TupuToa intern programme
Each year Pharmac offers three paid TupuToa internships for Māori and Pacific tauira.
The TupuToa Internship Programme is an employment pathway that provides professional opportunities for Māori and Pacific tertiary students in corporate, government, and community organisations.
“It’s so important to have the different perspectives that our interns bring to their work and to Pharmac. They bring their life experiences, youth, and fresh ideas that help us understand and connect with a much wider range of New Zealanders.” says Pharmac’s Director of Equity and Engagement, Dr Nicola Ngawati.
“We are so appreciative of the time and effort our three interns, Aiga Pinota Leo, Tania Guttenbeil, and Trent Peterson gave us during their 12 weeks at Pharmac. Through their dedication and diligent work they have made important contributions to Pharmac and our work,” Ngawati says.
Aiga Pinota Leo
Aiga Pinota Leo says she applied for the internship to put her public health studies into practice.
“Choosing Pharmac as a place to intern was a great decision. Somewhere that aligns perfectly with my field of studies especially within the equity and engagement directorate and it’s an area I can see myself working in the future.”
Pinota Leo created a reference resource detailing the regular communication channels used by other government agencies. This will give Pharmac an idea of further ways to engage and communicate with New Zealanders. She also collated educational resources used across the public sector to develop the understanding of equity.
“I have learnt a lot about the processes of how the organisation runs, how genuine everyone is in their area of work.”
Trent Peterson
Trent Peterson studied commerce in information systems and marketing at Victoria University of Wellington, and applied for the TupuToa internship to gain more work experience, particularly in the use of IT within organisations.
Peterson explored test automation and learned about how people in a variety of roles like project managers, business analysts, testers and developers work together.
The internship has been helpful in starting his IT career, Peterson says. “By learning about the process for a project and various roles, I believe this experience will open more doors for me in the future.
“It has also helped me develop other skills, such as confidence in my work and public speaking. I even had the opportunity to teach Te Reo to the ICT team, which was a great experience.”
Tania Guttenbeil
Tania Guttenbeil studied health science at Otago University, majoring in public health, and says she was stoked to be offered an internship with the policy team at Pharmac.
Guttenbeil developed a discovery paper regarding Pharmac’s draft access criteria following external feedback. This discovery paper proposes an approach to reviewing Pharmac’s draft access criteria policy.
Pharmac sets specific criteria that must be met before some medicines will be funded. We do this to ensure medicines are targeted to those who would benefit most from treatment.
“Through the project I have gained insight of the policy processes used at Pharmac, as well as the intricacy of all the work that goes on at Pharmac,” Guttenbiel says.
She says her time at Pharmac opened her eyes up to the various pathways she could follow in her career.