Te Tiriti o Waitangi - our commitment

In recognition of Waitangi Day, and in order to strengthen our Te Tiriti commitment, Competenz has developed a strategy to raise the bar on governance, practices, and bicultural competency within our team. This is a necessary step to ensure we are meeting our commitment as a Treaty partner.

A newly formed Māori Advisory Board will ensure the Competenz governance structure has a formal Māori entity that is able to oversee and support all Kaupapa Māori. The two houses, Te Whare Whanui and Te Whare Māori, give effect to core principles of Te Tiriti as they work towards the following objectives:

• To give recognition to the Treaty of Waitangi and enact a treaty-based relationship at an operational level by ensuring Competenz employees are provided with the appropriate advice and development on bi-cultural competency.
• To develop and implement action plans which will improve Māori learner outcomes.
• To ensure staff have access to relevant reports/information that identifies progress against Māori learner outcomes as set out in the Tertiary Education Committee (TEC) strategy.

Also this week, we launched our own internal employee bicultural competency programme. We're taking a staged approach, building on our existing knowledge and offering specialised courses in some areas of our organisation, particularly for our field teams who work closely with learners.

The learning programme will include:

• Introduction to Te Tiriti o Waitangi policy
• Understanding Te Tiriti and Te Ao Māori and the influence these have on the work we do at Competenz
• Rangatahi in the workplace: supporting young people to be successful in the workplace from a Māori perspective (for learner-facing teams)
• Engaging with iwi Māori (for senior leadership and sector engagement teams)
• Te Reo Māori: Weekly classes offered for everyone that can be attended in person or remotely.

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