Aucklanders are being encouraged to learn something new, rediscover an old passion or strengthen their reo and practical skills, with more than 70 free events being offered across Tāmaki Makaurau for Adult Learners’ Week He Tangata Mātauranga.
Running from 7 to 13 September, Adult Learners’ Week will bring workshops, classes and learning opportunities to 23 Auckland Council libraries across the region.
The programme ranges from harakeke raranga, language learning and cooking classes to writing, sketching, stop-motion storytelling and business skills, with all events free to attend.
Delivered through a partnership between Auckland Council and Adult and Community Education — ACE Aotearoa, the initiative aims to remove barriers to education while demonstrating that learning does not end when people leave kura, university or formal training.
Finding our voice through learning
This year’s theme is Finding Our Voice — Ko tōku reo, ko tōku ohooho!
It focuses on how education can support people to find their voice through self-determination, creativity and storytelling while strengthening the collective voices of communities.
For Māori, the programme includes opportunities to connect learning with culture and traditional knowledge, including raranga using harakeke.
It also reflects a broader kaupapa familiar across te ao Māori — that mātauranga is something carried, shared and developed throughout life rather than confined to a classroom.
Libraries becoming community classrooms
Auckland Council says the programme demonstrates how the role of the modern public library has expanded.
Libraries remain places for books, information and literacy, but they have increasingly become community learning hubs where people can access technology, develop practical skills, connect with others and participate in creative and cultural activities.
Community Committee chair Councillor Julie Fairey says the range of events reflects the cultures, experiences and interests that make up Tāmaki Makaurau.
Council’s Whānau Learning team is playing a central role in the programme, supporting lifelong literacy initiatives and partnerships across Auckland’s library network.
The focus is particularly important for people who may have experienced barriers to traditional education or who want to develop skills without the cost and commitment associated with formal study.
More than qualifications
Adult education can also have benefits extending well beyond employment.
Learning a language can strengthen cultural connection.
Developing digital or business skills can help someone pursue a new source of income.
Creative writing and storytelling can provide new ways of expressing lived experience.
Raranga can connect participants with mātauranga and tikanga.
Even rediscovering an old hobby can provide opportunities for social connection and wellbeing.
That makes accessible community education particularly valuable at a time when the cost of formal courses can prevent people from trying something new.
40 years internationally, 25 years in Aotearoa
This year’s programme also marks two significant milestones.
Adult Learners’ Week celebrates 40 years internationally and 25 years in Aotearoa, with ACE Aotearoa continuing to promote adult and community education, celebrate learner achievement and improve access to lifelong learning.
The Auckland programme is funded through council rates and delivered across the regional library network.
With more than 70 events available, Aucklanders are being encouraged to explore the programme and register for activities that interest them.
And there is deliberately no requirement to already be an expert.
Whether it is learning to weave, improving your writing, developing a business idea, trying a new language or simply walking into the local library and discovering something unexpected, the message is simple — learning belongs to everyone, at every stage of life.
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