Ministry of Education New Zealand

TAGALOA SCHOLARSHIPS ARE BACK! 🌟 Are you a Pacific student in your final year of Masters or PhD study in 2025? Is your research focused on improving the social and economic wellbeing of Pacific communities? 🌏💡  The Tagaloa scholarships could be the financial support you need to complete your studies and make a real impact! What the scholarships offer: 🎓 $10,000 for Masters students 🎓 $14,000 for Doctorate students These scholarships are designed to support you in your final year of study. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity. 📍 Apply here: https://bit.ly/4gmnwSJ (applications close at 11.59pm, Friday 24 January 2025) Applicants will be notified early next year. For any questions email: Tagaloa.Scholarship@education.govt.nz 

The Ministry’s Wellington Transition team, in partnership with WellingtonNZ, recently took careers staff on a series of engaging business visits, offering real-world insights to share with students. This is where they went: Wellington Airport: A behind-the-scenes tour of airport operations revealed the 24/7 work of the control centre and fire service team, showcasing a variety of essential roles. The Runholder and Te Kairanga Wines: In a beautiful Wairarapa setting, participants explored viticulture, wine production, and hospitality roles like chefs, front-of-house staff, and event managers. Wellington City Council: From lifeguards and libraries to parks and community services, participants gained insights into diverse council roles and ideas for local opportunities. Wētā Workshop Ltd: Meeting creative professionals and seeing their work firsthand inspired participants with new career pathways to share with students. Thank you to the businesses, staff, and schools who took part. The visits sparked valuable conversations and connections to help shape future careers!

Geraldine High School (GHS) Year 13 students vs. Thompson Construction and Engineering 🏀 To celebrate the completion of their new gymnasium, and the end of the school year, students from GHS took on Thompson Construction in a game of basketball. The team said it was a hard fought battle with plenty of skill and enterprise shown by both sides, but it was the GHS students who took the narrow win. The final score was: 86-85. Principal Marcus Cooper said, “Thompson Construction have been the perfect contractors to complete the design and build. They have kept in front of the building schedule, involved school students where appropriate, and delivered a high quality product on budget. This project could form a template for how Ministry of Education property projects can be completed that are fit for purpose, cost effective and repeatable”.

The Ministry teamed up with WellingtonNZ again this year to offer high school students the opportunity to do workplace visits in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. "These visits allow students who are interested in a particular sector to experience it first-hand," says David Hibberd, Principal Adviser - Secondary Transitions. "They get to look around the workplace, speak with staff, and even do some practical tasks." David said a Careers Advisor got in touch with him to say one of their students had decided to study architecture after attending the Solari Architects workplace visit. They said, "She was thinking of spatial design at Massey but the visit swayed her back to architecture." Julia Stevens, Programme Manager at WellingtonNZ said, "WellingtonNZ are proud to partner with the Ministry of Education on organising workplace visit opportunities from high school students across our region. We appreciate support from our local business connections, who open their workplaces to groups of students to show them around and share more about what they do, often with practical activities and a panel of young employees who talk about their own journey from school through to their current role. The students arrive with lots of questions and leave with insights and inspiration to inform their next steps into further education and careers as part of our region's highly-skilled workforce’. A big thank you to all our participating workplaces, including Assurity Consulting, Springload Te Pipītanga, Boffa Miskell Limited, Solari Architects and Designgroup Stapleton Elliott. If you would like to learn more about these opportunities, please email david.hibberd@education.govt.nz

The Ngā Iti Kahurangi programme has achieved a significant milestone with the completion of its 500th upgrade at Kerikeri Primary School. The occasion was celebrated with a sunny BBQ, bringing together the school and local community, suppliers, and Ministry of Education representatives. This milestone reflects the hard work and dedication of everyone involved. A special thank-you goes to our suppliers and programme managers whose contributions have been instrumental in this journey: Programmed, Torque IP, Logic Group NZ, Asona, Autex Acoustics New Zealand, Mainfreight, Milliken & Company, Modempak NZ, Signify and all the schools involved over the years. Finally, a big thank-you to Kerikeri Primary School for hosting this celebration and marking this achievement with us (and Aotea Electric Northland, Laser® Group NZ, Tika Interiors LTD, Apex Interiors, Pierlite (NZ), and Tredsafe who did the Kerikeri upgrades).

