What is Maverick Group anyway?

As I mentioned the other day, I see 2009 as being a great year of opportunity for anyone who can see past the doom and gloom that most of the sheep speak of these days! We have decided to increase our marketing budget so as to expand our exposure both here domestically, as well as overseas. Locally we see 2009 as a time to provide even more services to the newcomers to Dunedin, be they international students, foreign workers or new migrants. We will add more Employment Search workshops for people looking for employment, and also start a new Dunedin Settlement workshop that will focus on the entire family, not just the breadwinner or breadwinners. We also might expand our services to providing some assistance in finding suitable housing, be it rental or purchase, and possibly some other area as well! Overseas we see tremendous opportunities in the international student, overseas worker and migrant recruitment in many countries that most people in New Zealand overlook!

During the process of talking to all of these marketing and advertising people, someone asked me a very simple, but interesting question - "what is Maverick Group anyway"? She followed on by asking why do we care about these "foreigners, who do not speak proper English or might possibly take our jobs, besides no one asked them to come here anyway"! For the contents of this writing, I will try to answer the first question - "what is Maverick Group anyway" and leave the second for further discussion and debate in the future!

OK, so what is Maverick Group? Maverick is a group of companies that provides pathways in education, employment and immigration for our clients who wish to study, work and live in New Zealand! The group currently consists of three companies mainly involved with education, consulting and charitable support for people arriving in New Zealand. In 2009 we are looking for opportunities for expansion into housing, employment and recruitment.

We think our business is a bit different from most other education providers in Dunedin, as we strive to give ongoing support and assistance to any international student, overseas worker or new migrant, whether we recruited and brought them to NZ or not? Simply put, we have assembled the best educational providers at Maverick School, the best business professionals at Maverick Consulting and a talented pool of multi-cultural volunteers at Maverick Trust, to handle the three biggest needs and concerns of newcomers to Dunedin - Education, Employment and Housing.

All Languages Spoken
Maverick School of Languages Ltd provides a full range of English language courses for international students, as well as Chinese courses for local students and business people.

Providing Pathways to the World
Maverick Consulting Ltd offers advice and assistance in the areas of student, employment and residency visas for immigrating to, or migrating from, New Zealand.

All Cultures Welcome
Maverick Charitable Trust provides ongoing and overall support for newcomers, be they international students, overseas workers and new migrants who choose to study, work or live in Dunedin, NZ

As an example of how we are different, we set up a NZ government approved Charitable Trust (Maverick International Student and Migrant Support Trust) to provide support and help, to inspire all newcomers from abroad, be they students, workers or migrants to reach their full potential, and settle themselves with dignity and respect, within the Dunedin community. Through the trust (Maverick International and Migrant Support Trust) we are able to run employment search and settlement support workshops for international students and new migrants to New Zealand, as well as providing a hub for the various other ethnic community groups to connect and network with each other.

This is what we believe Maverick Group to be at present, but as mentioned earlier, we would like to expand our services to many other areas. We think that by being focused on our core business - newcomers to Dunedin - we can provide needed support, make a few dollars along the way and make Dunedin a culturally diversified and integrated community that welcomes all newcomers!

2009 Outlook

Hello and welcome to 2009 here in Dunedin, on the South island of New Zealand. As I look at the articles in the local and national newspapers, be it the business section or even the opinion page, all I see is a "doom and gloom" outlook from what is usually an upbeat and optimistic host population. I am not a psychologist, nor do I claim to fully understand the Kiwi as a person, but I see tremendous opportunities almost everywhere I look - especially here in Dunedin.

In my last writing, I mentioned the other brainstorming session we had, this time with the business classes. All of these students are looking to set up their own businesses, and the classes have a mix of newcomers to Dunedin (70%) and host population (30%). During the session we heard many different ideas, with the biggest opportunity being tourism, and all of the services that fall under this category. Be it better service at local cafes and pubs, a more coordinated effort for all of the cruise ships that arrive this time of year or more hotel rooms. Education tourism was mentioned, as well as more international language services available to overseas guests. What I found most exciting was the openness of all involved in the session, as for that moment we were all equal in our feelings to make the place better, with all of us being citizens of Dunedin - whether born here or not! I must confess that this is not always the case, with some prejudices and ignorance of the outside world showing itself more often than it should. Dunedin has been described to me more times then I care to remember, as being "conservative". This definition has many versions, some of which I will discuss in a future writing.

I am looking forward to 2009, no doom and gloom here! We at Maverick Group are expecting great things to happen for the remaining 361 days of 2009. Will keep you updated, and we wish all of you great success as well!

International Student Perspective

We at Maverick Group are always looking for ways to attract more and more people from the outside world to come to Dunedin to study, work and live. Last Friday we had a small brainstorming activity with 5 international students, all from the University of Otago. We had students from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam some of whom had been here for more than 6 years and 1 for less than 6 months. We talked about security and safety issues, and whether the situation had gotten better or worse since each arrived. The conclusion being that while the chance of physical violence was low for students, the social settings, especially for international female students, did indeed provide some areas of concern - particularly around the consumption of alcohol.

All students liked the fact that the town was small and easy to get around (most places in only 10 minutes), and very much quieter than most of the places the students originated from - but this was seen as a good thing for study, as there were less distractions to interfere with school. The University of Otago itself came out positively, as the opportunities to study pharmacy and dentistry were open and accessible to international students, they are somewhat limited in other Universities in New Zealand, as well as in their home countries. There is room for improvement in student support at most of the local high schools, as well as the University itself, but we took this to mean that there are opportunities for Maverick Group and its team to assist these organizations to improve such services. Mostly by a "hands on" approach with all of our brainstorming team committed to the task, especially with the support of international high school kids.

This was our first of hopefully many meetings as a group, and I will keep you updated on our progress as we proceed. I will also enlighten you about another recent brainstorming session with a group of business students (50/50 mix of local kiwis and newcomers) about the future of Dunedin from a business perspective.

So Why Dunedin

Dunedin (NZ) is the place my wife (China) and myself (Irish/American) chose to establish roots and settle down and raise our family, a daughter (born in Scotland) and son (born in China). As you can see, none of us have any links or ties to NZ, yet we felt it to be a safe and clean country to make a new life for all of us. For my wife and I, it was a "neutral 3rd country" in which we were both on equal footing to learn a new way of life and culture, after living in each others country for a period of time. For the children it is safe (they can walk home from school - barefoot if they want), an outdoor lifestyle with beaches 3 minutes away and teachers who take an active interest in what they are learning in school. From our house we can see the harbor from the back yard and ocean from the front, with plenty of trees and grass in between both views.

From a business point of view, Dunedin has just over 100,000 residents with another 20,000 students at the University of Otago and Otago Polytech during the school term. With this size population, it is small enough for a business (even a new business) to "effect change" from a marketing perspective (word of mouth is king), yet large enough that this same business can earn enough money so the owners can live comfortably. I strongly believe this, as I have taught and graduated over 200 business students from a small business management class, a majority who are new migrants, many of whom have set up their own businesses here in Dunedin.

Introduction

Hello All,

This is a first attempt to introduce some of the issues that newcomers to New Zealand may face after they have arrived to the country, and more specifically Dunedin - which is located on the southern part of the South Island. We will try to discuss issues that we have faced, as well as the hundreds of newcomers (international students, foreign workers and new migrants to the country) that we have spoken to over the last few years. We do not have all of the answers, but we seem to know most of the questions that come up, especially the concerns about employment, education and housing. In the meantime you are welcome to visit our web site (www.maverickgroup.co.nz) to begin your journey of knowledge towards your new home here in New Zealand.