Wellington-based Enspiral Dev Academy has announced the launch of Te Uru Rangi, a scholarship formed to assist Māori students entering the technology industry.
Te Ururangi is a collaborative partnership between Enspiral Dev Academy, Te Puni Kōkiri, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Callaghan Innovation.
Today, Māori Development Minister, Te Ururoa Flavell, will open the scholarship, which is said to "lower barriers for young Māori to become web developers by helping students complete the Enspiral Dev Academy junior development course and find jobs in New Zealand’s exciting technology sector."
The co-founder of Enspiral Dev Academy, Rohan Wakefield has, for a while now, been working hard to create this opportunity.
He says, “Training and recruiting enough talent for New Zealand’s growing technology industry is a challenge and we are currently missing out on a huge pool of talented Māori that will excel in this area and help lift the bar for New Zealand’s technology exports.
We want to help train and support the next wave of Māori tech and business leaders. Te Uru Rangi scholarships will be incredibly beneficial in helping to achieve this goal.”
The programme has partnerships with some of New Zealand's best technology companies including Xero, Trademe, NZX and Powershop.
“We work closely with our partner businesses, which means over 80% of graduates have walked into great technology jobs within a few months of doing the course. Te Uru Rangi scholarships create a huge opportunity for more Māori to step into this thriving industry, and enter jobs that have high earning potential and value creativity, diversity and collaborative problem solving,” Wakefield adds.