of changes, challenges and achievements.

• Read Skills Active Aotearoa’s 2022 annual report here
• Read Te Mahi Ako’s 2022 annual report here

“For Skills Active, 2022 was the culmination of two years of work to establish a new private training enterprise (PTE) – Te Mahi Ako,” says Skills Active board chair Sam Napia.

“Extensive consultation in 2021 made it clear this was our industries’ preferred outcome for the Government’s reform of vocational education. Achieving key milestones in Te Mahi Ako’s development early on in 2022 and obtaining NZQA approval in July set us up to be able to launch our new subsidiary by October.

“We have now come out the other side of this reform positioned as the preferred provider of qualifications within the te ahumahi ā-rēhia sectors,” Mr Napia says.

“We maintained an apprenticeship number of 1000 against the pre-apprenticeship boost and targeted training and apprenticeship fund average of 80 per annum. We continued to support over 90 programme variations, more than 5,500 ākonga and 400 assessors.”

Te Mahi Ako board chair Steve Ruru says the successful launch and strong start of the new PTE was a result of the close collaboration and partnership with Skills Active.

“The seamless transition of Skills Active’s programmes, systems, staff and learners to Te Mahi Ako could not have been possible without the hard mahi of so many.”

The reform had also created opportunities for Te Mahi Ako to better serve its learners, employers and sectors as a whole during these challenging times, Mr Ruru says.

“Setting up a pastoral care team and a new learner support system are two of the measures we have already implemented to help improve outcomes for our learners.

“With employers struggling to obtain enough staff and give them proper access to work-based learning, we will continue advocating for change in these spaces so as to not see our sectors disadvantaged.”

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