Te Rou – Workplace Te Reo Māori
Build your te reo Māori with a micro-credential designed for the workplace.

Course overview
This micro-credential is made up of three stand-alone 20 hr courses/modules. Modules can be completed in-person or online, and you have the flexibility to choose the length of time you take between the 3 modules.
You will be introduced to the Māori language with a focus on office communication and gain an understanding of Māori cultural concepts and protocols as they relate to the workplace. You will gain a richer knowledge of tikanga Māori and gain confidence to extend your sentence structures, vocabulary, and phrases to integrate into every day and work life, in both formal and informal settings.
This micro-credential is partially funded. To meet the requirements for funding participants must be a NZ citizen or permanent resident.

What you'll learn
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Apply the correct pronunciation of te reo Māori in both professional and personal contexts.
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Communicate aspects of day-to-day mahi (work), whānau (family) and personal interests in te reo Māori.
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Construct a short kōrero tuari (presentation) on a selected topic using vocabulary and sentence structures learned in the course.
Course modules
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Pronunciation, introductions, greetings and farewells.
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Tikanga Māori cultural concepts as they influence the workplace.
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The importance of mihimihi/pepeha that can be used at meetings, work events or for personal use.
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How to greet, acknowledge and farewell people in both informal and formal settings.
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Hold a short conversation in all settings and be able to ask and answer questions using descriptive, possessive, locative, and active sentences.
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Writing your own kauhau (short story) utilising a variety of sentence structures.
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Increasing range of vocabulary to negate sentences.
Further Information
Assessment
There are three formal assessments for the micro-credential which will be moderated and graded by the kaiako (teacher) with a pass/fail grade:
- Develop and deliver with confidence an individual mihimihi with correct pronunciation.
- Develop and deliver a kauhau (speech) demonstrating a range of sentence structures in te reo equivalent up to 300 words.
- Present a kōrero on a topic of your choice utilising formal and informal grammatical sentence structures in te reo Māori.
Format
This course is comprised of one hundred hours of learning in total. Sixty hours will be in a classroom format with a kaiako (teacher) and forty hours in total of self-directed learning. This is made up of three stand alone courses:
Each course is generally delivered 2 hours per week over 10-weeks either in person or fully online. The programme is designed to be interactive giving participants plenty of time to practice. Learning activities focus on extending your listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in te reo Māori.
Private course
Te Rou can be delivered privately in an organisations’ workplace and customised to your timetable, with a minimum of 2-hour teaching blocks required. You can order a private in-house course delivery, please contact the Poutaki Māori directly marie.cocker@vuw.ac.nz
What is a micro-credential
A micro-credential is a small, stand-alone credential that recognises the achievement of specific skills, experience, or knowledge. Typically, micro-credentials:
- Top up existing knowledge or skills so that people who are already qualified in an area can increase the range of their practice, or
- Provide stand-alone new knowledge or skills so that people who are not already qualified in an area can do a specific aspect of it.
Micro-credentials were initially developed in 2015 in response to demand from industry for learners to be formally recognised for short bursts of formal learning that did not fit the model for a full qualification (either at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority threshold of 40 credits for a qualification or a university-defined qualification such as a diploma or degree).
University micro-credentials are not the same as NZQA-registered micro-credentials. When you pass this course, instead of getting credits against your NZQA record of achievement, you will be awarded a pass against this course and 10 credits on your university academic transcript. You will be awarded a digital badge and a digital certificate.