PUBLISHED AUGUST 2026

Education is New Zealand’s most powerful long-term investment

Steven Carden speaking at our 2025 awards night.

Twenty-seven years ago, I had a simple belief that education is the great equaliser, and that New Zealand was leaving too much talent behind. I set out to create a roadmap for change. 

I was fortunate. University was an assumed option in my world, not a distant aspiration. But as I spent time in schools and communities, it became clear that this wasn’t the case for many capable young people. Ability was everywhere, opportunity was not. 

The stats are startling and slow to change

At the time, the statistics were confronting. Today, they still are. Young people from low-income households remain far less likely to progress to tertiary education than their peers. This is true even when they demonstrate equal or greater academic potential. When no one in your family has been to university, the pathway can feel opaque and risky. The cost feels higher. The margin for error feels smaller. And too often, aspirations are quietly adjusted downwards.

What struck me most wasn’t a lack of ambition. It was the absence of support at a critical moment. 

Over the years, I’ve come to believe that the transition from school to tertiary study is one of the most decisive pressure points in a young person’s life. It’s where confidence is tested, networks matter, and financial strain can derail even the most determined student. Get this transition right, and the odds shift dramatically. Get it wrong, and the consequences can echo across a lifetime. 

We wrap around for success 

That insight shaped the approach we took. Rather than short-term assistance, we focused on sustained support. Rather than fees alone, we looked at the whole picture: financial stability, mentoring, and exposure to the professional world. And rather than one-off intervention, we committed to walking alongside students for four years — starting before they leave school and continuing through university. 

What we learnt over time is that education, when properly supported, behaves less like a cost and more like infrastructure. Its returns compound. Not just for the individual, but for their family, their workplace, and their community. 

Michelle Elia-Siloata, from First Foundation Alumni to Board member, and our class of 2025 Alumni

Today, some of the first young people we supported are employers, business leaders, board members, teachers and mentors themselves. Many are the first in their families to have gone to university. Their children will have a very different starting point. That is what intergenerational change looks like in practice. 

An enduring misconception about educational inequity is that it is primarily about money. Financial support is important, often decisive, but it is rarely sufficient on its own. Students navigating tertiary study without family experience of the system face challenges that are invisible to many of us. They must learn to understand expectations, manage their workload, and find their place.

They also have to imagine themselves in professional environments they’ve never been exposed to.

Mentoring matters because it normalises possibility. Exposure to the world of work matters because it builds confidence and aspiration. When these elements are combined and sustained, outcomes shift. 

Our alumni are the faces of change

Over 27 years, we’ve seen that effect play out repeatedly. Retention improves. Completion rates rise. Graduates enter professions where they are under-represented. And critically, they carry their success back into their families and communities, changing expectations about what is possible. You can see that change in each of our graduate’s stories.  

This matters for New Zealand as a whole. 

We are a small country that relies on human capability. Our productivity, leadership and social cohesion depend on how well we develop and retain talent.

At the same time, New Zealand is entering a period of significant generational wealth transfer. Families, trusts and business leaders are thinking carefully about legacy, not just what they leave behind, but what they help build. 

In that context, education deserves to be seen for what it is, one of the most powerful long-term investments available. Its impact is measurable, durable, and deeply human. It doesn’t produce immediate headlines, but it reshapes lives over decades. 

There is also a particular satisfaction in backing talent early, before it is fully formed, before success is guaranteed. It requires patience and trust. But the returns, when they come, are profound. 

Looking back, I would have liked to believe that after 27 years, our work would be done. That the gap had closed. That opportunity was evenly distributed. The reality is more complex. Progress has been made, but inequity remains stubborn. Talent is still being lost. 

Evidence not just optimism leads to outcomes 

What gives me confidence is not optimism alone, but evidence. We know what works. We’ve seen the outcomes. We’ve watched a generation come through and lift others with them. 

New Zealand has no shortage of generosity. What it needs, increasingly, is long-horizon thinking, investment that looks beyond immediate need and focuses on enduring capability. 

Education, supported properly and sustained over time, is exactly that. It remains the most powerful legacy I know. 

If you care about backing talent early, talk with us about how your organisation or whānau could walk alongside a scholar. 

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