Vanessa Eparaima, chair of the Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Council Te Mana Whakahaere, has been appointed to the Board of Te Pūkenga Work Based Learning Limited (WBL).

WBL was created as a landing entity for Transitional Industry Training Organisations (TITOs) which   transition to Te Pūkenga under the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) programme.

Along with being chair of Te Mana Whakahaere, Vanessa (Raukawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Waikato, Te Arawa) has a long history of service to her people.

She has been the executive chair of Raukawa Settlement Trust and inaugural chair of Raukawa Iwi Development Limited and continues to be a director, trustee, chair, or member of numerous organisations, including Tuaropaki Trust, Tuaropaki Power Company, Māori investment fund Te Puia Tāpapa,  and CNI Iwi Land Management Limited and has been Chair of Te Mana Whakahaere for six years.

Her governance and leadership skills cross a range of sectors, and she has a strong history of working with the wider community to achieve positive outcomes.

In 2014 Vanessa became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori.

Vanessa says she looks forward to enhancing the growing relationship between Te Pūkenga, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and industry.

“One of our key values at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is kotahitanga and in this time of change within the vocational education space, it has never been more important for us to work together,” she says.

“Te Pūkenga Work Based Learning has an important role to play under RoVE and I look forward to contributing to help us achieve positive outcomes for ākonga and for us at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa to achieve our mission of tauira success and our vision of whānau transformation through education.”