Kia ora koutou katoa, he mihi nui tēnei ki a koutou katoa i tēnei wā.

There’s a lot of great mahi happening around the motu – it’s been fantastic to see all the good news from business divisions in the media recently about enrolments, including Tai Poutini, Toi Ohomai, and UCOL, amongst others. It’s clear when we do what we do best – providing great support, education and training to our learners, our reputations precede us. Word spreads, and more people want to learn and train with us – and we know achieving our performance targets will set our future entities up for success. I also want to acknowledge the work that marketing, recruitment and enrolment teams did over the last year to support these higher enrolments, and a big thank you to everyone who has played an important role in making our learners feel welcome at a range of events and through interactions so far this year.

I know against that backdrop, many of you are thinking about your own future. Yesterday, the consultation closed for kaimahi most affected by Tāraia te anamata - te ahunga ki mua | Creating our futures structure. Again, thank you for your engagement and feedback. The Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and I appreciated hearing your concerns and questions. Many of you asked why we needed to consult – the simple reason is we don’t want to make significant changes to people’s positions without first consulting with them.

Interestingly, many of the questions asked were about what our future entities will look like and how the disestablishment process is proceeding. I must reinforce that the Government is leading the disestablishment process, not Te Pūkenga. The Government is still determining what the vocational education industry will look like, and that process will take some time, as outlined in this article on Te Whare. We expect people will be able to provide feedback about what the Government proposes as part of the select committee process, outlined on the New Zealand Government website.

You can find more information about next steps in this edition of Ngā Taipitopito. Thank you to all PCW kaimahi supporting this kaupapa - I know there are many, many more hours of mahi to come to prepare to share decisions with kaimahi.

We are currently working through the appointment of independent Specialist Advisors to our Disestablishment Working Group. These Advisors will work with our regional and work-based learning executive directors and ELT to develop advice on the shape of a future regional network of vocational education entities. We will have more details for you in the coming days.

Lastly, a big thank you to Steven Turnbull for all his mahi over the years. Steven, our Acting Chief Digital Officer, departs Te Pūkenga on Friday, 5 April to take up the position of Chief Digital Officer at Otago University. I’d like to thank Steven for the leadership and support he has provided to the Digital team both as our Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information Security Officer. With Steven’s departure, and my taking on the Chief Executive role, I am looking at how we align responsibilities across ELT members as we progress our disestablishment, while continuing to deliver on our Charter. I will provide you with an update on this soon.

Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

Gus Gilmore
Tumuaki | Chief Executive

Ngā kōrero hou
Our updates

Unification work gets the green light

Te Pūkenga executive leadership team has given the green light to continue the work to create nationally consistent programmes for nursing, midwifery, social work, and sport, recreation and exercise (SRE).

Although Te Pūkenga is being disestablished, it makes sense to make the most of the work done in recent years on unification by discipline-specific collaboration groups around the motu.

From the perspective of any future new entities, there are several benefits of taking this approach. Shared programmes will lead to:

• reduced programme and resource development and maintenance costs for the new entities (once confirmed)
• consistency in ākonga experience and greater flexibility to ākonga if they need to move location across the motu
• consistent graduate outcomes for industry and employers
• the meeting of external stakeholder needs who are highly supportive of the programmes, including Health New Zealand|Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora
• opportunities for collaboration to deliver online courses, where applicable
• more culturally responsive programmes that incorporate Mātauranga Māori teaching and learning, noting the responsible authorities are increasing expectations in this area
• a more consistent interface with Te Whatu Ora, a major clinical and practice placement provider, which is focused on developing a national clinical placement system
• the opportunity to facilitate enduring communities of practice to support collaboration of all forms across the sector
• smoother transition of delivery at an operational level, given we don't yet know the exact configuration of how current delivery sites will group and align with new entities.

There has been strong support from key external stakeholders in each subject areas and we’re confident the proposed shared programmes will deliver overwhelming benefits for ākonga, employers and communities.

Partners like Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora, Te Aka Whai Ora, Department of Corrections, Directors of Mental Health Nurses, aged residential care providers, the Office of the Chief Nurse and the Social Work Registration Board have all endorsed this approach.

Te Whatu Ora national workforce plan is focused on ensuring the health workforce mirrors the demographics of the local communities it serves. Currently, the vocational education landscape for nursing and midwifery creates inequities for Māori and Pacific ākonga around things like entry criteria. Having shared programmes helps to address these issues.

Te Pūkenga has developed three shared programmes for nursing – the Bachelor of Nursing Māori, the Bachelor of Nursing Pacific and the Bachelor of Nursing and the development of teaching and learning resources. Similarly, Te Pūkenga has developed shared programmes for social work, midwifery and SRE.

The nursing and social work programmes have been endorsed by Te Poari Akoranga (Te Pūkenga Academic Board), and midwifery will be submitted for endorsement soon. The next step is to progress each programme through the accreditation and approval process with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) and the relevant professional body. This is expected to take place in 2024 with panel dates yet to be confirmed.

The work on the SRE programmes is at an earlier stage with consultation with key stakeholders needing to take place. The consultation is expected to get underway shortly.

Consultation closes for kaimahi most affected by Tāraia te anamata | Creating our futures

Tāraia te anamata - Te ahunga ki mua | Creating our futures – next steps consultation closed for feedback at 5pm yesterday.

