Last Thursday at Mt Albert and yesterday at Waitakere campus, staff gathered for ARONUI ∙ FOCUS 2019 – The next stage of renewal.
Here’s a few highlights and pictures from the Mt Albert event, as well as a few pics from a condensed version of ARONUI ∙ FOCUS 2019 at Waitakere, held just for those who were teaching on the morning of the Mt Albert event.
Matua Hare opened with a karakia and special message, supported by our MC Nick Sheppard, who provided the English translation.
The Unitec Commissioner, Murray Strong, talked about how despite 2018 being a tough year for staff, we’ve positioned ourselves well for the future.
He reminded us that it’s ‘business as usual’ and the upcoming Roadmap 2020 will provide us with some exciting opportunities which will be better for our students and the communities we serve.
Murray also mentioned that Minister Hipkins had stated that he was delighted that Unitec has stood up and positioned us for change. He is keen to ensure that we continue to be involved at the front end of what is coming up. Thank you Murray for joining us.
Merran was beamed in ‘live’ from Wellington when she was with the TEC, Minister Hipkins and other IPT and ITO leaders. She also touched on Roadmap 2020, reminded us that while our EER result was disappointing, we should be proud of the progress we have made in achieving postive change in a short time.
She also touched on our Renewal Strategy and our 2019 key focus of people led, student-centric and community focused.
At both Mt Albert and Waitakere events, we caught-up with some of our Staff Excellence Awards ‘stars’.
The stories they shared about their work with students and our business partners in the community, were a great insight to the amazing talent and commitment to our students that so many of our staff have – teaching staff and in Support Services.
At Waitakere our Staff Excellence Award ‘stars’ (from the left), Rebecca Webster, Dipti Vora and Samantha Heath, were interviewed by Glenn Mckay. Dipti took the opportunity to do her “Oscars” thank you as she didn’t get to do this at the formal event, she was very entertaining!
At Mt Albert – Staff Excellence Awards ‘stars’ were interviewed by Nick Sheppard (from the left): Andrea Thumath, Dila Beisembayeva and Renata Jadresin-Milic
The workshops sessions (pictured below) explored what a student-centric and community focused Unitec means to us. All feedback was captured and will contribute to the Renewal Strategy. More on this will be available on the Nest over the next few months.
Alumni speaker – Jade Doel
Jade Doel (left), our guest speaker, is a Unitec graduate, completing a Bachelor of Product and Furniture Design in 2012, and currently a UX Senior Designer at The Warehouse Group. He talked about how Unitec shaped his career path and the huge influence his tutors had on his journey.
He studied Architecture for four years and then decided to study Industrial Design – he thanked tutor David Chapman for helping his open his eyes to his true passion and also mentioned Martin Bold and Cris de Groot as prime examples of what makes a good tutor.
The Heads of School panel session included all eleven on stage together, interviewed by Niko. Looking pretty relaxed here…
Another key priority for ARONUI ∙ FOCUS 2019 was to ‘get to know’ our new Heads of School. Facilitated by Director of Pacific Success, Falaniko Tominiko, ‘Niko’ put the Heads through a series of Q&A, which included sharing a memorable moment from their time at Unitec and some questions about what they enjoy doing when they’re not at work and, what animal they identified with… Responses included horse, elephant, tiger, unicorn and mermaid…!
Then the gifting of headwear gave some of us a clue as to what was coming next…
Niko thanked them with a special gift of headwear and sunglasses and asked them to join him in one of his passions, dancing! YMCA was the track and of course many people had a hint of what was to come based on the special headwear…
Thank you to the Heads of School for being such ‘good sports’ and to Niko for once again creating some wonderful energy and lots of laughs!
Then things started to really warm-up on the stage, lead by Niko…
YMCA…! *Click the pic for a short video*
… and it was great to see everyone enjoying themselves…
… and getting out of their seats to join in!
Glenn Mckay wrapped up the morning, capturing some of the highlights of the day and re-enforcing some of key messages about where we’ve been and were we’re going in 2019.
Thank you to Nick Sheppard for the big job of MC, Niko for getting involved at both Mt Albert and Waitakere, Linda Aumua and Sue Emerson for taking charge at Waitakere, our Staff Excellence Awards winners for ‘stepping up’, Glenn for moderating and closing, and to everyone who contributed to making this event informative and entertaining!