Supporting education on the West Coast
In 2005, DWC invested $1.8m in a largescale literacy project. The results were excellent with 40% of West Coast children between year 5 and 8 reaching levels in reading and comprehension that were significantly higher than pupils of the same age in the rest of the country.
Other educational initiatives DWC has supported over the years include the Education for Enterprise project, Computers in Schools project, and the Education to Business project (E2B). E2B was so successful that much of its content was adopted into the national school curriculum.
DWC supported the Toki Pounamu Education Trust and its initiative to help West Coast children access Chromebook laptops. $480k of loan funding from DWC to Toki Pounamu enabled over 2,500 students from 14 schools across the Coast to gain their own computers through the scheme. More recently, DWC has been a major sponsor of the West Coast Life Education Trust.