A training centre set up to get more tangata whenua into farming has taken on its first students.
Eight people have so far signed up for lessons on a South Taranaki dairy farm owned by Te Rua o Te Moko.
It sits on blocks of customary land in Normanby - collectively controlled by 1100 owners.
The teaching project's a collaboration between the farm and Land Based Training - and students will leave with a Level 3 National Certificate in Agriculture.
A director with the company and a Maori land block owner, Doug Brooks, says it's a new life for some of the students.
He says some of them have been unemployed and drawing benefits up to now - and they're keen to out of the doldrums and into work.
Mr Brooks says the training will give the students the skills to run Maori-owned farms.
