Professionalised workforce development framework
Te Tāpapa
Reinforcing and invigorating the collective expertise, energy and effort of financial mentors
Te Tāpapa is the professionalised workforce development framework for financial mentors. Co-designed with the sector in 2024 Te Tāpapa is the financial mentoring sector's collective vision for a recognised, professionalised financial mentoring workforce - with the professional structures and mana it needs, where mentors have clear career pathways, and in which whānau and the broader public have high trust in the quality of support mentors offer.
Te Tāpapa is designed to give confidence in financial mentoring to mentors themselves, the whānau they work with, and the broader public.
Te Tāpapa is built on six interconnected pou/pillars, each grounded in kaupapa Māori values including whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, whakapapa, rangatiratanga, mahi tahi and oranga.
Since the release of Te Tāpapa in April 2025, FinCap has:
- Completed the Mahi Tika, Mahi Āwhina, Mahi Rangatira Competencies and Standards pou/pillar and started to embed these into Financial Mentor Introductory Course (FMIC), supervision training, and modules in our online learning platform.
- Raised awareness and discussed the Competencies & Standards in communities of practice, including working with service managers to develop useful templates.
- Actively worked to lift engagement with financial mentoring services.
We have also completed substantial preparatory work on professional body and training structures, to inform the next stages of our pathway to achieving professionalisation.
In the second half of 2026 we are undertaking consultation with the financial mentoring sector to consider the best structural model to progress the remaining pou/pillars. This is particularly relevant to:
- Ka pua ki te whaiao, ki te ao mārama Legislated Workforce & Professional Body - the structural and regulatory backbone of professionalisation.
- Te tihi o manono Training & Career Pathways - the educational infrastructure and career progression pathways for the workforce.
Professionalisation goes hand in hand with our work on sustainable sector funding.