Future-proofing our careers
Can-do childhood reflected in Tech Lab founder’s approach to digital education
Reading Frances Valintine’s dazzling list of achievements and awards in the field of digital education, it would be easy to feel a little intimidated about meeting her. Until you actually meet her. Yes, she is whip-smart, speaks at pace and has a formidable memory for statistics, but she is also warm, empathetic and thoroughly likeable.
Our interview venue is Tech Futures Lab — Valintine’s latest venture — tucked away behind the shops in Newmarket. In partnership with Unitec, the Lab helps businesspeople future-proof their careers through workshops, or a recently-introduced one year Master’s degree in Applied Practice-Technological Futures.
It is an extension of The Mind Lab, which Valintine created for schoolchildren and their teachers to “offer learning experiences that support the development of the next generation of makers, doers, inventors and creators”.
Valintine grew up on a farm on the side of Mt Taranaki and laughingly describes her childhood as “always feeling cold — unless I was right next to the fire”. Having little to do with the closest town of Hawera until high school, Valintine needed to be selfsufficient and invent her own entertainment, which involved a fairly high level of trust from her parents. Naturally creative, at 7, she asked her father how to make a giraffe. “Cut it out of this,” he said, handing her a piece of wood.
“I said, ‘what do I cut it with?’ and he said, ‘with a jig saw, of course.’”
She attributes her entrepreneurial skills largely to her upbringing, which was responsible also for her fearlessness and resilience in overcoming failures. “I did things the wrong way so many times, and that manifested itself in wanting to create The Mind Lab, where kids could fail but where they could really understand and learn from that experience.”
Valintine realised teachers needed a hand up too and says because they’re a critical part of building children’s confidence, it’s vitally important for them to keep learning.