“It’s not until you hear people talking that you know the true impact of your investment.”
You could hear a pin drop as Dr Pauline Kingi vocalised what everyone was thinking on Friday morning. Members of the Upskills team were at The Cause Collective (TCC) in South Auckland.
Dr Kingi (Deputy Board Chair, TCC) was talking to the Minister for MBIE, Melissa Lee. She was a special guest at the Alo Vaka Pacific Skills Shift showcase. It brought together employers, rangatahi, employees, and the community to speak about the collective ‘oomph’ and heart behind this mahi. It was the best way to let the work speak for itself.
“One of the best courses I have taken. My confidence – there’s no words unless you try, is the best way to put it.”
“We’ve seen we need more opportunities like this – this is the start, a project designed to build future readiness in our employees and communities, it’s made such a difference.”
“Before I took this course, my way of thinking about budgeting was totally different – I know that it’s ok to save a little bit at a time, I taught my daughter and together she’ll be going to Japan by applying what I learnt on this Money Confidence course.”
“The benefits far outweigh the time spent away from work. We’ve seen a huge uptick in health and safety observations and boosted engagement survey scores from training opportunities. We know as a business it’s more than that, our guys are teaching kids some of the tools they are learning too.”
“We’ve had team members who’ve taken leadership roles, and it’s just boosted their confidence to apply and be successful.”
The panel of speakers impressed Minister Lee. She noted how we all share some of the same dreams and the importance of aspirations. She emphasised her focus on creating a thriving, productive New Zealand for all of us.
The Alo Vaka project is an MBIE project. It collaborates with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited in the workplace, The Cause Collective in the community, and Uptempo with aiga (family). The wider MBIE goal supports a responsive labour market, protecting people so they can best use their skills. This wrap-around approach has contributed to many positive outcomes. These include small business start-ups, financial literacy learning and confidence boosts, digital literacy and leadership courses.
Upskills has partnered across our client networks to deliver micro-credentials in the workplace for Project Ikuna. A mihi to Foodstuffs North Island it has made a massive commitment to upskilling via this project.
Read more
About our Maori and Pasifika initiatives
