In a challenging journey throughout 2010, the Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (TWoA) Certificate in Cable Logging (Papatoa) kaiako has become the first TWoA kaiako to achieve the National Certificate in Adult Literacy Education (Vocational) as part of the He Whakapahuhu Kahukura (HWK) Learning Progressions Framework training.
Conny Huaki, HWK Project Advisor for Papatoa expressed that “Walking alongside the Papatoa kaiako in their transformation from bush men to literacy and numeracy educators has been hard but rewarding work”.
In the beginning one kaiako asked, “Where does that [literacy and numeracy] fit into what we are doing training bush men?” and one complained, “It is too much for my brain”.
By the end of the workshop series, their first impressions had transformed into positive affirmations such as, “I want to take this waka with me and learn more about it” and “The tools I have learned from this training and my knowledge around numeracy and literacy gave me the light to life”.
The skills these men have obtained, their energy and drive will assist them in making this work business as usual.
This is the end of the beginning for these kaiako and they are now ready to incorporate their skills of embedding literacy and numeracy into their teaching in 2011 as literacy and numeracy champions at TWoA.