Scholarships

Tasman Charitable Trust Scholarships

From 2024, Acorn will be administering scholarships and grants on behalf of the Tasman Charitable Trust at six Eastern Bay of Plenty schools: Edgecumbe College, Murapara Area School, Trident High School, Whakatane High School, Tarawera High School and Opotiki College.

One scholarship and grant is available at each of these high schools annually, for students who are either undertaking tertiary study at a New Zealand institute, or students who have passed NCEA Level 2 and are choosing to undertake further training and/or have been granted an apprenticeship. Applications are made directly at each school and students who are interested in finding out more should contact their school office in the first instance.

About the Tasman Charitable Trust:

The Norske Skog Employee Educational Fund (formerly the Fletcher Challenge Paper Employee Educational Fund) was set up in 2001. The objectives of the Fund were benevolent, philanthropic, and cultural for the benefit of employees and their dependants. The beneficiaries were employees of the businesses that had a historic relationship with Fletcher Challenge Paper including, from inception, the geographies of New Zealand, Australia, Chile, and Brazil. 

In December 2022, as a result of the closure of the Tasman mill in Kawerau, the New Zealand trust [Norske Skog Employee Educational Fund (New Zealand)] was terminated as it had no beneficiaries and no employees remained.

Benefits totalling over NZ$8.5m (including 153 tertiary scholarships of $5k for dependants) were paid out over the life of the Fund in New Zealand.

It was decided, given the background/history of the Fund, that a charitable trust would be created (the Tasman Charitable Trust) to serve in the BOP region and to be applied for charitable purposes including, but not limited to, the advancement of education and benefits to the community. The Trustees decided to work with the Acorn Foundation to deliver, in the first instance, education scholarships and/or grants to six EBOP schools being the ‘historical home’ of Tasman.