Te Noho Kotahitanga in action gave hundreds of potential students and their whānau a glimpse of the quality of education and supportive culture Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka has to offer.
Information and Enrolment day 2023 was a huge success with more than 250 people taking the opportunity to learn more about our schools and our people.
Te Rina Finau completed her last year at school in 2022 and is taking some time to explore her career and education opportunities.
She attended the event with her mum Terehia Finau and says she really enjoyed being able to walk around and speak to experienced professionals across a wide range of disciplines.
“There’s a really warm vibe here, the people we talked to were real world professionals with all this experience and at the same time they were down to earth and really kind to us. That’s what stood out for me, “ said Te Rina
Terehia Finau came along to support her daughter and ended up leaving with brochures and contacts for programmes that she was now considering.
“It was really nice to be included in the conversation and considered as someone with the potential to explore further education , usually I’m just ‘the mum’ smiling and nodding in the background,” said Terehia.
19 year old Kani Katoa works full time but has always wanted to pursue a career in Automotive Engineering, due to work commitments, he wasn’t able to attend in person, so his mum attended and made inquiries on his behalf,
Kani says, that same day, he received a phone call from Unitec’s Automotive Engineering, Academic Programme Manager, Bryan Davis to talk through the programme and options available.
“He was really helpful and easy to talk to and he explained things really well. I felt more confident after that and am planning to go to Unitec to meet him in person and have a look around next
week.”
Director of Marketing, Viv Merito worked alongside Event Coordinator Romy Sunny to organise this years event and they were also part of the team meeting and greeting manuhiri on the ground throughout the day. She says the support of of the entire whānau at Unitec made the success of the event possible and the interest and enthusiasm of people who came along was wonderful to see at such an important time.
“You could see how much of a meaningful difference it made having that wrap around support from our Unitec whānau, our academics and our support teams. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou. And a super big thank you to Romy who picked up the kaupapa and ran with it – amazing mahi and execution.”