So far, more than 400 pieces of feedback have been received from kaimahi and unions:

• Most of the feedback related to people's individual employment situations with many agreeing to withdraw their notice of disestablishment.
• There will be a need to continue supporting a number of kaimahi who agreed that this proposal was not suitable for them. We will aim to progress this as soon as possible for kaimahi.
• We received feedback outside the scope of the consultation, for example, division structure suggestions or division operation suggestions. This was shared with the relevant division's People, Culture and Wellbeing (PCW) team to progress as necessary.

We will now finalise the key themes and matters arising from the feedback and complete our decision. Our aim is to complete this and begin communications with kaimahi in mid-March at the latest.

If you have any pātai (questions), please check out the revised frequently asked questions on Te Whare or email PeopleAndCulture@TePukenga.ac.nz.

2023 Pastoral Code self-review journey begins

As a tertiary education provider, Te Pūkenga must deliver a Code of Practice self-review report each year. The report presents a high-level organisational view of ākonga wellbeing and safety systems. Every aspect of The Education (Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Learners) Code of Practice is examined through the self-evaluation process.

Last year, Te Pūkenga delivered its first-ever self-review report, reflecting on the activity of all the business divisions in 2022. The report showed that overall, Te Pūkenga provides effective pastoral care to ākonga across the motu.

Kaimahi are now diligently working on compiling data and writing comprehensive self-reviews for 2023. This will contribute to the upcoming Te Pūkenga report, scheduled for publication on 31 July 2024. The report will include aggregated visual data, commentary for each outcome and associated processes, and an action plan for prioritised improvements.

Collating this report involves a tremendous amount of dedication, attention to detail, and collaborative effort, to ensure we have good well-being and safety systems in place for our ākonga. We extend our gratitude to all kaimahi involved in contributing to this vital mahi for our ākonga.

New Finance Management Information System coming in 2024 

By the end of 2024, all Te Pūkenga business divisions will have a new single Financial Management Information System (FMIS) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) tool. This decision has been carefully considered by the Executive Leadership Team and has the support of Te Pūkenga Council.  

This decision has been communicated to the Tertiary Education Commission and the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills, to ensure we are aligned with the Minister’s letter of intent. 

The reasons we’re proceeding with these projects include:

• Funding was secured for this work in March 2023.
• The systems will support our transition to our future entities because they’ve been designed to be adaptable to any future entity structure and will support local decision-making.
• We’ll avoid significant cost increases. The work to implement the FMIS and EPM has contractual commitments in place for three years. In addition, continuing with our current financial systems would result in significant cost increases for licenses and system upgrades.
• All business divisions will have fully supported financial systems that enable streamlined processes and consistent functionality.

The rollout of the new systems begins on April 15 for Te Pūkenga national office at Wintec, WelTec and Whitireia. We’ve worked closely with Regional Finance Directors to prioritise business divisions with older finance systems so that they are implemented in earlier releases. 

We will continue to keep you updated and let you know when further details, including the implementation schedule and frequently asked questions, are loaded onto Te Whare.

Temporary pause of Programme (Transitional) reviews and replacements

The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has granted Te Pūkenga a temporary pause on replacing our Programmes (Transitional) with Programmes of Study.

What are Programmes (Transitional)?

When Transitional Industry Training Organisations (TITOs) became part of Te Pūkenga, NZQA granted temporary approvals to Te Pūkenga to receive TITOs’ programmes of industry training. These programmes are called ‘Programmes (Transitional)’ and were designed to support us in getting up to speed with delivering the programmes before deciding how we wanted to manage them.

What’s happening with Programmes (Transitional)?

Early this year, we submitted a plan to NZQA stating when our Programmes (Transitional) would be replaced by Programmes of Study. Now that Te Pūkenga is being disestablished, NZQA has agreed that we can pause this mahi until we understand the structure of our future entities, particularly Work-Based Learning (WBL).

Although our work to replace the Programmes (Transitional) is paused, Te Pūkenga will continue to maintain them, including making sure unit standards and qualification versions are current.

When the structure of our future entities is confirmed, NZQA will work with us to determine when and how the Programmes (Transitional) will be replaced.

NZQA will continue to evaluate all sub-contracting arrangements within Programmes (Transitional). If you have any outstanding, please continue to submit them.

If you have any questions about Programmes (Transitional) please email Deborah.Young@TePukenga.ac.nz.

Encouraging ākonga to reflect on their wellbeing

Early this month, we launched Te Pae Ora competition, an initiative aimed at promoting well-being amongst our ākonga. The responses so far have been truly inspiring.

Designed to spark meaningful discussions, the competition invites ākonga to share one thing they do for their well-being.

Since the competition launched on 18 February, we've received more than a hundred entries. This level of participation demonstrates the significance that our ākonga place on prioritising their well-being and engaging in dialogues about their mental and physical health.

We've also received positive feedback from ākonga saying they’re grateful for the chance the competition gives them to delve into their well-being routines and connect with peers through conversation.

Toi Ohomai Beauty Therapy ākonga Savannah McLaren says she finds exercise is great for her well-being.

“Being able to work out or go for a walk, it definitely clears the mind.”

She said it was important for ākonga to take proactive steps to look after themselves, especially while studying.

“Competitions like this are great to remind students that they need to take their well-being seriously.”

The competition runs until 28th March – there’s still plenty of time to encourage ākonga to participate. We invite kaimahi to get involved and get the word out to ākonga!

To help promote the competition, you can order posters to print from our Brandkit. Click here to order posters and display them proudly in your areas.