Great business insights at Te Matatini

Our team members Darin Kauwhata, Duane Mackwood, Hinewai Quensell, and Bobi Te Runa had the privilege of attending Te Matatini, the national kapa haka event, in Ngāmotu | New Plymouth in March. We were blown away by the impact Te Matatini had on the local Taranaki economy, with hospitality, travel, accommodation, retail, cleaning, and transport providers thriving as thousands of manuhiri poured into the rohe.

The team spent much of the time talking with business owners about their career journeys, aspirations, and the pathways that have shaped them. These conversations were woven through the Mata Ārahi Manomano Career Pathways Framework, a kaupapa that blends te ao Māori perspectives with career development practice, guided by Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Key themes emerged from our conversations, which will inform our qualification development, such as a real appetite for structured business guidance, especially around online sales, finance, and branding.

Check out our insta reels to watch some of our convos with business owners.

 

Partnering with recruitment sector

Ringa Hora industry engagement lead Elkan Seaga has been engaging with Recruitment, Consulting and Staffing Association (RCSA) members and the wider industry through face to face, online webinars and workforce surveys.

Ringa Hora and RCSA share a common ethos, to understand the employment/recruitment industry and better respond to workforce shortages through provision of skills/credentials.

The engagements helped us gather insights and understand the needs of industry. We hope the insights we share with the recruitment will enable and help direct their next steps to ensure this sector is a thriving one.

 

Service opportunities outlined at Job Explore Whangarei

Duane Mackwood, Ringa Hora engagement lead, represented Ringa Hora at Job Explore Whangarei 2025 to spread the word about the huge opportunities in the Service sectors. An insightful conversations were had with our neighbours, Inland Revenue, and with the team from the Department of Corrections NZ. Soft skills, de-escalation, crowd management, awareness and treating ALL people with respect were just some of the transferrable skills shared as necessary for frontline service staff.

 

Industry hui help to launch Real Estate review

Ringa Hora met with representatives from the Real Estate sector as we begin the review of qualifications for Real Estate salespeople and property managers.

Our team, led by industry engagement lead Marina Masame and qualifications development facilitator Johann Engelbrecht, met with a number of education providers at a hui in February, and then got together with industry representatives in March.

We gained a great deal of insight on how the qualifications are working in the field at present and this will help us move forward as we set up working groups to review the qualifications as 2025 continues.

 

Workforce survey assists business events sector

Our industry engagement lead Martin Szeko has been working closely with Business Events Industry Aotearoa to develop new credentials, including a qualification and skill standards and support the business events sector.

Martin has been helping BEIA by providing broader workforce development insights and intel, enabling informed decisions to influence the attraction-retention pipeline. The project aims to uncover the skills and knowledge needed to work in the industry and provide guidance on career and development pathways into the sector.

Ringa Hora met with the BEIA Workforce Steering Group in March to present a draft of the credentials and share findings from a workforce survey that will help shape the development of a business events workforce roadmap with recommendations supporting the BEIA Piata Mai strategy.