Under-served to undeniable: here are NZ's greatest untapped assets

Otago Daily Times

27-05-2025

At the 2025 NZ Hi-Tech Awards are 2023 First Foundation Scholars Corbin Paterson, Liam Aumareva and Alista Mafileo with Sarah Ramsay (far left) and Amber Taylor (far right), of the NZ Hi-Tech Trust. Photo: supplied
Recently I emceed a panel discussion about the work the NZ Hi-Tech Trust is doing with the First Foundation — providing scholarships to underprivileged kids.
As I was preparing, I became aware that the narrative of all the work I've done with not-for-profits and charities has been to ask for donations, sponsorship and grants — in order to support a "good cause".
But the narrative doesn't fit this time, because these kids aren't a cause. The more I've worked with the trust, the more I've come to realise they are an incredible asset to our companies and New Zealand's socioeconomic wellbeing.
To be a First Foundation Scholar, applicants must meet the low household income threshold of less than $60,000 per annum and be the first in their families to go on to tertiary study. They also need to be exemplar students.
Last year, the foundation awarded 90 scholarships, out of over 700 applicants.
I have come across scholars whose families have experienced periods of homelessness, who have parents that can't work due to illness and have to work part-time to support them, who have developed their own personal tools to manage dyslexia and ADHD. There have also been the truly awful stories of kids who have been neglected, abandoned and even living in their cars.
And they're scholar recipients — which means they are also achieving excellences and merits, they're head boys and girls and they're already volunteering with community groups and mentoring other students.
Honestly, these kids sparkle like Christmas trees with the amount of badges they have hanging off their blazers. Plus, to manage all that, they have already honed their executive function skills at 16, more than many of us will ever have.
Because of their real world experiences, they're deeply rooted in their communities. Ask any of them what they want to do with their lives and it will involve giving back. They feel responsible for doing well, modelling this for their younger siblings, wider whanau and communities.
I haven't met one student yet who hasn't said they want to make the world a better place and they want to stay in New Zealand.
Now, in the context of the hi-tech industry, we are short on talent. Immigration settings haven't fixed it and our graduates are heading overseas. Doesn't it seem insane that we have these incredible future leaders here in our communities and we aren't tapping into them?
This is a systemic issue in our society. So many students simply don't know what the opportunities are and unless they get picked up by a great school counsellor, teacher or mentor, they will likely never realise their potential.
The scholars I've met are the lucky ones, but luck isn't a strategy.
There is no point in everyone scrambling for the summer interns and top graduates if we aren't getting these kids into the funnel in the first place.
We need to do better, we need to start earlier and we need to be targeted.
Because I like real examples, take the story of one of our cadets at United Machinists.
He came through the SOREC Engineering Academy programme from his high school for a year every Wednesday and is an absolute pleasure to have on the team.
So I was surprised when the polytechnic said they couldn't accept him into our bachelor of applied engineering technology scholarship — they asked if I'd reviewed his academic record before making the offer.
He hadn't done the necessary physics or maths papers, subject selections that were made a couple of years before and had absolutely no context at the time.
I said: "Why would I look at his academic transcript, it's irrelevant — he's picked up the laser engraver, robot and 3-D printing. He can interpret a high-precision machine drawing, which means he understands microns and basic trigonometry, and he is undertaking inspections using a co-ordinate measuring machine to tolerances sub 10 micron. I can see what he can do, I don't need a piece of paper to tell me that, he's just never had anything that really floats his boat to apply the physics and maths to."
The polytechnic came to the party, we got him in to a bridging maths and physics course, and he's on his way to his degree.
This could have been a really different outcome, had it not been for our cadet programme. It's a great example of how our education system is letting us down.
So my challenge to anyone that this has struck a note with is to get involved, think long-term and start building a 10-plus-year talent funnel that gives more of these kids a chance to participate.
There are some incredible programmes you can get involved in. Here are just a few:
First Foundation: Provides scholarships, mentoring and paid work experience to support academically promising students from low-income backgrounds;
House of Science: Supplies science resource kits and teacher support to primary and intermediate schools;
The Wonder Project: Run by Engineering New Zealand, delivers STEM education programmes in schools;
I Have a Dream: Offers long-term mentoring and academic support to students in low-income communities;
Inspiring the Future: Connects schools with volunteer speakers from diverse careers to help students learn about job pathways;
Youth Employment Success (YES): Connects young job seekers with local employers who offer free employment-based opportunities.
• Sarah Ramsay is chief executive of United Machinists.