Ngāti Koata partner with the Ka Hao i te Ao Programme

National Entrepreneurship Programme and Te Tau Ihu Iwi - Ngāti Koata partner with the Ka Hao i te Ao Programme

With help from a partnership with Shopify’s global indigenous programme, government funding and donations, Te Whare Hukahuka are pleased to offer scholarships totaling $1.3 million dollars to cover the $7500 fee for their three-month E-commerce programme, ‘Ka Hao i te Ao’.

CEO Travis O’Keefe believes the Ka Hao i te Ao programme supports indigenous social positioning to increase the disposable household income of each student who participates.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck Aotearoa last year, O’Keefe says there has been a ginormous growth in e-commerce and says that Te Whare Hukahuka is on track to grow by 300% this year alone.

“We can train Māori and Pasifika from all walks of life in e-commerce. Our previous students have been mothers at home, beneficiaries, professionals to even business owners. The e-commerce training we provide can look to increase income into the home.” says O’Keefe

The Ka Hao i Te Ao programme will be commencing once again for the second year in a row on September 12th and is expected to be tripling it’s attendance from last year. This programme is an integral part of Te Whare Hukahuka’s mission statement to ‘improve the lives of ten million indigenous people’ by growing māori and Pasifika disposable income through learning about and utilising E-commerce. It is designed to help you launch and foster the growth of an online store in just 12 weeks.

Te Whare Hukahuka have a range of wonderful partners joining us to tautoko this kaupapa, and hope to build on the relationships to create a pathway to support individual and whānau wealth through learning about the power of e-commerce together.

Here are another two of our esteemed partners that make up the wider Te Whare Hukahuka community.

The first is Tony Henderson from Rebel Business School Aotearoa. Rebel Business School is a free to attend business accelerator for communities across Aotearoa. Using their business accelerator they excite and inspire people from across the country to want to start their own business. Their mission is to make starting a business accessible to anyone and everyone. With their alignment with Te Whare Hukahuka’s own values in mind, this is what they have said about the programme itself:

“The fact that Te Whare Hukahuka was able to access funding to provide this support for small business owners is a real asset to the business education ecosystem. Importantly, scholarships like this add real value to not only the business owner's knowledge and capability, it can accelerate revenue and build confidence.”

The Rebel Business School believes that e-commerce itself is a very important kaupapa because:

“For many small business owners starting their business journey are often overwhelmed by the ‘how’ to support growth of their business model. Often it is not about scale, rather about survival and sales. Understanding how automation can aid sales and take away business angst is also relevant to supporting business owners wellness.”

The second supporter of our programme is Iwi partner Ngāti Koata Iwi Trust. The Ngāti Koata Trust is the mandated iwi authority for Ngāti Koata. The trust deals with political and public issues, commercial and customary fisheries, local government relationships and resource and environment management. The trust also supports the cultural and social well-being of the iwi such as te reo Māori revitalisation, the archiving of iwi taonga and promoting greater connections of our iwi members to their identity, Whānau, taonga and whenua. Justin Carter is their General Manager.

Carter says: “This is a great opportunity for Whānau to put their ideas into action. We can’t wait to see what innovative ideas come about through this investment in digital enterprise. E-commerce has the potential to open up a world of opportunities for Whānau and can hopefully lead to better work life balance so there are more opportunities to spend quality time with each other.”

To apply for this programme you must be of Māori or Pasifika descent and be able and willing to commit to at least 6-8 hours a week over the course of 12 weeks.

In order to be eligible for a scholarship applicants must complete the application form and take place in and complete all five of the ‘Comfort Challenges’.

Applications for scholarships close on the 29th of August. The programme is set to begin on the 12th of September.

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