Today, legislation came into effect that gives manufacturing, engineering and logistics industry stakeholders a guaranteed platform for shaping the future of vocational education. The Order in Council for Hanga-Aro-Rau Manufacturing, Engineering and Logistics is unique because it mandates the establishment of an independent industry stakeholder group that will work with the WDC to influence decisions around training provision, apprenticeship programmes, qualification standards and government funding.

Dr Troy Coyle and Renata Hakiwai, co-Chairs of Hanga-Aro-Rau Interim Establishment Board, said: “It has been a privilege for us to be involved in the establishment of Hanga-Aro-Rau. The Orders in Council consultation process was complex and involved a lot of hard work. Our industries were really engaged throughout, and we’re proud our Order in Council goes above and beyond to ensure our industries will have a guaranteed platform for being heard by their Workforce Development Council.

“Hanga-Aro-Rau’s Order in Council is unique in that it mandates the establishment of an industry stakeholder group that will ensure the strategic direction of the Workforce Development Council is set by industry representatives with a broad range of diversity and views. Furthermore the industry stakeholder group must appoint an independent chairperson who must have sufficient knowledge, skill or experience in te ao Māori.

“Now that the Orders in Council have been passed into law and appointments to the permanent Workforce Development Councils are imminent, our industries’ opportunity to influence the vocational education system will become a mandated reality.”

One of the first priorities of the incoming Council will be to work with industry to establish the industry stakeholder group and other mechanisms for industry engagement. This group will be critical because it will appoint future members of the Council and provide feedback on the strategic direction and performance of the Council.

The Workforce Development Council’s Māori name, Hanga-Aro-Rau, was developed through thinking about manufacturing, engineering and logistics in relation to people, learning and on-going development.

The translation of hangarau was used for engineering (to design and plan a product), hanga for manufacturing (to produce the product) and arorau for logistics (to transport the raw materials and finished products.

Hanga represents manufacturing, as this is the act of transforming a design or idea into an actual product, aro represents engineering, as it is a pursuit of creativity in designing the solution and rau represents logistics and the myriad routes traversed in the supply and demand chain.