OMGTech! announces new partnership and new structure

OMGTech! announces new partnership and new structure

Over the last two years the educational charity initiative OMGTech! has worked with over 3,000 kids and announced partnerships with Spark, Microsoft, Huawei, Touchcast, and Accenture to deliver and grow access to technology, with the goal of enabling all NZ kids to have access to future tech like robots, augmented reality, 3D printing and coding to help change their lives. Today that work is extended with a new partnership between OMGTech! and the Ministry of Education to pilot an initiative for OMGTech! to help teachers bring the best and latest in STEM and technology to children in support of when the digital technologies curriculum content starts to be rolled out in 2018.

“We are incredibly passionate about supporting our educators on their journey with digital technology in education. It’s a big positive call for the Ministry to make and it is fantastic to be able to work with the Ministry to help build the next generation of hi-tech skills in NZ.” Zoe Timbrell, GM Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust.

OMGTech!, after growing even faster than we had hoped, is now taking the next step to become a permanent part of the NZ technology and education fabric, and bringing on a new and wider governance board.

OMGTech! will also be established as its own charitable trust. Until now it has been administered in a lean start-up fashion under the Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust, a family run charity founded by Vaughan Rowsell and run by his partner Zoe Timbrell. The charity, in the name of Vaughan’s mother, is to pay forward what she did for him and his two brothers when they were young. Pam Fergusson, a paraplegic solo mother of three, took out a loan on the DPB and bought a computer in the early 80s when others thought she was crazy to go into debt to buy a strange toy. That computer led Vaughan and his brothers on to careers in technology, notably Vaughan founding retail software global leader, Vend.

OMGTech! welcomes tech industry veteran Nathan Torkington as the first addition to the governance team. OMGTech! has begun the search for other experienced directors to assist with our focus on education, ethical use of technology, making the connection between business and education as well as representation of Maori & Pacific Island education. Expressions of interest can be sent to board@omgtech.co.nz.

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Ministry Release: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/1m-engage-young-kiwis-digital-tech

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