MUMA Road Safety and Te Wananga o Aotearoa are working together to help students who want to join the police.

Manager Fran Hokianga says MUMA puts students on the wananga's police pre-training course through the New Zealand Transport Agency's Street Talk defensive driving course, which reduces the time they need to wait before sitting for a full license.

She says Street Talk teaches drivers to better understand and cope with risk, and increases their awareness of their own driving.

Mangere-based MUMA Road Safety has between sixty to eighty students a month.

"Our pass rate is 98%. The other 2% are students who don't turn up," Ms Hokianga says.

While the marae-based driver training centre started 21 years ago as a service for Maori, in recent years its students have come to reflect South Auckland's multi-cultural environment.

"Students that are coming in are mainly from India and Iraq. They've heard about us because we visited the Mangere Immigration Centre and got to know the rangatira there. They've given us community groups, temples, the Indian rangatira around the local area we can visit - that's how our numbers have excelled in the migrant area. We've also had a huge increase in our Pacific Island group."

She says the shift of driving tests to computers has had a major impact, especially on students who are illiterate or can't read English.

"One of our driver educators - whaea Annie - is teaching a 73 year old, who's never been in front of a computer before. So we have a kuia teaching a kaumatua."

The centre also targets youth.

"The promotional work we've been doing over the past few months has given us the chance to extend our services out to the North Shore. We've been in contact with schools in Northcote, Mt. Roskill and Wesley - so our aim is to target all youth. Not just in South Auckland - but right across Auckand city," Ms Hokianga says.