Change is around the corner for youth education.
That was the key message from the Careers and Transition Education Association conference hosted in Rotorua this week.
More than 500 delegates gathered at the Energy Events Centre over three days.
The conference had a strong focus on the emerging Maori economy and career opportunities it would create for young Maori.
Planning committee chairman Gary McAuliffe said the key message from the conference was that there was "huge change" around the corner for youth education.
"People are starting to accept that change is due. From here, there is going to be a greater focus on creating clearer pathways for career opportunities besides university."
Mr McAuliffe said the pathway to university had always been clear but pathways to other opportunities was "murky".
Keynote speaker Ruma Karaitiana, who is chief executive of the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation, said there was a strong desire from iwi and Maori businesses to reinstate Maori Trade Training.
Maori Trade Training was a scheme run by the Government from the 1960s to 1980s which produced thousands of Maori carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other trades people.
With the emerging Maori economy, Mr Karaitiana said iwi and Maori businesses had the opportunity to use their "economic muscle" to get it going again.
"But it won't work without their participation."
A key aspect was for Maori to hire their own people in order to "regenerate the essence of Maori Trade Training".
However first of all, he said young Maori needed to step up.
"Young Maori school leavers need to set their sights on becoming viable and sustainable members of Aotearoa."
Mr Karaitiana said students needed to be thinking about what they wanted to be from Year 9 onwards.
He said the idea was for young people to start "grazing" on future career possibilities to get on to a pathway early enough.
Rotorua man Israel Hawking, director of Wera Consulting Limited, said young Maori needed to fit their careers around the values they lived by.
He said there were a lot of career opportunities available for Maori within their culture, including what they learnt on their marae and career opportunities which were emerging from treaty settlements.
"Treaty settlements are going to create an economic explosion and [there'll] be a lot of opportunities to create Maori businesses."
Mr Hawking said at the moment there were too many Maori who thought they were just "bushmen".
"It's important to remind Maori families that they're better than what they [think they] are."
Keynote speaker Richard Fitzgerald, who is the chief executive of New Zealand Young Farmers, said it was important young people were getting quality information through schools, especially when it came to industries like agriculture.
He said there was a lot of misinformation out there surrounding the industry which looked for a range of young people from "bright sparks" to those who were a little more practical.
Mr Fitzgerald said young people also needed to have a good understanding of what they wanted to achieve.
Managing director of the New Zealand Institute of Fashion Technology, Kevin Smith, said the key to educating Maori and Pasifika students was to create a supportive and caring learning environment.
"You've got to blend caring, nurturing and supportive learning into industry training."
Mr Smith said young people just needed to find something they loved doing and do it.
His key message was for people to ensure there was plenty of job opportunities in what they chose to study.
"It doesn't matter where you study - as long as there are job opportunities at the end."