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- Additional information on the Education New Zealand Recognised Agency Programme
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PIF Recipient: Virtual Medical Coaching
In the United States alone, approximately 800 women die each year during pregnancy and within 42 days after delivery. More than 60% of those deaths are believed to be preventable. In developing countries, the rate of pregnancy-related deaths is up to 300 times higher.
An important part of the solution is education. Globally, midwives are in high demand, with the UK’s NHS increasing their places for student midwives by 3000, starting this year. Australia is also planning to increase numbers, while in New Zealand, a funding boost will increase the number of Māori and Pacific students training in midwifery.
While the demand for midwifery training is growing, education offerings haven’t kept up. Childbirth is deeply personal, and feedback from mothers – validated by hospital staff – is that they do not wish to have extra staff or students in the room for training. With no effective opportunities for face-to-face learning, there is a global need for a realistic and scalable childbirth simulation.
That’s where Virtual Medical Coaching’s vision comes in, supported as a recipient of the International Education Product Innovation Fund. Virtual reality (VR) software will provide a safe and controlled environment for students to see and assist in childbirth simulations, both with and without complications and in a range of different scenarios. As the student improves, the simulations they encounter increase in difficulty. A machine-learning algorithm enables fast and accurate feedback to both the learner and any tutors.
The simulation will be interactive and responsive, meaning that any action taken by a student creates a life-like consequence and reaction. The outcome is that learners are taught to effectively make decisions and problem solve.
Existing options for midwifery training include a physical mannequin simulator, but this can be prohibitively expensive, out of reach of many training providers, and doesn’t offer students maximum learning hours. In addition, existing options don’t include the ability to witness mechanisms like rotations/restitutions or the ability to have back and forth conversations. By contrast, the VR simulation will be available to students wherever they are, and whenever they need to practice. The nature of the VR experience means that modern learning styles, such as asynchronous and remote learning, are well catered for.
With support from the International Education Product Innovation Fund, Virtual Medical Coaching’s childbirth simulation is on track to become fully released by the end of 2024. A beta-version is already used by some educators globally. The Product Innovation Fund is a New Zealand Government-funded initiative to reimagine what a New Zealand education can look like and mean for global learners.
Managed by Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ), New Zealand’s government agency for international education, the fund is supporting a range of pilot projects from existing and emerging New Zealand education providers. Together, the projects rethink how an education experience from New Zealand can be delivered, and create impact, for global learners.
For Virtual Medical Coaching, it’s about finding a better solution to a serious issue. Like many other innovative Kiwi education technology companies, Virtual Medical Coaching is designing technology that will create positive impact around the world. It’s already successfully developed an x-ray simulation for healthcare professionals which has won multiple national and international awards. Now, with the support of ENZ through the International Education Product Innovation Fund, Virtual Medical Coaching is set to respond to a clear need for better midwifery training options and develop another cutting-edge learning product for both New Zealand and offshore markets.
More information:
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Statement from Linda Sissons, Acting Chief Executive
We are deeply saddened by the tragic passing of international students in a road accident near Lake Tekapo on Saturday.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims, the campus communities at the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington and the wider Malaysian student community in New Zealand.
We hope those injured in the crash make a full recovery.
We are grateful for the community of support that has emerged around the accident in New Zealand and Malaysia to aid the victims and their families during an extremely distressing and challenging time – heartfelt thanks to our emergency response teams, the Malaysian community in Ōtautahi Christchurch, universities, and locals who responded to the scene.
Linda Sissons
Acting Chief Executive, Education New Zealand
- Whanganui 5
- WREDA 2
- Pillans Orientation
- 2122 101 ENZ Quarterly report 1 October to 31 December 2021 cover briefing
- Arash Tayebi pic 02 with Grace Covey
- NZ Korea digital exchange
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Growing offshore interest in NZ through onshore ‘Famils’
‘Famil’, short for ‘Familiarisation’, are visits organised to literally familiarise invited groups of people with a product, or in our case, New Zealand as an international education destination. The intended purpose is that those who attend famils will become valuable advocates for a New Zealand education and therefore drive preference for New Zealand in market.
During Covid-19 these visits were stopped due to border closures. Now that borders have been fully open for some time and our international education sector is recovering, this summer provided the perfect opportunity to show off New Zealand, including our regions and unique culture, and the wide range of educational and experiential offerings to representatives from various international markets.
The summer of showcasing New Zealand started in November with two media famil groups from India and Viet Nam. This was followed by three groups of education agents from Brazil, Germany and South Korea visiting in March and most recently, a famil co-hosted by ENZ and Air NZ bringing Japanese school teachers to regions in the North Island. ENZ subsidises these programmes with other costs covered by participants, regional economic development agencies, and education providers.
