Auckland campus hosts Pacific Island Leaders of Tomorrow workshop

Fostering natural leadership skills among Pacific students was the focus of  workshops hosted by Massey University in Auckland this week.

The Pacific Island Leaders Of Tomorrow (PILOT) programme – held for the first time at Massey’s Auckland campus – attracted 110 year 12 pacific students from all over the city. They took part in workshops on leadership, scholarships and career planning.

Along with Otago, Victoria and Waikato Universities, UNITEC, Manukau Institute of Technology, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), and the Ministry of Education, Massey is a partner in the scheme and collaborates to deliver programmes and sessions to Pacific Island Secondary School students in Auckland.

Massey University Pacific Student Recruitment Adviser Reti Simanu is part of the PILOT committee and says it was great to see so many Pacific students attend the day at the Auckland Campus.

The programme covers all year levels from Year 10 to Year 13 ,so the theme for the Year 12s this year was leadership; “because we are preparing them for Year 13 when they become leaders of their school,” Reti says.

He says the workshops were tailored around natural leadership skills that students perhaps don’t know they have and the day focused on how to bring that out of them.

“We also touch on scholarships, because when applying for scholarships we go with the Year 12 results – so that’s important for the year 12s to know.”

Pacific@Massey staff members and the Pacific Student Success team based in Auckland attended the event to support the day’s activities.

“It was a great day, not only to showcase Massey’s Auckland campus but also our great Pacific@Massey team and the work we do here,” Reti added.

For more information on the PILOT program visit their website here.