Matrix > Toolkit: Training and Development > What Does a Culturally Capable Training Pipeline Look Like for Māori and Pasifika? Uptempo Insights
What Does a Culturally Capable Training Pipeline Look Like for Māori and Pasifika? Uptempo Insights
As well as addressing financial barriers, employers will benefit from a culturally competent approach to training. This section explores how to address the lack of confidence among low-paid Pasifika workers, and how to leverage Pasifika cultural strengths and Māori and Pasifika providers. Insights, case studies and examples are drawn from Uptempo research focusing on Pasifika - however, much of it is also relevant to Māori. Māori-owned training providers with a strong cultural grounding also support Pasifika workers well, as shown by the Uptempo Digital Tech Pathways case study (Pipeline fix 2).
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Engage with aiga attitudes and dynamics
Pasifika family attitudes to upskilling or progression can ‘make or break’ decisions to engage in adult learning, often involving attitudes towards risk and fear of failure. While aiga motivation to earn more is usually very clear – to provide for children, family needs and cover costs – a range of attitudes can create hesitancy, for example putting children first: “A lot of our families put aside their dreams to make sure their kids dreams are being progressed”, or a sense that education is only for younger people: “There is a strong, embedded stereotype that education is for young people, not for them [Pasifika adults]. We talk this through with our learners and support them to realise that education is for everyone, at any time” (Zeducation).
Due to being relatively recent migrants to New Zealand, security, reliability and predictability are important to many Pasifika families. Risk-averse family or individual attitudes to change, disruption, or unfamiliar aspirations, seem connected to self-protectiveness amid household and community precarity and uncertainty, and fear of rocking the boat to seek more (Mok et al., 2020; The Southern Initiative & Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 2018). Family support can supercharge aspirations and engagement, but a lack of support or negative attitudes from family tends to collapse engagement (Mok et al., 2020; Uptempo, 2022).
Overcome negative experiences of NZ schooling system
Negative experiences of school can also affect willingness and confidence to engage in adult learning for both Māori and Pasifika. TSI’s work on engagement in education for South Aucklanders highlights the “insidious impact of unconscious and conscious bias in education” (The Southern Initiative et al., 2020). The Ministry of Education notes, “We heard racism is a daily reality for many Māori students from a young age… Poor expectations, stereotyping, a lack of respect and negative attitudes towards students and whānau are all types of racism” (Ministry of Education, 2019). Uptempo and Tātaki Auckland Unlimited’s Project Ikuna have focussed on how bite-sized learning and positive training experiences can help build people’s self-confidence in being able to learn, which then scaffolds people into more advanced training.
Connect adult learning to culture and aspirations
Aiga engagement needs to be grounded in Pasifika culture and communities. Otherwise, there is a high risk of repeating patterns of exclusion and failing to engage and retain Pasifika adult learners. Connecting adult learning opportunities with Pasifika aspirations and values of uplifting family and community, and caring for others, is a powerful motivator for encouraging Pasifika aiga to explore new learning options (ACE Aotearoa, 2014; Benseman, 2014; Spiller, 2012). Connecting aiga aspirations to concrete career pathways by providing real-life examples, role models, and peer support from those who have gone before makes the career pathway feel real and more attainable (Rose, 2015).
Community endorsement
Evidence emphasises the importance of learning providers partnering with community stakeholders and Pasifika knowledge holders face-to-face to foster aiga trust and engagement in adult learning. Uptempo is an example of a Pasifika intermediary acting as a trusted bridge between Pasifika communities and learning providers and employers. We find that once we have established the vā with an aiga member, that there is more openness and willingness to pursue adult learning.
“Aiga rely on our recommendations for training providers because they trust us and don’t know what they don’t know” (Uptempo facilitator). Community trust in learning pathways, providers or intermediaries is often spread via word of mouth from family or community networks such as churches. Uptempo is increasingly being approached by aiga who are connected with existing Uptempo aiga.
A positive introduction and first experience of adult learning is crucial and can shape a person’s future interactions with education and the workforce: “If their first learning experience as an adult is a good one, their likelihood of continuing to engage in learning is higher” (Uptempo team). Uptempo is also observing aiga who have had a good experience of courses actively encouraging others to do the same.
Through the Pasifika superpower of strong social networks, as more and more aiga have great experiences of adult learning and move into higher-paid roles, the impact of effective Pasifika-centred adult learning engagement and provision is likely to be fast and significant.
Māori and Pasifika-led provision
Uptempo learners respond positively to Pasifika learning environments with a Pasifika provider, nourished by Pasifika values, expressed for example through:
A focus on connection, mentoring and aiga, within a common understanding of Pasifika cultures and community;
the presence of Pasifika peers and Pasifika languages; and/or
aiga-friendly classrooms with food included: “Kids allowed in class, laughing is compulsory!”.
These insights align with research evidence that Pasifika students are best served when their educators connect with Pasifika ways of learning and communicating, including active, social, ‘noisy’, inquiry-based and relational learning that promotes learner agency (Siilata, 2014; Spiller, 2012). Crucially, this must also reject deficit views and low expectations of Pasifika learners (Benseman et al., 2006; Bruce Ferguson et al., 2008; Chu et al., 2013; Coxon et al., 2002), instead harnessing Pasifika culture as a learning superpower.
There is much potential for employers and the inhouse or external trainers they usually use, to collaborate and co-design with Māori and Pasifika-owned providers, to support Māori and Pasifika workforce development. Key to this is whole of family or whanau engagement.
Example A: Māori owned tech education provider
Rea is a Māori owned education provider supporting learners into the technology sector through an 18-week part-time programme followed by a three-month internship with employers. Rea’s connection to the IT sector and employer’s needs, combined with flexible learning and an accelerated pathway, have produced real success for participants. TSI’s Youth Connections programme funded 18 rangatahi who received a learner experience grounded in te ao Māori, with a strong focus on wellbeing and a coach-led approach to pastoral care. On-the-job training and on-demand support also provided a safe and nurtured environment during the internship with continued support available after employment placement. 60% completed the programme, continuing onto a range of employment and education pathways including securing roles at Deloitte, The Warehouse Group and Watercare.
Example B: Kaupapa Māori support for rangatahi
Mā Te Huruhuru is a charitable trust that takes a unique kaupapa Māori approach to support rangatahi in South Auckland who experience family violence, gangs and poverty. It offers a comprehensive programme ranging from employment support, life-skills, health and well-being advice, social work support and mentoring. Critically however it is grounded in te ao Māori and focuses on connecting rangatahi to their cultural identity. This connection to their identity allows rangatahi to re-engage in learning and training pathways as they build their confidence and sense of self in a safe environment.
Leverage Māori and Pasifika cultural capital by implementing training and mentorship for progression with tuakana-teina, peer-to-peer, ‘village’ and cohort approaches
Research evidence supports nourishing the vā for Pasifika learners through emphasising relationships in learning, including peer-to-peer learning, tuakana-teina models, intergenerational learning, having a ‘matua’ or ‘aunty’ to hold the vā of the learning group, and having strong Pasifika peer-support networks (Benseman et al., 2006; Siilata, 2014; The Southern Initiative & Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 2018; Towner et al., 2017; Vaioleti & Morrison, 2015).
“Pasifika adult learners are motivated, they often have responsibilities at home, so are less tolerant of mucking around, whereas younger ones are still figuring things out. It’s nice to have a mix of adults and younger people in class together as you often see a tuakana-teina model organically emerge (Oceania Careers Academy, p.16)”.