The University of Otago provided a campus tour with a Korean student and didn't miss the opportunity for a classic picture with its famous Clock Tower.
ENZ’s General Manager International, Lisa Futschek said that careful planning goes into facilitating these visits to ensure the famil groups are exposed to a range of subsectors that are relevant to the visiting country while also leveraging the visits to benefit as many providers as possible.
“While we’d love to showcase every New Zealand provider, this is obviously not possible. Much consideration is given to the source market and to the subsectors that we know are popular with that country.
“This ensures we are targeted in our approach and our visitors go back to their countries equipped with the most relevant information that helps build that pipeline of future students," said Lisa.
The Brazilian agents attended a networking event hosted by AIS for Auckland-based English Language providers.
“We also look for opportunities in which we can make introductions to several providers in one go. For example, a networking function was held at Auckland Institute of Studies (AIS) with Auckland-based English Language Schools invited to meet the agents from Brazil, cultivating many new connections while strengthening existing ones,” added Lisa.
As well as showcasing the various subsectors, promoting the destination is also hugely important and famil itineraries also include time spent seeing what the regions have to offer international students. This is often organised with the help of the regional economic development agencies.
A perfect example of cross sector collaboration was seen in Ōtautahi Christchurch where Christchurch Educated, an international education organisation based in the region, hosted a networking dinner with the regional economic development agency, ChristchurchNZ. They hosted the Brazilian and German agent famil groups and education providers from various sectors in the Canterbury region.
The German agents are pictured here at the Christchurch Educated networking event with a group of Christchurch based education providers (mainly high schools). The event was hosted at Ara’s Visions on campus restaurant with the Brazilian agents in attendance too.
Stefi Porter, International Education Partnership Manager for Christchurch Educated said that bringing everyone together to mutually share the benefits of studying in Ōtautahi Christchurch was a wonderful thing.
“There is certainly strength in numbers and a perfect example of where collaboration between providers and regional economic development agencies can really deliver greater bang.
“Instead of competing against one another, we are sharing resources, time and energy to show the best of our region and the breadth of study options we can offer international students.”
A key outcome of the various famil groups visiting New Zealand is that they become advocates for New Zealand as a place to study, ensuring a steady pipeline of students for years to come. In the post-famil survey, all attendees reported they were either much more likely (87.5%) or somewhat more likely (12.5%) to recommend New Zealand as a place to study for prospective students.
Other positive outcomes, include the positive media articles and social media posts produced by visiting journalists and individuals to their networks in their home countries. This positive coverage not only showcases the quality of New Zealand's education system but also shares the New Zealand education experience with prospective students in their home countries through stories featuring students and alumni.
The India media famil has achieved five in-depth stories to date in Education Times, India's largest newspaper supplement (circulation 500,000). The stories showcase the research prowess at New Zealand universities, including in biotechnology, managing climate change related disruptions, and feature the New Zealand education experiences of a range of students from India.
In Viet Nam 10 articles and four social media posts have been published so far, reaching an audience of 557,000, with more coverage expected in the coming months. Of note is HHT, the top teen magazine in Viet Nam has created a column “letters to New Zealand”, which shares weekly articles about New Zealand written about alumni.
An example of some of the coverage these visits receive. Featured is a compilation of posts that Brazilian agent, Juliana Viana Silveira, owner of CI Intercambio in Juiz de Fora, made on Instagram to her followers during March while in New Zealand. The role of agents in Brazil in international student recruitment is becoming increasingly more important as reported by StudyTravelNetwork here -https://studytravel.network/magazine/news/0/30492
ENZ would like to extend a huge thanks to the education providers and regional representatives for hosting our international visitors and leaving them with a strong sense of New Zealand’s education offerings. The way in which ENZ is able to work collectively with providers and the regional economic development agencies to collaboratively plan the famil is ideal to ensure a good mix of experiences and a balance of activities. This approach helps regions feature strongly in any future famil plans and also helps develop the regional international education ecosystem.
We look forward to hearing about more connections with education representatives at the ICEF ANZA conference in Christchurch.
Check out our image gallery of the famils which shares further details of each of the groups including who attended, where they went and who they met with.
The Japanese All Girls School Teachers participated in a kapa haka class at New Plymouth Girls High School in New Plymouth. Here they are pictured playing the Tītī tōrea Māori Stick game, a traditional New Zealand game which has been played for generations.
