Future focus on community health

Dianne Hemopo, student midwife at the Ko Awatea Centre. Photo / Ted Baghurst

The health sector has among the most dire skill shortages in New Zealand, with Maori and Pacific Island communities hit the hardest. But, this year, the first health students will graduate from a relatively new education partnership dedicated to Counties Manukau.

The programme, dubbed "Grow Our Own Workforce", begins in local high schools where promising students can study health and science to prepare for tertiary studies.

"This is the first time an academic academy has been set up in a school setting. It focuses on science and maths and English but actually changes the way it's taught with much more of a health focus," says programme manager Caroline Tichbon.

Students can go on to study at the purpose-built Ko Awatea Centre for Education and Innovation at Middlemore Hospital. The new $9.9 million facility was just opened on June 21.

"They teach some of the undergraduate and postgraduate health qualifications there onsite. It means that the students are in the hospital environment already, even as undergraduates."

Manukau Institute of Technology, Auckland University of Technology and the University of Auckland provide 60 per cent of the funding for Ko Awatea, and are also education partners for the programme.

The Tindall Foundation has given Ko Awatea $1.25 million for this year, in addition to the $1 million in seed funding last year.

The programme is also open to adults who are looking to further their careers in health. "In terms of the midwifery programme, usually people go into midwifery with some life experience ... so they will be anywhere from mid-20s to mid-40s, or perhaps older. We also fund scholarships for people doing tertiary health study."

These programmes are only open to Maori or Pacific Islanders. The idea is for them to be embedded in the Counties Manukau community, share their knowledge with others locally and live in the community long term. There is also an element of peer recruitment, where a student convinces a friend or family member to study health with them.

Students can have a positive influence on those around them by increasing their health literacy and encouraging them to make better lifestyle choices, such as giving up smoking. Because of the low numbers of Maori or Pacific Islanders in professions such as health, employers have often looked to immigrants to serve the community.

"We often recruit from overseas, which means high turnover and higher cost. The long-term goal is to have more people who are from Counties Manukau who want to live and work in Counties Manukau, who are prepared and trained and facilitated to work here."

Maori and Pacific Islanders make up more than a third of the population in the area and have particular health needs with regard to diabetes, obesity and smoking.

The programme is geared to focus on the future, so that the students going into it are the ones the health sector will want to employ in five years. "A big part of the programme is facilitating the networks and relationships to make sure that what happens in the education sector ... fits with our workforce needs."

Given the ageing population and advances in healthcare, an occupation in the health sector is one of the few well-paid careers with a future that's virtually guaranteed. It's no wonder many 15-year olds are knocking down the doors to get into these academies.

"There are 25 spots in each academy. In one school, there were 80 and, in another school, there were 100 expressions of interest for 80 places. It's definitely not an issue of finding enough people."

Candidates are selected carefully as the programme is looking for long-term commitment from students. The students' families are consulted to determine if the applicant is suited to a career in health.

Ko Awatea director Jonathon Gray says the centre is "an idea", not just a facility. He has moved here from Wales, enticed by the bold idea which Ko Awatea represents. The name means first light, or the start of a new dawn, and represents opportunity.

Up to 300 students will study at Ko Awatea each day. "All the trainees, juniors and undergraduates will be learning together for the first time," Gray says. "They won't be spread out randomly. They'll be learning in a dedicated environment together. This is very innovative internationally."

He says he is looking to talented newcomers to bring long-lasting change to the local community.

"Success will be for me if, in a couple of years' time, we look at this and we say, 'People choose to come and learn here in South Auckland'."

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