CADETSHIP INITIATIVE FUND FINAL REPORT
Registered Organisation Name
Pūhoro Charitable Trust
Lead Contact
Kemp Reweti – Manahautū CE
Landline
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Contact Details
Mobile
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E-mail
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Briefly set out how you identified and recruited/enrolled your cadets onto your Cadetships
programme(s), and how this compares to your initial plans/expectations:
Pūhoro cadets were selected across various roles within the organisation, in an effort to strengthen,
support and train and develop staff across the breadth of the kaupapa. The roles identified spanned all
aspects of Pūhoro work delivery and included roles in Senior Leadership, Regional Kaihautū Leads
(Team Leaders), Operations Staff and general Kaihautū (navigators). As Pūhoro has staff across a
number of regions in Aotearoa, Pūhoro ensured cadets were from diverse regions accordingly.
Our initial plans and expectations around this were met and achieved. In our previously submitted
progress report we noted the different roles that had been selected cadetship wise for this
development programme and furthermore, importantly to the organisation, the development of the
cadets aligned with the key values and principles that Pūhoro as a by Māori, for Māori and with Māori
kaupapa stand for. The partnership in this respect with Te Puni Kōkiri was a natural step in realising the
aspirations of those values in a way that was palpably beneficial to kaimahi in the Pūhoro Charitable
Trust.
Our key aspiration was for all cadets to have Personal Development Plans (Te Mahere Whāinga)
which were created by us in a bespoke way that related to our values, our organisational
development priorities and could effectively help us track the progress of our cadets and staff. We
were able to complete these development guides and implement the process for using them and
furthermore give life to a new way of tracking intentionally the progress of our cadets and kaimahi for
the benefit of the organisation as a whole.
As this is new for Pūhoro and the first time we have partnered in regards to this initiative, our
expectation was that as an organisation this partnership would provide us with growth, development
and would influence our processes, procedures and overall team culture. We have seen this develop
and blossom as we have continued forward with the focus on our teams development. So this
partnership has had good outcomes for our kaupapa.
How did you set up and implement your Cadetship programme? What were the key elements that
contributed to the success of the programme? What lessons did you learn? What, if anything would
you do differently in the future?
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Pūhoro set a strategic goal to focus on the development and training of staff in a way that could
enhance and grow them. We set this up in a way that complemented staffs work programmes and
maximised their ability to engage in growth.
The key elements of successfully supporting our team in the programme have been:
• Identifying how we can develop team members in mana enhancing ways,
• Providing leadership and development opportunities that support team members to extend
themselves.
• Ensuring we can track progress accordingly and plan effectively with team members
• Reflecting on ways to improve our growth opportunities for staff and;
• Ensuring that each cadet is simultaneously growing both in the experience and skills needed
in their role as well as in the Te Ao Māori space.
Some key lessons learnt were the following:
• To ensure this is done well, requires organisation, planning and implementation. It is not easy
to co-ordinate so our approach was to ensure our senior leadership team worked together to
implement the kaupapa. With the departure of our key senior leader who initiated the
partnership, we wanted to take a full approach from SLT in order to fulfil the requirements
that had been entered into.
• We have had a couple of staff leave that were part of the kaupapa. Importantly this has
required us to be agile and find additional staff to administer the kaupapa too.
• Tracking progress is key, and ensures a robustness of delivery.
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Briefly describe any additional information on the progress your cadets have made and the training
and development they undertook during and after their participation on their Cadetships programme,
including how this compares to initial expectations/plans. Please feel free to add any particular case
studies for individual cadets:
Importantly, we would like to advise that we have had an intensive year for Pūhoro with a number of
significant changes and developments for the kaupapa. Unfortunately, this impacted our ability to
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complete the full training programme for our cadets during the March-November period, as
anticipated. We would still like to provide these development opportunities to our cadets with the
funding allotted that has not been expended and hope that you would be open to this proposal.
You will note in the financial report, key information around our expenditure and how this has been
expended for each individual candidate to date, however there are still further training and
development opportunities assigned and planned that have not been completed. We as an
organisation would like to be able to fulfil these and believe they will further strengthen the work that
has already been undertaken. The work delivered thus far has been substantial however, we would
like to be able to continue to provide more opportunities accordingly.
The progress of our cadets has been significant. From the outset we knew that this opportunity would
be important, however being able to build up and train, develop, provide work experience
opportunities, strengthen identity and mātauranga in te ao Māori, create new HR processes, engage
in isometric testing and leadership development training as well as digital qualifications and online
writing course opportunities, have really helped foster, build and grow the development of our
cadets.
In our previous report we appended an additional document we named the
Interim Monitoring
Spreadsheet this really showcased the training opportunities and the variety that was received and
being engaged in by cadets. Of note for this final report is the completion of the
Final Monitoring
Template which has been appended which gives further insight into progress of cadets overall.
Case Study – Cadet 20 Cadetship Initiative
As an organisation, we recognised a key skill and capacity gap for Pūhoro was in the co-ordination of
Finances between our organisation and our registered accountants. Accordingly, through the impetus
of the cadetship initiative, we were able to go to market and recruit. This recruitment enabled us to
employ Cadet 20 into a role as a Finance Co-ordinator. Necessarily we wanted to ensure we could
provide rich training opportunities for Cadet 20 as this was the first time she had worked within a
kaupapa Māori organisation and also wanted to develop her experience within the Finance
administration and management space. A training programme was developed in order to support her
journey in Te Ao Māori, and furthermore extend her experience and training within the Finance
administration space. The Cadet has gained incredible benefits from this programme and been able to
see those benefits be realised and applied in the day to day workings of the Pūhoro organisation.
