Māori youth in Rotorua are completing qualifications at well above the regional rate for Youth Guarantee, according to public data released on Friday, and the training provider behind the results, Native Tech, is one of the region’s most recent entrants to tertiary training.
Native Tech was established in May 2023 to close a clear gap. Founders Potaua and Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule saw first-hand that digital and creative technology was transforming the workforce. Yet too few rangatahi could see a future for themselves in it, many having already disengaged from mainstream education. Native Tech gives them that opportunity: the chance to explore their talent, build their mastery, and find their place in the world.
Figures for 2025 show 91.3% of Māori Youth Guarantee learners at Native Tech completed their qualifications at Levels 1 and 2, against a Bay of Plenty Youth Guarantee average of 70.1%.
The pattern holds across everything Native Tech delivers. In the 2025 public completion data, Native Tech’s qualification completion rate across Levels 1-3 and across all provisions was 90.9% across all learners, 91.4% for Māori learners, and 96.2% for young Māori men. At Native Tech, the strongest results in the whole organisation belong to young Māori men.
The learners behind the figures typically enrol 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. “The rangatahi we work with decided otherwise. Our job was to build the environment where deciding otherwise pays off, and the results show that it does.”
Native Tech trains rangatahi aged 15 to 24 through NZQA-accredited programmes in digital technology, creative design, game development, and AI and its ethics. Learners also explore indigenous technology solutions to become climate-change leaders, and build the wellbeing and job-readiness to sustain a career. 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, nursing and Māori studies; roles in creative media, IT support, UX/UI design and project management; and their own ventures in AI LLMs 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 into those talents.”
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 with no existing qualifications. At Native Tech, learners study digital technology, creative design and game dev in NZQA-accredited programmes, with no fees and no prior qualifications required.
Note on figures: The Youth Guarantee results (91.3% completion, against a Bay of Plenty Youth Guarantee average of 70.1%) are drawn from Tertiary Education Commission Single Data Return records, and cover Māori Youth Guarantee learners at Levels 1 and 2 across the eight providers delivering Youth Guarantee in the Bay of Plenty. The whole-organisation results (90.9% all learners, 91.4% Māori learners, 96.2% Māori men) are from TEC’s public EPI interactive charts, which cover all of Native Tech’s provision across all funding sources at Levels 1 to 3. Youth Guarantee is one part of that wider provision, so the two sets of figures cover different populations.”
