Update from the Uptempo team

The Uptempo team was formally launched in January this year.

The origin of the programme stems from a 2017 partnership between TSI and MBIE on the Pacific People’s Workforce Challenge, a qualitative research on workforce progression for Pasifika people.

The report was the catalyst for a bid in the 2019 central government budget bid process, resulting in a $22 million dollar investment of new funds into Auckland for initiatives focussed on Pasifika workforce progression through the Auckland Pacific Skills Shift Initiative (APSS), a programme run by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE).  

Uptempo, with key partners The Fono and First Union, supports Pasifika families to direct and determine their own economic futures.

The goal is that by 2025, one hundred percent of Pasifika workers will have genuinely better options to advance in the workforce and create wealth and wellbeing for their family. 

Uptempo is a four-year collective learning programme delivered by TSI and funded by MBIE as a part of the Auckland Pacific Skills Shift initiative (APSS) and Philanthropy, the Peter McKenzie Trust.  The Cause Collective and Auckland Unlimited also have distinct projects within the APSS.   

Uptempo builds off the learning across TSI’s work to look at how we work with the whole family to support employment progression.  This will help government and businesses deeply understand what it will take at both grassroots and systems level to shift the dial and create long-lasting wealth for Pasifika people.