Furthermore, she has been able to implement her own skills and adjustment to processes and
procedures in the Pūhoro organisation which has created additional benefits of efficiency within the
kaupapa.
“This opportunity to be recruited into Pūhoro, and to work for a kaupapa Māori based organisation
and develop and be trained in the skills and experience I need has been awesome! I’ve had the chance
to increase in my understanding of reo and tikanga as part of this initiative and also gain new skills
through financial training opportunities as part of this. As my experience grows, I am excited for what
is ahead!”
We have been able to see first-hand how this training and focus on development has supported Cadet
20 and seen her thrive and add her own individual flair to the responsibilities and work entrusted to
her. As we continue to see her progress and develop and been able to work alongside Cadet 20 we
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know that the outcomes and benefits from this focus will not only impact and grow her as an
individual, but also flow forward into the rest of the organisation as a whole as we are seeing occur
already.
Briefly describe the benefits that cadets have gained through their participation in the initiative,
including their impacts on workplace culture and productivity:
Cadets on the programme have received benefits that have been both individual but also created
impact for the collective.
Impacts on workplace culture and productivity have been the following:
• Increase in new skill development – cadets have been enabled to acquire new skills which
further add to their own individual kete of knowledge but also benefit organisational
competency and skills.
• Our environment with a focus on development creates a safe space for cadets to grow in their
abilities and also their knowledge in Te Ao Māori.
• Tracking through our new Te Mahere Whāinga documentation and process enables us to
monitor, support and help cadets see the journey that’s being undertaken.
• Our culture has further been enhanced as cadets see the focus is on their well-being,
development and training as individuals which further promotes a culture of a growth mind-
set across the collective of the organisation.
• The diversity and frequency of training opportunities given for the cadets has helped us
support and strengthen them.
Briefly describe the impact your participation in the Cadetships Initiative has had on your
organisation, including for instance, how it has impacted on productivity, relationships to Māori
communities, and the extent to which you may have adapted HR/recruitment policies and procedures
and leadership training.
This initiative has supported the organisations development in a number of ways.
We have been able to adapt our HR policies and procedures by introducing our own bespoke,
Personal Development Plans – Te Mahere Whāinga which were created to ensure they suit the needs
and aspirations of our organisation as a by Māori for Māori and with Māori kaupapa. Our collective
experience of these processes within previous organisations we had worked in was overwhelmingly
negative, so being able to create our own purposeful and meaningful documentation and process was
empowering! These documents and the process implemented also enable some flexibility and the
ability for us to be iterative – meaning that as we continue to use these to support our progress we
can adapt and be agile accordingly always ensuring that the focus in on our people.
Our leadership training opportunities has helped us identify key strengths of staff but also gaps that
need to be filled with necessary techniques and skill development to strengthen our people leaders.
The cadetships helped us confront these areas of weakness and also understand them to then be able
to do something to improve them.
Organisationally, what this initiative has shown us is that there is a real need and desire to provide
training, upskilling, leadership opportunities, work experience, Te Ao Māori training and new digital
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skills training. We are now looking at broader ways we can further drive this development and
training mind-set across the whole organisation.
As we have strengthened our stand in Te Ao Māori through the training we have made available, this
has given our cadets opportunity to engage in Māori communities more confidently and uplifted their
competency and understanding of Te Ao Māori. As an organisation, this enhancement further helps
give us more ability to engage in Māori communities in ways that are mana enhancing and tika.
Please add any other comments/observations about your organisations’s participation in the
Cadetships Initiative. Would your organisation be keen to participate in future years? What changes
(if any) would you like to see in future years?
The Cadetship initiative has been a fundamental opportunity for the Pūhoro Charitable Trust to
support our people, enhance their development and extend new opportunities for growth.
Our organisation as a relatively newly established charitable trust (third year of operation). Have
needed this initiative to further enhance individuals experience as new or existing employees of
Pūhoro, furthermore, it has helped increase leadership skills and fostered positive development
within cadets and the broader organisation.
We are on a growth trajectory and would like to further develop carefully other staff within our
organisation. We definitely have a keenness to participate in future years. Accordingly as noted there
would need to be things that we improve on and adjust to further streamline our delivery of this
kaupapa as we strive for excellence in all that we do.
Finally, we would like to express our thanks and gratitude for this opportunity. We believe our work is
not yet complete and have other training and development opportunities for our cadets that we
would like to action. We hope to be able to continue to use this opportunity as a further platform to
foster individual and collective growth within our organisation. Mauri Ora!
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Signed:
Kemp Reweti, Acting Manahautū CE – Pūhoro Charitable Trust
1/11/2023
Date:
APPENDICES 1&2 (emailed as attachments with the submission of the report).
Pūhoro has also attached as appendices the following documents:
1. Cadetships 2022/23 Final Monitoring Template.
2. Te Puni Kōkiri Funding Financial Report 2023.
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