Pathways Awarua, a nationwide numeracy and literacy programme, is proving to be a life changer for many NZMA students and their families.
A part of the suite of national resources developed by New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Commission, Pathways Awarua is an online tool which aims to help adults strengthen their numeracy, reading and writing skills.
Success at NZMA
NZMA has been plugged into the programme since its launch in 2011, and according to Literacy and Numeracy Team Leader Annette Tofaeono, its students have taken to it like ducks to water.
“It is a programme that is very close to our hearts here at NZMA. The government developed Pathways Awarua to address the problem of low level literacy among adults in New Zealand. We have recognised how this resource has benefitted our learners, their families and our communities. With innovative thinking, there has been an exponential increase in its usage at NZMA, resulting in the tool being much more than a self-access tool for learners.
“Already this year, NZMA students have completed 37,000 modules and gained 2.5 million points. This is an amazing achievement. Fifteen of our learners have scored more than 10,000 points which is just incredible,” she said.
One of the programme’s key advocates is NZMA Waikato Business Diploma student James Adams, who has just won himself an iPad mini thanks to the literacy and numeracy results he has achieved.
“Pathways Awarua were so impressed with the levels of engagement from NZMA students that they decided to run a competition – just for NZMA – to win an iPad mini.
Beneficial course
Any student who had gained over 1000 points was in the running, and James Adams managed to complete an incredible 13,136 points and 210 modules. That is around 110 hours of work!”
James joined NZMA Waikato in March last year as a Level 3 Retail student and as well as gaining a part-time retail position at Farmers as a result of his course, he successfully progressed onto his Diploma studies. Despite now being a Level 5 Business student, he is an avid Pathways Awarua user, and finds the programmes hugely beneficial.
His success shows that Pathways Awarua is helpful for all learning levels. It is an excellent tool to assist in our students’ progress and development for further learning. We have been putting in a lot of hard work to help our students utilise this tool, and to assist in the development of their literacy and numeracy skills. These efforts are clearly paying off for our students.”
NZMA is a part of the ACG Tertiary & Careers Group, Sponsor of the ‘Business Excellence in International Trade with India’ category of the Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards 2015.
