STEAM holiday camps
PB Tech has partnered with Using Technology Better and technology partners including Google and Microsoft to host more than 20 holiday camps in 2021, three of which exclusively were reserved for the children of South Auckland STEM, a not-for-profit association focused on getting underprivileged students of South Auckland to develop an interest and involvement in science and technology.
Our first series of camps were attended by 400 students and 40 teachers over the two-week school holiday period. They were held in Auckland, Whangarei, Coromandel, Palmerston North, and Ohakune. In 2022, we have organised more than 11 workshops to date, attended by more than 400 students and 53 educators.
Supporting Maori and Pasifika businesses
PB Tech has made the choice to use local businesses wherever possible. Since 2016, we have had an exclusive partnership with Redline Technology Group, a 100% Māori-owned and Amotai-registered nationwide business that allows us to assist agencies in achieving their progressive procurement and supplier diversity targets.
"As a Maori-owned business, we are proud to have worked closely with PB Tech in the capacity of their Australasian wide Installer and Services provider since 2016…Being a PB Tech partner company has taken Redline from a small subcontractor business of 9 techs at Gen-i Field Delivery to an Australasian wide resource provider with over 350 highly qualified technicians at our disposal."
- Redline CEO Aaron Panapa
Supporting local and Pacific technology engagements
PB Tech has also supported a number of initiatives to provide or support organisations delivering digital training to students and schools. Some examples include:
- Providing equipment to the students of Forrest Hill Primary School for their experiment to launch a teddy bear into space
- Donating 160 secondhand Chromebooks to Apii Vaitau elementary school in the Cook Islands to enable them students have one device each
- Partnering with AUT University and the University of Waikato to supplying device bundles under Covid-19 lockdown conditions to students without personal laptops to enable them to learn remotely.
Supporting STEAM projects in schools
One of the STEAM projects PB Tech supports by supplying the necessary equipment is SpaceTed, where the students of Forrest Hill Primary attempt to break the Guinness world record for the world’s highest paper plane release by launching teddy bear into space with a helium balloon, tracking it, and retrieving it once it lands back on earth.