Organizational Learning through Community Engagement: A case study in New Zealand. Tom Cockburn and Edgar Wilson Keywords: Private Training Enterprise (PTE), Tertiary Education Organization(TEO), Community Engagement(CE), Maori, Treaty of Waitangi. This article looks at what forms organizational learning may take and how it is perceived in tertiary educational providers’ and in the communities they seek relationships with and focuses on the Waikato region in the North Island of New Zealand. The who, what when where and why of their engagement with various communities, who garners which benefits and why as well as how such learning is measured, by whom and what gets reported and evaluated. Maori are the first people in New Zealand the indigenous “Tangata Whenua” (people of the land) and “Pakeha” are the European migrants who started arriving in the 18 th century, originally from Britain and France. Maori and Pasifika peoples from the islands such as Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Nuie etc share a collectivist culture whereas Pakeha are typically representative of individualistic cultures. The main providers of tertiary education in the Waikato region of New Zealand are the University of Waikato, Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), Te Wananga o Aotearoa and a range of New Zealand Qualification Authority-Accredited Private Training Enterprises (45 in total). Te Wananga o Aotearoa is a degree awarding body based upon Kaupapa Maori research, learning and teaching principles. They deal predominantly- but not exclusively- with Maori learners. The providers offer a wide range of education provision from basic access/foundation course, trade skills upwards to levels 9 and 10 in the NZQA framework. That is Masters and PhD level. The latter awards are delivered at the University of Waikato, Wintec and Te Wananga o Aotearoa. Universities and other tertiary education organizations have always had some form of ‘community engagement’ mission. From the early Middle Ages when the oldest known university in Europe, the University of Bologna, was founded there is a history of engagement with the local and international community. In the middle ages, the mission related to the Church and the Royal court community of nobles and often relations between ‘town’ and ‘gown’ were not entirely peaceful. Typical Community Engagement mission template today: There are four key components of the typical community engagement mission where organizational learning might occur: 1. Firstly, engagement is a common characteristic (requirement) of HE systems, even those in which there is seemingly an emphasis on detachment and excellence such as research universities. So TEOs can learn from others’ experiences and history and do not have to metaphorically ‘reinvent the wheel’. 2. Secondly, universities and TEOs themselves have played significant roles in building up a willingness amongst social partners to demand more engagement, so universities have actively successfully constructed their societal roles. There are thus some marketing and PR or communication and interaction skills to be learned. 1