Graduation a chance to inspire next generation

When Shylah Jones – Ngāti Mutunga - crossed the stage to receive her Post-graduate Certificate in Applied Management, the real highlight was having her three mokopuna at the ceremony on the stage beside her.

Shylah - a Facilities Coordinator at WITT - first graduated 25 years ago with a Bachelor of Applied Information Systems, a Diploma in Business and a second Diploma in Management. She was a young mum who’d worked hard to gain her qualifications while caring for her young daughter.

“I was a single mum and wanted to get a qualification so I could earn better money and provide a better life for my daughter,” she says.

She began her course in 1996 and studied full-time at WITT (formerly Taranaki Polytechnic) while her daughter was in the adjoining daycare, Polytots Early Learning Centre.

It was a tough juggle. “I was determined to finish. Like any other student, you go through periods where you just have to push through.”

She graduated in 2000, the first person in her extended whānau to gain a tertiary degree. Since then, she’s had a variety of roles, starting out with a local accounting firm, where she managed the transition of services and data to a digital system for three years.

When her older brother died in tragic circumstances, she resigned and took time out to reflect, before taking up a teaching role at a private education provider. Shylah taught small business management, business administration and computing via online teaching, tutoring and delivered regional workshops and one on one roving to students in their home. When funding for the provider dried up, she moved to Brisbane.

Although she had a sibling and friends there, “it was tough starting all over again.”

Her next job was at the University of Queensland, a three-year stint as a clinical administrator for the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. “It was interesting because they had clinics for audiology, physio, speech therapy and paediatric physio. A new Tele rehab clinic was also set up for remote clients.”

Role model and carer

Fast forward to the 2020s and Shylah returned to Taranaki to help look after her daughter’s three young children. Amid caring for her mokopuna and working fulltime at WITT, Shylah decided to enrol in a Post-graduate Diploma in Applied Management to bolster her skills and knowledge and simply because she “loves learning.”

“I want to grow and reach another level. I like to challenge myself. It was quite a challenge enrolling in a PG-Dip while also working full time and volunteering as chairperson for Oakura Junior Sports Club,” she adds.

Shylah hopes to put her knowledge into practice in an operations or project management role in the future. Her current role – which involves office relocations, classrooms setups, resource allocation, electrical, plumbing and building maintenance, external site setups and closures, and liaising with onsite and external contractors – has been valuable experience.

“I like coordinating a team, organising and problem solving. I like relationship building. Helping people is my core interest.”

Lifelong learning

A believer in lifelong learning, Shylah urges anyone to consider taking up study later in life. She’s delighted her daughter has just enrolled at WITT to learn about barbering.

“Don’t underestimate the experience you’ve got because it works in your favour and makes learning easier,” she advises. “Anybody is capable of learning - you don’t stop being able to learn after a certain age - you just have to be willing to give it a go.”

The benefits of study are something she hopes her three mokopuna, aged 12, nine and seven, have witnessed and absorbed from their grandmother. That’s why she invited them, along with her daughter, to cross the stage when she received her certificate.

‘It’s symbolic about taking them with me. I just had the vision of it, and I’d really wanted to make it happen – so they can see it is something they can achieve too.”

It was 25 years since she crossed the stage on graduation day, and knowing Shylah – it won’t be her last. She’s already enrolled in Te Reo Māori (Level One) and is two papers shy of completing the post-graduate Diploma in Applied Management and also considering doing a master’s degree.

“It’s good for your self-esteem and character to be achieving,” says Shylah. “You should always have a purpose - carrying my family has been mine.”

Caption: (top) Shylah Jones, at her graduation ceremony - she crossed the stage with her daughter and three mokopuna. (Below) After the ceremony with her mokopuna Cierra, Nathaniel and Harlow, and her mum, Margaret.