Māori youth in Rotorua are completing qualifications at the highest rate of any Youth Guarantee provider in the Bay of Plenty, according to Crown performance data released publicly on Friday, and the school behind the results is one of the region’s most recent entrants to tertiary training.
Tertiary Education Commission figures released July 3rd for 2025 show 91.3% of Māori Youth Guarantee learners at Native Tech, a digital and creative tech focused training provider in Rotorua, completed their qualifications at Levels 1 and 2, against a regional Youth Guarantee average of 70.1%.
The pattern holds across everything Native Tech delivers. On the Tertiary Education Commission’s public EPI charts for 2025, Native Tech’s qualification completion rate was 90.9% across all learners, 91.4% for Māori learners, and 96.2% for Māori men, with course completion between 85 and 90% across the same groups. Where national statistics for young Māori men so often lead with deficit, at Native Tech the strongest results in the whole organisation belong to them.
The learners behind the figures typically enrol with low to moderate needs and without school qualifications, and many are outside education, employment and training altogether when they walk in the door.
Every one of these percentage points is a young person who was told education had finished with them,” says Native Tech CEO and Co-founder Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule. “They decided otherwise. Our job was to build the environment where deciding otherwise pays off, and the Crown’s own numbers now show that it does, year after year.”
Native Tech trains rangatahi aged 15 to 24 in digital technology, creative design and game development through NZQA-accredited programmes. Registered teachers, industry-trained tutors and youth navigators deliver the teaching; while wrapping individualised practical support around it, from pastoral care to driver licensing to cv writing.
Graduates have moved into tertiary study in graphic design, cybersecurity, international relations and nursing and Māori studies; roles in creative media, IT support, UX/UI design and project management; and their own ventures in AI marketing and web development.
The Bay of Plenty’s greatest untapped resource has never been land or timber. It is our young people,” says Native Tech Co-founder and CSO, Potaua Biasiny-Tule. “When rangatahi who were locked out of education become the digitally skilled workforce this region is calling for, everyone rises: whānau, employers, industry, community. This kaupapa is how our region finally taps it.”
Native Tech’s next intake begins 27 July 2026.
- Enrolment enquiries: www.nativetech.ac.nz.
About Native Tech: Native Tech (Native Institute of Digital Technology) is a private training establishment in Rotorua, moving rangatahi into study, work and enterprise through industry-aligned digital and creative technology training. It was established by the founders of the award-winning charity Digital Natives Academy as their NZQA accredited education arm.
About Youth Guarantee and how to enrol: Youth Guarantee is a government-funded programme providing fees-free study at Levels 1 to 3 for young people aged 15 to 24. At Native Tech, Youth Guarantee learners study digital technology, creative design and game development in NZQA-accredited programmes, with no fees and no prior qualifications required.
