14 December 2020 at 9:00 am

Summer in NZ

Education New Zealand is working to ensure international students staying in New Zealand over summer are aware of activities and opportunities available to them, and also relevant information to support them over this time.

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Students on a call during the Viet Nam-Palmerston North AFS GCC programme.

The student retention workstream, a key focus of the Government’s Recovery Plan for international education, has delivered new resources, partnerships and online activity to support international students (and providers) over summer.

Alongside the Summer in NZ initiative, ENZ has been facilitating Instagram Live sessions on social media focused on the themes of wellbeing, employability, skill development and keeping students connected with one-another. For the schedule, visit the Summer in NZ page on the ENZ website, and watch on the StudyinNewZealand Instagram account (@studyinnewzealand). Further sessions will continue over summer.

A Tencent livestream with the theme of how to spend your summer in New Zealand was hosted by students on the NauMai NZ WeChat mini programme. Another two upcoming livestreams in the new year will feature how Chinese students are spending their summer and celebrating Chinese New Year in New Zealand.

ENZ has also partnered with LinkedIn and secured a number of LinkedIn Learning licences. We are now offering these to international students, via providers, free of charge to use over the summer period. This platform is used by education providers across the world to complement their existing courses.

ENZ has also been working with AFS New Zealand to deliver the Global Competence Certificate. The first course facilitated by Massey University began at the end of November. The next course begins 1 March – find out more and sign up here: https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/events/afs-nz-global-competence-certificate/afs-nz-global-competence-certificate_home.cfm

New NauMai NZ pages, developed in conjunction with providers and regional networks, have been added to NauMai NZ (under Summer in NZ), providing advice and information on activities and opportunities to engage and connect students over summer. Students whose programmes are finishing this year are also being encouraged to consider further programmes of study in New Zealand.

The Your Great Kiwi Summer Fair was held at the end of October. The audience was highly engaged, with initial feedback reporting that the fair was a useful source of information. Feedback will help inform future events with international students in New Zealand.

Since the fair, Northland Inc and Study Auckland have launched BeKiwi, a one-stop digital platform for international students looking for travel and volunteering experiences in the Northland and Auckland regions.

We understand this summer will be a very different one for many international students. We thank you for your support and encourage you to continuing sharing this information and these resources with them, as we stand together with our international students to make the most of their time here.

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