GO NEW ZEALAND! Good luck to Alex (left) and Benedict (right), two of our Ministry kaimahi who are off to Cape Town in South Africa to represent Aotearoa New Zealand in indoor hockey at the Nkosi Cup this month. This is what they have to say about the upcoming four-nations event: Alex (HR Advisor): “I'm really honoured to have the chance to represent NZ once again and excited at the opportunity to prove myself on the world stage. After narrowly missing qualification for the World Cup this will be a great opportunity for the team to move up the world rankings." Benedict (Senior Analyst): “Taking on some of the world’s best and putting on the New Zealand shirt is always a privilege. I am blessed to have the opportunity and am extremely excited to compete at this event alongside Alex.” Good luck! 🇳🇿

When entering the workplace, students need skills and experience relevant to the job – but they also need confidence to communicate and express themselves. To build these skills among their trades academy ākonga, One Tree Hill College NZ partnered with Penrose Rotary Club for pilot mentoring programme ‘RAP’, helping build a bridge between students and the workplace and setting them up for career success. Ākonga practise making phone calls, learn about the best route between home, school and their work, and mentors check in with students if they’ve missed a class or placement. “Mentors give ākonga a safe place to talk where students are able to have their own voice,” says One Tree Hill College technology kaiako and head of the trades academy Charlotte McKeon. It's all about identifying and addressing hurdles before they come up. To read the full article, and learn more about starting a mentoring programme at your school, check out the Education Gazette article: https://bit.ly/3CrCGXU

Did you know schools can use All-of-Government contracts to purchase a range of goods and services? These contracts provide significant cost savings and favourable terms and conditions to schools. New Zealand Government Procurement at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment can help you evaluate your current print contract (for photocopiers and/or printers) and to determine if transitioning to the Print contract would benefit your school. Find out more about this and other contracts available to schools by emailing print.coe@mbie.govt.nz or going to www.procurement.govt.nz/

HELPING CREATE SAFER COMMUNITIES: The Ministry's Canterbury team, in partnership with the Canterbury Police District, took home the supreme award at the New Zealand Evidence-Based Problem-Oriented Policing Awards last week. Awards are given to teams that demonstrate excellence in reducing harm at a national and/or local level, have collective impact, and help develop evidence. Coralanne Child, Director of Education for Canterbury, says the award is a testament to what we can achieve when we identify mutual mahi and work together for the safety and wellbeing of our communities. “Our collaboration with partner agencies demonstrates the power of strong, united efforts, the whole is certainly stronger than the parts. By working closely with our police colleagues, we’ve been able to deliver outstanding results, making a real difference for tamariki, rangatahi, whānau and communities across Canterbury,” says Coralanne. The team received both the National Award for Reducing Harm, and the overall Supreme Problem Oriented Policing Award. The New Zealand Evidence-Based Problem-Oriented Policing Awards involve the proactive identification and analysis of recurring crime or disorder problems faced by police, partners and the public, and the development, implementation, and robust assessment of effective responses to these problems. They have been running since 2013. As winners of the overall Supreme Problem Oriented Policing Award the Canterbury team will now take their entry to the world stage, submitting their presentation to the International Herman Goldstein Awards Problem Oriented Policing awards.

TENDER OPPORTUNITY FOR FACILITIES MANAGERS 🛠️ We are on the lookout for service providers! We need people who can effectively manage the national compliance regime required under the Building Act 2004 and ensure that all schools’ building warrants of fitness (BWOFs) are issued in a timely manner. We will soon be publishing a Registration of Interest (ROI) for BWOF and Compliance Services via the Government Electronic Tendering System (GETS) to find out who can work with us on this mahi. Interested suppliers must respond to our ROI request if they want to be considered for this opportunity. ➡️ Please refer to the Notice of Information (NOI) we’ve released on GETS for more information: https://lnkd.in/gKvmAEXg Please share this with your contacts who might be interested in this opportunity.