What a year! 2021 saw Ara Rau grow in confidence and understanding of how to best service the Tauranga Moana community, connect multiple stakeholders across the region’s labour market, and support local people into jobs and training pathways. With well over 1,000 client engagements, 40 workshops delivered and 10 Ara Rau-led events, including the highly successful GIB Open Day and employer capability workshops, we have helped over 200 people into jobs or work pathways.

It’s been a privilege to work with so many dedicated and passionate people since Ara Rau’s inception in November 2020. It’s presented a greater insight into the challenges faced by both those seeking meaningful employment and those trying to provide it, and also a greater opportunity to create solutions that offer a genuine and impactful way forward for our community.

Overall, any successes Ara Rau has enjoyed would not have been possible without the extensive support from our community: local schools, training and education providers, social and professional services, community representatives and government agencies. Not to mention, the Priority One business members who have contributed to improving career and employment outcomes for all across Tauranga Moana. Also, a huge thank you to Hana at Rata Careers who has helped countless people tell their story to prospective employers.

We aim to hit the ground running again in 2022 with a range of exciting initiatives including: a new Ara Rau website; a workshop with Suki Xiao from ‘As You’ on How to Build your Dream Job; an Accessible Recruitment workshop with Momenta; and our next Industry Open Day focused around the Takitimu Northern Link.

If you’d like to know more about Ara Rau and want keep up to date with what’s happening in their skills and employment hub, get yourself registered on the Ara Rau mailing list here. The New Year will bring with it a new Ara Rau centric news and content publication, through which we will be delivering regular and exclusive updates to those registered.

In the meantime, see below for stories on the year that was for Ara Rau – Pathways to Work: 2021

• Ara Rau launches into 2021 (January)

• Art>Work feedback | Ara Rau/ReMaker event (June)

• The future of talent attraction and retention for Tauranga employers (July)

• The Journey to Inclusion: An introduction to JEDI for Business (August)

• Ara Rau – Pathways to Work: The mural, the message and the people (September)

• Ara Rau’s first Industry Open Day (October)

• Impressive turnout for Ara Rau’s GIB Industry Open Day (November)

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, ēngari taku toa he toa takatini.