Incoming Minister for Women Jan Tinetti is expecting her portfolio will be no exception to this government's focus on COVID-19.

Tinetti will become the new Minister for Women and an Associate Minister of Education.

Previous reporting of unemployment figures has indicated women are disproportionately being made unemployed by COVID-19.

Tinetti says she will be looking at how women can be supported in the fall-out of the pandemic.

"I guess there is a tie-in to my role in education, looking at how we can ensure there are opportunities in the education space or retraining opportunities for girls coming into schools, the apprenticeship space, so tying that all into the COVID response."

She acknowledged that current training initiatives were not stereotypically professions dominated by women.

"There are opportunities for women in those professions as well and I guess we need to look at how we can support women into those particular professions and training opportunities."

Tinetti says she was looking forward to sitting down with her predecessor, Green MP Julie Ann Genter, to continue to progress her work, in particular in pay equity.

"I take my hat off to the work that Julie Anne has done over the last three years," she says.

The Tauranga MP worked as a school principal for 20 years, including at a low socio-economic school with a high number of children on a learning support register.

She is yet to be given her delegations but said she is particularly interested in taking on learning support, which was previously looked after by New Zealand First's Tracey Martin.

"I'm really excited about that because learning support is a passion of mine, she did some fantastic work in that space and I'm looking forward to progressing that work even further, she says.

Tinetti says she is also passionate at investigating alternative education.

-RNZ