Tairāwhiti Tech
Talent Incubator

A passion project started October 2020 with the objective of moving the Tairāwhiti community from low paying employment into the information technology (IT) industry (high valued, future ready employment).

A pilot Tech talent incubator programme was developed, with a particular focus on Maori which had the audacious goal of:

"Building a local Tairāwhiti Tech-workforce where people from our community are trained, employed and developed in our region" Phil Kupenga

The programme consists of the following:

If selected Tairāwhiti locals will do the online Enspiral Dev Academy 15-week boot camp course.
We provided all candidates with laptops, screens and computer accessories if needed
Candidates are provided a remote dedicated tutor for the region
They sit within the Tāiki E Impact house in Gisborne where the candidates can work together in one venue, have access to internet and sit in a tikanga Māori based environment
In Taiki E we provide a dedicated support person
On completion of the course, we are looking to get students into employment locally (pathway to employment model).

Power of the Collective

Dev Academy Aotearoa trains Tairāwhiti locals on a 15 week online intensive boot camp to become Full stack web developers.

Taiki E Impact House provides a venue & a kaupapa Maori environment for students to work out of. The Taiki E whanau support the students to succeed and pass the course.

Tairāwhiti Context

Problem - Maori in Poverty

A Primary industry region with Est pop of 50 000 where Maori makeup 53%
Majority of Maori live in poverty areas (Decile 8 to 10) & make up 77% of the regions welfare spend
Maori make on average 55K which is less than the National medium average of 60K
Highest youth population (19 000) of youth from 15 to 24 years, have 1400 youth Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)

Tairāwhiti Tech Talent Incubator programme was developed to build the community's advanced digital literacy and get them into high valued employment in IT, with the goal of getting our community, out of financial POVERTY.