Vā Pasifka Taunga

Provide culturally affirming and holistic advisory, advocacy and pastoral care support to our Pacific tertiary learners, grounded in Pacific values.
- Be part of a professional and supportive team with a heartfelt commitment to the wellbeing and success of AUT's Pacific student community.
- Four roles available based at either our Akoranga North Shore Campus, our Manukau South Campus and/or our Waihorotiu City Campus.

As one of the world's top 100 young universities and Aotearoa New Zealand's newest, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is a university of opportunity where all students with talent and potential have the chance to succeed. We are a socially driven university with equity and excellence central to our purpose and actions, and we offer a stimulating teaching and research environment with strong connections to government, business, and industry. AUT has more than 27,000 students and over 4,000 staff based primarily at our three Auckland teaching campuses.

AUT recognises and respects the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its centrality to the mission and work of the University. The Office of Pacific Advancement necessarily recognises continuous ancestral connections to this region, the tino rangatiratanga of tangata whenua, and the shared oceanic ties which are unique to Moana peoples' position as tauiwi.

**Te Whiwhinga mahi | The opportunity**

An exciting opportunity has arisen in the Office of Pacific Advancement (OPA) for an energetic and self-motivated person to collaborate with our team and the wider university to deliver high-quality and culturally affirming advisory support for our Pacific students. Further, you will contribute to the activation and maintenance of OPA's Vā Pasifika student spaces to increase the visibility of OPA's activities and services for Pacific students.

This role is located within AUT's Office of Pacific Advancement team (OPA), which is grounded in a collective commitment to elevating the wellbeing and success of Pacific communities at AUT and beyond. As a member of this team, you will work within our Pacific student advisory services for undergraduate and postgraduate students to ensure our Pacific students achieve cultural, academic, personal and career success across their student journey. Your work will be underpinned by a strength-based approach to pastoral care, grounded in AUT's values Tika, Pono and Aroha, Pacific values; and aligned with Te Aronui, AUT's Te Tiriti o Waitangi framework, our Pacific Plan (in development), Ki Uta Ki Tai Student Success Plan and The Education (Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Learners) Code of Practice.

As the Vā Pasifika Taunga, you will guide Pacific students through a case management approach that is grounded in Pacific values, providing them with culturally affirming and holistic advisory, advocacy and mentoring services. Under the guidance of our OPA leadership team, support initiatives are co‐designed and provided to students in one‐to‐one, small groups, and interactive workshops to support student wellbeing and success. You will respond to, and escalate as appropriate any referrals, enquiries and concerns from students and staff in an effective and timely manner, aligned with the Pastoral Care Code of Practice.

You will also contribute to the development and implementation of evaluation frameworks and monitoring and reporting processes to better understand the Pacific student experience and monitor the effectiveness of our service. This includes the effective use of Microsoft Dynamics (our CRM system), Arion, and Canvas, and the use of other tools for understanding and measuring both student and stakeholder satisfaction.

Note: This role completes assessment of student needs and works closely with students in the activation of support plans; however, as a non-clinical position, diagnosis, treatment and/or therapeutic counselling are outside of this role.

**He kōrero mōu | About you**

To be successful in this rewarding role, you will hold a heartfelt commitment to strengths-based approaches to enabling Pacific peoples' wellbeing and success.

You will also have:

- Existing extensive relationships within Pacific communities, and knowledge of Pacific values and ways of knowing and being. The ability to operate effectively and respectfully in Pacific cultural contexts is critical.
- A relevant qualification and work/voluntary experience, ideally in the health and wellbeing sector, e.g. social work, youth work, counselling.
- Empathy, sound communication skills, and the ability to engage with our diverse Pacific community with professionalism and compassion, with a commitment to ensuring effective and culturally grounded positive outcomes.
- Demonstrated experience nurturing positive professional relationships which centre respect and reciprocity and working collaboratively and effectively as part of a team and with all stakeholders.
- Judgement, discretion and complex problem solving in