Screen-print illustration of the low headland above Maketū’s ocean beach — Illustration generated with AI.

37.76° S, 176.46° E. Western Bay of Plenty District, Bay of Plenty (Te Moana-a-Toi)

Microsoft Copilot training in Maketū

Maketū's food producer and community service teams have different access needs, even when both prepare routine messages. Copilot training can begin by naming the source file and the reviewer.^4,6

Enquire Read the local brief

51.4% of Maketū’s employed residents are in desk-based roles.

	A	B	C	D
1	Role type	Maketū	NZ	Diff (pts)
2	Desk-based	51.4%	63.6%	−12.3
3	People-facing	8.7%	9.0%	−0.3
4	Hands-on	39.9%	27.4%	+12.6
5	Employed residents	654	2,622,534

About 336 people in desk-based roles. 2023 Census, counted where people live.

Rows 2 to 4: ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5, 6 / 4 / 3, 7, 8. Stats NZ 2023 Census, employed residents. Proxy per ILO 2025; not a forecast.

Residents: 1,3102023 Census
Business locations: 102Feb 2025, +47.8% since 2020
Employees (jobs here): 130at local businesses, Feb 2025
Self-employed or employers: 14.2%of employed residents, NZ 16.2%
Drive to Tauranga: 32 min38 km by road

What AI means for work in Maketū

5 findings from Stats NZ data for Maketū, and what each means for Microsoft Copilot training.

Workforce by occupation group, Maketū against New Zealand

51.4% of employed residents in Maketū work in desk-based roles, against 63.6% across New Zealand. The difference is mostly labourers: 22.5% of employed residents here, against 9.0% nationally. Size the licences to the desk-based roles rather than headcount. A pilot with office, scheduling and management staff shows value before you pay for everyone.

Employed residents by occupation group, Maketū and New Zealand, 2023 Census
Occupation group	People	Maketū	NZ
Managers	99	15.1%	18.3%
Professionals	129	19.7%	26.8%
Technicians and trades workers	57	8.7%	12.5%
Community and personal service workers	57	8.7%	9.0%
Clerical and administrative workers	72	11.0%	10.8%
Sales workers	36	5.5%	7.8%
Machinery operators and drivers	57	8.7%	5.9%
Labourers	147	22.5%	9.0%

Desk-based = ANZSCO major groups 1, 2, 5 and 6 (managers, professionals, clerical and administrative, sales): roles where AI assistance is most applicable. Broad proxy informed by ILO 2025; not measured adoption or an employment forecast. People-facing = major group 4. Hands-on = major groups 3, 7 and 8.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people; ILO, Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure (2025).

Other services: 26.5% of local jobs, 7.6× the national share

Top employer: other services, 35 jobs (26.5%). Heat cells mark industries over-represented against New Zealand. Plan Copilot use cases by department in the largest employers first.

Share of paid jobs by industry, Maketū and New Zealand, February 2025
Industry	Jobs	Share	NZ	×
Other services	35	26.5%	3.5%	7.6×
Manufacturing	25	18.9%	9.4%	2.0×
Farming, forestry, fishing	18	13.6%	4.8%	2.8×
Health and social care	18	13.6%	12.0%	1.1×
Construction	9	6.8%	8.2%	0.8×
Hospitality	9	6.8%	7.2%	0.9×
Education	9	6.8%	8.5%	0.8×
Admin and support services	6	4.6%	4.6%	1.0×
Retail	3	2.3%	9.3%	0.2×

Share of paid employees at business locations in the area, by ANZSIC06 industry division. × is the local share divided by the national share.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Business locations +47.8% and employees +62.5%, 2020 to 2025

Paid employees 80 (2020) to 130 (2025), +62.5% against +5.0% nationally. Business locations 69 to 102. Largest job gain: other services (+35). Largest loss: hospitality (−9).

Business locations: 69102 in 2025, from 2020; +47.8% NZ +9.6%
Employees (jobs here): 80130 in 2025, from 2020; +62.5% NZ +5.0%

Change in employees by industry in Maketū, February 2020 to February 2025
Industry	2020	2025	Change
Other services	0	35	+35
Manufacturing	0	25	+25
Farming, forestry, fishing	3	18	+15
Hospitality	18	9	−9
Education	18	9	−9
Arts and recreation	6	0	−6

Geographic units (business locations) and paid employees, February of each year. Small counts are randomly rounded by Stats NZ, so small changes can be noise.

Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics, February 2020 and 2025.

Remote readiness: work at home and household internet

Both on-site and remote sessions work. Most teams start with a half-day on-site.

17.4%

Mainly worked from home, census day 2023

New Zealand 17.7%

85.3%

Households with internet access

New Zealand 90.5%

Main means of travel to work on census day, and access to the internet in occupied private dwellings.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Self-employed and employers: 14.2% (New Zealand 16.2%)

Most workers here are employees of organisations, the setting where Microsoft 365 Copilot rollouts are planned centrally, with licences, policy and champions.

14.2%

self-employed or employers

New Zealand 16.2%

Employed residents whose status in employment is employer, or self-employed without employees.

Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people.

