Ellik Te Kanawa & Razell Maru

This year we completed the Level 3 course after doing Level 2 in 2025. There were heaps of students from our Level 2 group who carried on to Level 3 with us, which was really cool because you form such strong bonds with everyone. The course was the best experience and truly life changing. It is so different from learning at school. It’s more like a wānanga, and the way we learned was so immersive that it made it easy to remember and retain what we were taught.
The best part of the Trades Academy course was the connections we made with people from across Te Tauihu and Te Tai Poutini (the West Coast). The course taught us about the different pūrākau (stories) that are important to different regions, sites, and iwi. We also got to stay at a range of marae. Over the two years, we stayed at five different marae across Nelson, Tasman, and Marlborough.
The worst part was finishing the course and having to leave. We just didn’t want it to end or have to say goodbye to all the people we had met and the team at Whenua Iti Outdoors. The tutors were like older siblings. They were great at connecting with young people and were really knowledgeable. Matua Mike was amazing. He is the best storyteller, and one of the highlights was hearing the story he told about a taniwha when we were staying at a marae and the power went out. He has a way of telling stories that draws you in and makes you remember them. The tutors were super supportive. If you had anything going on or were facing challenges, they were easy to talk to and helped you work through any problems.
The knowledge we gained was huge. We attend other wānanga, and the course has helped us apply what we learned, especially when sharing pūrākau or leading activities. We now feel confident standing up and speaking in front of others and working with small groups sharing our knowledge.
The course helped us develop our communication skills, adapt to change, improvise when things didn’t go to plan, work with others, and grow as leaders. The tutors expected us to step up, but they also gave us the support to do it well. We always felt like they had our backs.
We’ve already started telling the Year 11 boys at our school about Manaaki Tāpoi and encouraging them to sign up. We can’t recommend it enough!
We are both in Year 12 and aren’t completely sure what our plans are for next year. Long term, we hope to leave school and gain apprenticeships in trades such as plumbing or barbering. We feel the skills we gained through Manaaki Tāpoi will help us in both our current work experiences and future careers, especially our social skills, teamwork, self-management, and ability to connect with workmates and other adults.