CORE Education Finalists At Canterbury Awards

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CORE Education Finalists At Canterbury Awards

Pushing boundaries is what CORE Education (CORE) does every day, and as finalists in the Champion Service category (medium to large enterprise) of the Champion Canterbury Awards last night, the company will forge ahead as a dominent force on the Canterbury landscape.

The CORE mission is “to push the boundaries of educational possibility”in its work across the educational sector. It is one of New Zealand’s foremost educational service providers with a range of services focusing on innovative eLearning, curriculum support, ICT and school review and concentrates on opportunities to raise learner achievement through engaging educators in 21st century learning approaches.

“Education is a public good,” says Chief Executive Ali Hughes.” As a not-for-profit organisation, CORE wins contracts for services that raise the standard of teaching and improve our schools. We also have a programme of reinvestment into projects supporting research and innovation, in order to constantly strive for better outcomes for our schools, and ultimately for our next generation of citizens.”

In last month’s national JRA Best Workplaces Awards, CORE was placed second in the small – medium category, missing the top spot by less than one percent on the performance index. Being selected as a finalist in the Champion Canterbury awards cemented its place as a leading New Zealand business.

The Christchurch based company has a team of around 80 spread across New Zealand, working in schools, tertiary institutions and early childhood education centres, providing quality professional development and support. CORE is recognised as the Ministry of Education’s preferred provider for services providing development and leadership programmes.

“CORE places relationships ahead of all other facets of its business. It is important to listen to your community, leaders, educators, stakeholders and all your staff; to understand them as people and value their contribution to the organisation,” Hughes says.

The recent Canterbury earthquake was a typical example of the sense of community and whanau within the organisation. “Team members from outside the city responded by sending money and donating annual leave days to the Christchurch team.” Hughes shares another example where someone used a CORE team dinner last year to propose publicly to a CORE employee. It was wonderful he felt so comfortable in our company that he wanted to share that personal occasion with us all”

CORE is an integral part of the Canterbury business landscape. It runs the ULearn conference –the biggest annual conference in the Christchurch calendar, bringing around 2000 delegates and over $3m into the city each October.

Other projects include the provision of staff and educational leadership to the Young Enterprise Scheme in Canterbury secondary schools, working with teams of young people to develop entrepreneurial and business skills needed for the future. It organises and hosts foreign delegations of educators visiting local schools to learn more about best practice education in New Zealand and was a founding sponsor of the Greater Christchurch Schools Network. This was set up to create a community of connected schools, teaching professionals, and educational resources in the greater Christchurch region utilising the high speed fibre optic network infrastructure in the city.

CORE has established an international reputation as educational leaders with numerous projetcs and contributions of expertise to a variety of projects. As part of its support for schools in the area of school review and development, CORE has developed the Educational Positioning System (EPS), which includes an innovative on-line tool. This is currently benefiting a number of Canterbury schools using it as part of their strategic planning process. The system is also being used more widely in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. CORE is partnering with another Christchurch company to use the technical architecture of the EPS tool and apply it in a business review and development context.
Hughes knows CORE is sucessful because of its people and its dedication to its strong values.

“When the company was initially formed, there was a determination it would be a values-lead organisation. This was a defined strategic intent and one we continually revisit. It’s not something that was done once and filed away, we continually revisit and update these values with all our staff and reiterate how we live by them every day.”
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