At the ACE Conference 2017 Andy Jackson, the Ministry of Education key note speaker, referred to the Productivity Commission’s findings and the need to look at each level of the tertiary education system and ask what we can do to encourage innovation, while maintaining a focus on quality, to improve outcomes for learners. The theme of the conference was The Challenge of Change, and Andy ended his presentation with a slide that asked the question: So where is ACE heading?
It has been a question that Whau ACE has been grappling with for the last four years, and while they haven’t come up with all the answers what they have done is get some professional help, researched some basic issues, come to some conclusions about what the barriers are and where opportunities exist, and got to work - while still keeping a focus on what else needs to happen.
Finding themselves at just about rock bottom in 2013 was a catalyst for change. In 2010 they lost their ACE funding, as did most of the other ACE providers in West Auckland. They struggled on with user pays and found what others found, a decline in the number of people enrolling in ACE programmes. One by one all the schools that tried to keep going, dropped their courses. Now it is just Rutherford College providing school ACE in West Auckland. Their programme is TEC-funded. It not only survives - it has a dynamic and inclusive programme.
Then in January 2014 the Whau ACE Board appointed Theresa Christie as the new manager. With a community organisation background (she was the Manager of Training and Education for the Waipareira Trust for many years), Theresa was given a free hand to help lift the organisation. One of the first things she did, with the Board’s support, was take up an offer by the Tindall Grass Roots Giving Fund for help in kind. Trevor Grey came and reviewed the organisation - their governance, management and marketing. After his review he worked with Theresa and they did an organisational audit. The fundamentals had been attended to.
The Board’s vision is that Whau ACE will empower adults through community based learning and become the epicentre of adult education for New Lynn and its surrounding communities guiding adults on self-reliance, through pathways into employment, education and or self-employment: No real surprises, but renewed determination.
Armed with information about the declining learner numbers experienced by other surviving ACE providers, Theresa decided it was time to find out where all the learners had gone - and why Māori, Pasifika and Asian in particular, were not enrolling. They applied to Lotteries, got some funding, found the money to employ someone to keep the centre going while Theresa was out in the community, and did a survey by visiting places where these groups gather: markets, local organisations and churches, and public events.
The research had the following main findings: The large majority of Māori and Pasifika had not done any formal learning within the last ten years. The main barrier for Māori and Pasifika was funding: even $50.00 was too much to pay for a programme, and many were wary of the cost of travel. The main barrier for Asians was time. They also found that those in work could not afford to stop work to attend education or training programmes; evening courses were often not considered because people had to, they said, spend some time with their children. The top three programmes that they would like to enrol in if they could were: language (te reo Māori, ESOL for Asians and Pasifika); digital skills, and life-skills such as cooking on a budget.
As part of her fact finding Theresa also found a 2015 study by the Department of Labour about unemployment for the over forty-five age group. She started thinking about what Whau ACE could do to make a difference.
Response
In terms of what they were already offering, the research in their community confirmed that they were meeting needs, so they have continued with their programme. They have te reo and ESOL classes, art, weaving and an introduction to computers and technology. Numbers are still not high but they are committed to meeting learner needs, and run them so long as there are more than six people enrolled. The ILETS course runs when the demand is there.
Where Whau ACE has made a change is in their new focus on older, unemployed Māori and Pasifika.
To Theresa (Māori – Ngāpuhi and Pasifika – Samoan) it is obvious that it takes a village to raise a child: That is everyone – especially the elders. And, she says, as a group they are ‘broken’.
“That spells disaster,” Theresa says. “Young people growing up need their parents and grandparents to support them, and wrap around them. They are the backbone of the community. These days they are left out of the equation. Without empowered elders we are putting our youth of today into ‘foster care’. It is not just skills that this older age group needs, they must have mental and spiritual stability. Many of them are depressed.”
The answer that she came up with is the 45+ Club.
The 45+ Club is not a set course. Whau ACE has a sign outside their door and people just come in. When they do they are warmly greeted and invited to register. That means they can have a good long chat with Lovey Dvorkin (a qualified social worker and counsellor who works with Whau ACE on a voluntary basis) or Theresa about where they are at. There might be fifteen over 45s there at one time and in the informal ‘club’ environment, peer to peer support grows.
“Their self-image changes,” says Theresa. “It happens just because there are people believing in them, believing in them sincerely. Apart from the informal time together, we help them focus on what they can do to get work. We know that today it is often only the managerial class that has a 40 hour a week job, and we tell them that. We also tell them that qualifications and experience in a lot of cases only gets them to the starting gate. We help our people understand what it is that employers are looking for. We don’t make it sound easy. We work on their confidence so they can take the hard knocks. Then they are ready for job hunting, ready for interviews, ready for learning. We are helping people redesign themselves. We take many over the road to Literacy Waitakere – they are very warm and inviting. Others we might take to a PTE. We buddy with organisations that will look after them. We always support them to take the next step. Work options are discussed and there are four computers available and if they want to they are helped to job search. Some find a part time job, others are given one-on-one support to start their own small business.”
Everyone who is looking for work is helped to write a good cv. Inspired by the key note address by Professor Paul Spoonley at the ACE Conference this year, the Whau ACE team is now working on identifying the soft skills that people might already have, or those they have built up during their time with Whau ACE. For example, says Theresa, people who regularly attend a course, like art, te reo or digital skills, can demonstrate soft skills such as determination, patience, and a keenness to learn. “We help them understand that these skills are valuable, and we help them write a cv that reflects these skills. We are eliminating as many barriers as possible to self-reliance.”
For many financial capability is a barrier, so Whau ACE is addressing that through a partnership with the Waipareira Trust. Together they will be running financial literacy workshops, helping people repair their debt and understand the impact of a bad credit rating. “With a bad credit rating,” says Theresa, “it is hard to get a job because people see you as untrustworthy.” And that’s more wisdom to pass down to grandchildren and their children. Many parents of teenagers, says Theresa, often don’t know how to support their children. “By working with our older age group we are helping to repair the whole family unit.”
Whau ACE operates on a tiny budget – they just have two paid staff. When she accepted the job Theresa felt unsure about how long she would stay. Now she is fully committed and excited by their progress. “The community sector is the backbone of our country and it is neglected. We can now see that our organisation has got wings, it always had potential. Now it is licensed to fly.”