Te Houhanga ā-Rongo Marae in Dargaville has been running building and construction courses to help local rangatahi get involved in the industry. The 19-week course is being run by Te Roroa, with the help of Northland Polytech and Te Pukenga.
The L3 construction course has been running at Te Houhanga ā-Rongo for three years. The idea came from Te Roroa which wanted to establish the course for its community.
And for Carney Kaipō, one of the 13 students on this year's course, there are many benefits.
"Probably the technical part of it all. Getting to choose which project to do and then having to think about it and design it. That's probably my favourite part."
Te Roroa spokesperson Taoho Snow says the iwi wanted something that would entice its young people to hang around the Kaipara longer, rather than just finishing school and leaving the region. He says the marae is the perfect place for a course like this.
"This programme came about from identifying a need among our communities involving the building industry, having more of our own who are involved in the industry."
"It's being delivered by whānau of this marae and they have set up workshops and they have the physical resources to be able to undertake this."
Cederick Beasley, who has years of building experience, is the main tutor for the students. Beasley agrees with Snow, that having the course on the marae adds something different from regular courses run on campus.
"Marae based, I think it adds that other depth that is sometimes missing from our young."
"Learning how to measure. Learning how to cut to a line and then, once we have introduced the building component of it as well, there is no reason why anyone of our tauira would not be able to go and build pretty much anything they like, supervised."
