Te Whakatōnga is designed to improve outcomes for Māori ākonga, iwi and hapū Māori, and to support providers success in the food and fibre sector.  

Through our work with providers since our establishment in October 2021, the Quality Assurance and Enhancement team recognised an opportunity to improve the systems and processes to greater support the success of Māori ākonga (learners) in the food and fibre sector.

Our mission is to support Māori aspirations in education, employment, and skills required a transformative solution to embrace and promote te ao Māori.

Poutiaki Te Ara Kounga Māori led the development of Te Whakatōnga, a bespoke approach to deliberately incorporate mātauranga Māori and te ao Māori values into our National Quality Assurance and Moderation activities in collaboration with our iwi Māori and VET partners. It complements our aspiration to increase outcomes for Māori ākonga (learners), iwi, businesses, and employers engaged in the food and fibre sector.

Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) General Manager Paul Hollings supports the report and subsequent actions, saying “I believe that the more information that we have available and the easier that is to access and understand then the better off we will all be in ensuring that a true partnership, ensuring not just Māori but all learners, flourish and succeed.”

Since the publication of Te Whakatōnga, a set of actionable recommendations were developed, and have since been acted on and implemented by Muka Tangata.

• Developed key principles derived from te ao Māori that focuses our team’s mahi.
• Amended our moderation requirements so that at least one ākonga Māori sample is included in our post-moderation for the purpose of understanding trends. We have had a verification rate of 72% from Jan-Jun 2023 (2% higher than across all groups).
• Built and championed a resource repository: Successful Māori-centric practices and models. We’ve shared this through our hui whakapūmau (site visits), programme endorsement, workshops and other activities.
• Worked with the Food and Fibre CoVE to critically review the vocational excellence framework for future development.
• Developed and implemented a three year te ao Māori plan that focuses on building our team’s confidence, capabilities, and understanding.
• Developed a set of interim support resources and supporting documentation to meet programme endorsement considerations around te ao Māori: Meeting considerations around te ao Māori in programme endorsement.
• Shared Te Whakatōnga finding and recommendations which is assisting the development of WDC mātauranga Māori guidelines.
• Supported the implementation of Tātai Tupu, a deliberate engagement plan for kaupapa Māori providers.