Copilot for Maketū’s largest employers

A production workbook might be suitable for a fictional shift exercise; a public service description can support a separate Word draft. SharePoint permissions and ownership should be agreed before either file is used. An other-services team could map a Maketū service description through Word and Outlook before sending an update. Other services is the largest local paid-employee category in the 2025 data.^4,6,17

Food manufacturing

Use a sample Excel order register to create a Word production handover, checking counts against the workbook.^4,5

Community services

Draft an Outlook response from approved public service wording, with the service owner checking the final text.^6,7

About Maketū

Maketū has a locally based food producer: Maketū Pies says its pies and sausage rolls are made in Maketū by a local team. In December 2025, the company reported placing a hot-pie vending machine at Rotorua's Redwoods i-SITE as a new visitor sales channel. Maketu Health & Social Services is a kaupapa Māori charitable trust serving Maketū and surrounding communities, while Muir's Tours offers cultural hāngi and seafood and fishing experiences from Maketū. Western Bay of Plenty District Council lists the Maketu Community Centre for hire for meetings of up to 40 people.^3,4,5,6,9

Microsoft Copilot ideas grounded in Maketū

Food manufacturing

Turn approved pie production notes into a shift brief
A supervisor can use Copilot in Word to reshape approved, non-sensitive process notes into a clear draft shift brief, then check it against the source document. The team supplies its own approved terminology and signs off every operational instruction.⁴

Why here: Maketū Pies says its pies and sausage rolls are produced by a local team in Maketū, making food-manufacturing documentation a relevant practice task.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files
Check a sample ingredient and yield workbook
A production administrator can practise asking Copilot in Excel to flag unusual values in a fictional batch-yield sheet and explain the formulas it used. They compare the result with a known sample before applying any method to company records.⁴

Why here: The Maketū Pies site lists a range of pie and sausage-roll products; a fabricated production workbook lets a local food producer practise spreadsheet analysis without exposing actual recipes or output.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel
Draft follow-ups from a product launch meeting
A marketing coordinator can use Copilot in Teams and Outlook to organise a fictional meeting transcript into draft owners, questions and follow-up messages. Staff verify names, timing and product claims before sending anything externally.⁵

Why here: Maketū Pies described a new PieBot sales channel at Rotorua's Redwoods in December 2025, a concrete example for practising product-launch coordination.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Outlook

Health and social services

Draft a staff guide from approved service pages
A service administrator can use Word Copilot grounded in approved organisation files to prepare a plain-language draft of a public service guide. A service lead checks accuracy and culturally appropriate wording before it is shared, with client records excluded.⁶

Why here: Maketu Health & Social Services publishes youth, Whānau Ora and wellbeing services, making a staff-reviewed public information guide relevant to its local work.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word
- Microsoft Graph grounding on company files
Summarise a fictional service-planning meeting
A team can use Teams Copilot with a fabricated meeting transcript to practise producing a decision list and draft actions. Staff keep whānau details and actual case discussions out of the exercise and verify any assigned follow-up before it enters a work system.⁶

Why here: The local provider lists several programme areas, including youth development and kaumātua services, that can supply fictional planning scenarios without using service-user information.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Teams
Chart a synthetic programme roster in Excel
An operations coordinator can use Copilot in Excel to practise grouping made-up staffing hours by programme and week, then check the formulas and chart against the source data. It helps staff learn a spreadsheet workflow without analysing real rosters or client attendance.⁶

Why here: Maketu Health & Social Services publishes a range of programmes, including diabetes support and youth development, which can be represented in a synthetic scheduling exercise.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot in Excel

What Maketū does

Food manufacturing. Maketū Pies says its pies and sausage rolls are made at 6 Little Waihi Road in Maketū by a local team. Its December 2025 report describes a new hot-pie vending machine at Rotorua's Redwoods i-SITE, extending the company's visitor-facing sales channel beyond the town.^4,5 Named in public sources: Maketū Pies⁴.
Health and social services. Maketu Health & Social Services describes itself as a kaupapa Māori charitable trust serving Maketū and surrounding communities. Its published services include youth development, Whānau Ora, kaupapa Māori mental health, diabetes support, kaumātua day services and family-harm prevention.^6,7 Named in public sources: Maketu Health & Social Services⁶.
Cultural and marine tourism. Muir's Tours publishes Maketū-based cultural experiences, including a hosted hāngi, and tours involving seafood and ocean fishing. Tourism Bay of Plenty also lists a cultural dinner experience in Maketū, while its industry page says its destination-management area includes the coast from Waihī Beach to Pukehina.^9,10,15 Named in public sources: Muir's Tours⁹.

Organisations are named for local context only. No relationship with them is implied.

Training venues in and near Maketū

Most training happens at your own workplace. For a public workshop day or an off-site session, these places hire out rooms.

Maketu Community Centre³

40 people, largest layout

Council states meetings can accommodate up to 40 people; layout is not specified.

Wilson Road, Maketu

From the venues’ own public listings. No booking or relationship is implied.

In the local business news

16 Dec 2025
Maketū Pies now on tap at Rotorua redwoods Maketū Pies
Maketū Pies reported installing Rotorua's first hot-pie vending machine outside the Redwoods i-SITE, stocked with its products. The story is a local food manufacturer's example of combining product distribution with visitor-facing retail technology.

Around Maketū

Maketu Beach, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, 2 April 2008 (2381575915) by Phillip Capper from Wellington, New Zealand, CC BY 2.0.

About 25 km in a straight line to Tauranga, the nearest large centre. Dots are towns covered on this site.

Western Bay of Plenty District and Microsoft Copilot training across Bay of Plenty, or Tauranga. Distances are straight-line.

A Maketū worksheet could record permitted files, staff access and sign-off steps for a sample food or community-service workflow.^4,6

Public Microsoft Copilot workshops near Maketū

There is no public Copilot workshop near Maketū on the calendar yet. Register interest below and we will tell you when one is scheduled. Organisations can book private training for their own staff at any time.

Tell me when there is a workshop near Maketū

We will email you when a public workshop is scheduled nearby. No other mailing.