A new partnership between NorthTec and Northland NZ aims to create a much clearer pathway from education and training into jobs, enterprise and leadership — with a central goal of ensuring the people of Te Tai Tokerau benefit from economic growth happening in their own rohe.
The agreement, Te Ara Whakamua – The Path Forward, was signed on Tuesday 1 September by Northland NZ Chief Executive Paul Linton and NorthTec Operational Lead Derek Slatter.
At its heart is recognition that the future prosperity of Te Tai Tokerau depends not only on attracting investment and creating jobs, but also on ensuring local people have the skills and qualifications required to take up those opportunities.
The partnership will seek to strengthen connections between education, vocational training, workforce development, employers and regional economic opportunities.
Training for the jobs being created
Northland NZ says the objective is to make sure education and economic development are moving in the same direction.
Rather than training people without a clear connection to where employment opportunities are emerging, the partnership aims to better align skills development with the needs of Northland industries and employers.
For Linton, that means connecting the economy, education, workforce development and job creation so young people can gain the skills necessary to secure the jobs being generated across the region.
It is a significant challenge for Te Tai Tokerau, where creating employment is only part of the equation.
If local industries grow but skilled workers must continually be recruited from elsewhere, communities can miss some of the long-term benefits of economic development.
Te Ara Whakamua is designed to help close that gap.
Keeping local talent in the rohe
Another major objective is retaining talent.
Young people frequently leave regional communities to study, train or find employment elsewhere. While many eventually return, others establish their lives and careers outside the region.
Creating credible education-to-employment pathways within Te Tai Tokerau provides another option.
NorthTec already plays a significant role in that system, enrolling around 5,000 students each year across Tai Tokerau.
It operates campuses and learning centres throughout the region, including in Whangārei, Kaitāia and Ngāwhā, giving it a substantial footprint across both urban and rural Northland communities.
For NorthTec, the agreement represents a commitment to ensuring jobs created in Te Tai Tokerau translate into opportunities for the people who already call the region home.
An important opportunity for rangatahi Māori
That objective has particular significance for Māori.
Te Tai Tokerau has a large and youthful Māori population, meaning successful workforce development in the region cannot be achieved without successful pathways for rangatahi Māori.
The opportunity is bigger than simply getting someone into their first job.
Strong vocational pathways can provide qualifications, apprenticeships, transferable skills and experience that allow rangatahi to progress into higher-paying employment, management, entrepreneurship and eventually business ownership.
That means education policy can become economic development policy.
And economic development can become a tool for strengthening whānau.
From learner to worker — and potentially employer
The inclusion of enterprise and leadership within the partnership is particularly important.
The strongest regional economies do not simply train people to fill existing vacancies. They also develop the next generation of entrepreneurs, managers and employers.
For Māori communities with significant interests across whenua, forestry, horticulture, tourism, construction, infrastructure, fisheries and other industries, developing local leadership capability can have long-term consequences.
A rangatahi entering vocational training today could become a qualified tradesperson tomorrow — and potentially the owner of a business employing others in their community later.
That is how skills development can create a multiplier effect across a regional economy.
Massey partnership adds research and innovation
Te Ara Whakamua also forms part of a wider Northland NZ strategy linking economic development with education and research.
In November last year, Northland NZ formalised a partnership with Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University through a Waka Hourua Heads of Agreement.
While the NorthTec partnership has a strong emphasis on workforce and vocational pathways, the Massey relationship is focused particularly on research and innovation opportunities within Northland’s food and fibre sector.
That creates the potential for two complementary streams.
One develops research, knowledge and innovation.
The other ensures people have the practical skills and training needed by industries as they grow.
Three organisations, one regional strategy
The next step is potentially the most significant.
Northland NZ wants to bring together Massey University, NorthTec and the regional economic development agency in a wider collaboration.
That would connect a university and its research capability with Northland’s largest tertiary and vocational education provider and the organisation responsible for driving regional economic development.
The goal is to better align what people study with where Northland’s economy is heading.
If emerging opportunities require engineers, builders, technicians, food-production specialists, forestry workers, digital skills, managers or entrepreneurs, the education system can begin responding before workforce shortages become critical.
Likewise, research and innovation can be directed towards industries where Te Tai Tokerau has genuine economic opportunities.
Turning economic growth into whānau prosperity
The ultimate test of Te Ara Whakamua will not be the agreement itself.
It will be whether the partnership produces measurable outcomes.
Are more rangatahi moving from education into sustainable employment?
Are employers finding the skilled workers they need locally?
Are Māori participating in industries experiencing growth?
Are graduates remaining in Te Tai Tokerau?
Are wages and household incomes increasing?
And are more local people moving beyond employment into management, leadership and business ownership?
Those are the measures that will determine whether regional economic development translates into genuine prosperity.
Because creating jobs in Te Tai Tokerau is important.
Ensuring the people of Te Tai Tokerau have the skills, pathways and opportunities to secure those jobs — and eventually create jobs themselves — could be even more important.
That is the pathway Te Ara Whakamua is now setting out to build.
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