PAYA Finds First Corporate Partnership

PAYA Co-Directors Janice Ashwin and Dominic de Moura McCarthy with Founder and CEO of Ferguson Consultants Group Ian B Ferguson at the Inaugural Youth Leadership Summit 2022 in Noumea, New Caledonia

PAYA has grown so much over the past two years, and we are very grateful to our entire family, who has supported us along the way! Our Co-Directors, Janice and Dominic are excited to announce an agreement with Ferguson Consultants Group as our first-ever corporate partner!

We have positive relationships with many different businesses and organisations from Australia and the Pacific, and we appreciate their financial and other support of our events and initiatives. We are very grateful and excited that Ferguson has made a long-term commitment to investing in PAYA and helping us to continue to achieve our mission.

Founded by Ian Ferguson (Founder and CEO) in 2000, Ferguson Consultants Group has become an innovative education consultancy organisation in the Southern Hemisphere. Their business works with people of all ages from across the Pacific to study in Australia and New Zealand, from a vocational to a postgraduate level. They are based in Gold Coast, Australia, and have a Study Centre in Port Moresby. They frequently travel to PNG, Fiji and other Pacific countries to encourage young people to increase their knowledge and skills through high-quality education.

In conversation with the leadership at Ferguson, our PAYA Co-Directors found a business that was genuinely committed to improving access to education in Pacific countries. As a youth organisation, PAYA also strongly emphasises the importance of education, so the development of this partnership was almost inevitable.

We were pleased to have the CEO, Ian and General Manager, Sarika, attend as distinguished guests at the Youth Leadership Summit. During the Summit, PAYA and Ferguson were delighted to jointly announce an Innovative Research Award open to young people of Pasifika origin or heritage to improve their community by funding projects in high schools.

If you know a high school in your community that has a need that the award money can fill, please fill out the application form linked below! The amount for the 2022 round is 500 AUD. We will open applications again later this year for the 2023 round, so if you miss out this time, there will be another chance!

The PAYA Management Committee are pleased with the commencement of this partnership, and we look forward to continuing to work with Ferguson Consultants Group to help young Pasifika peoples gain ever-increasing knowledge, skills, opportunities and connections.