About Māori qualifications

New Zealand is the first country in the world to establish an entire education field that formally recognises indigenous knowledge.

What is field Māori?
Who develops and maintains Māori qualifications?
- Māori Qualifications Services
For providers
For learners
Publications

What is field Māori?

There are more than a dozen Māori qualifications and 600 unit standards that are registered on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and 'housed' in field Māori.

Field Māori is one of the 17 fields registered on the Framework. It caters specifically for Māori pedagogy, knowledge and skills.

This field cover a diverse range of areas that reflects the growing demand by industry, Māori communities and educators for formal recognition of Māori skills and knowledge.

NQF standards registered in this field:

have direct employment outcomes, for example, Māori Business and Management
provide a Māori dimension to industry, for example, Māori Funeral Services
correspond to the New Zealand Curriculum Framework, for example, Pūtaiao
encourage Māori learners to achieve educationally, for example, Te Waharoa
contribute to the maintenance of traditional Māori culture, for example, Whakairo
contribute to the development of Māori culture, for example, New Māori Dance

For the most up to date and complete summary on Māori qualifications, go to the online publication Te Huarahi.

Who develops and maintains Māori qualifications?

Māori qualifications are subject to the same rigorous registration process as other NQF qualifications and they must meet the needs of Māori communities.

Recognised Māori experts in partnership with the Māori Qualifications Services unit at NZQA develop, review and maintain these unit standards.

These expert groups known as 'Whakaruruhau' set the national Māori standards and ensure providers are equipped to deliver these standards.

The Māori Qualifications Service help facilitate the development of these unit standards, provide assessment resources for tutors and promote the uptake of Māori qualifications.

You can view the Māori Qualifications Service staff and their current projects here.

For providers

The existence of field Māori has major implications for the range and types of programmes that can be offered by secondary and tertiary training providers.

Providers can tailor specific programmes to work towards a field Māori qualification, use them to assess against existing Māori programmes or incorporate them in to mainstream courses.

The Māori Qualifications Service produces a range of assessment resources for accredited providers and you can also contact their staff for advice.

For learners

One of the greatest benefits of achieving credits in field Māori is that they offer a pathway to more than 700 other national qualifications registered on the Framework.

If you already have existing skills and knowledge in Māori areas, you may be able to get credits for these straight away. For more information see assessment of prior learning.

Only some secondary and tertiary providers are accredited to assess against national Māori standards. To view a list of accredited providers for a particular Māori subject, go to Explore Māori qualifications, choose a subfield, a domain and then view the list of regional and national providers for that particular subject.

Publications

For the most up to date information on developments in the world of Māori qualifications check out the e-bulletin, Te Huarahi.
NZQA also produces a magazine called Ao Kawe Kupu that features stories about Māori providers, learners and qualifications.

Page updated: 10 August 2004