Kia ora koutou katoa

On Monday, Peseta Sam, members of the leadership team at Unitec, and I hosted Deborah Russell, the Opposition Spokesperson on Tertiary Education. Dr Russell is a list Minister of Parliament residing in Auckland who formerly represented the New Lynn electorate.

Our primary message to Dr Russell, echoing our message to all our stakeholders, reaffirmed our commitment to providing exemplary vocational education and training and prioritising the best outcomes for our ākonga, regardless of the challenges ahead of us.

I also highlighted the outstanding efforts of kaimahi, evident in our enrolment and sign-up figures. Our performance remains above budget, with both campus-based and online delivery modes continuing to excel. Although work-based sign-ups are down a little, this reflects the state of our economy and increasing competition.

This week marks the start of consultation with some of our national office kaimahi. The consultation proposes to disestablish some national office positions, devolve some positions or responsibilities back to regions or divisions, and realign some positions to transition mahi. It is important to note as we continue to disestablish Te Pūkenga, there will be more consultations. Further details on this current process can be found on Te Whare.

I want to reassure you all that your dedication to our ākonga, communities, and stakeholders is deeply appreciated. I am very proud of what we have achieved together. These changes are driven by our commitment to meeting the expectations of our Minister and do not suggest any shortcomings on anyone’s part. I will visit divisions more in the coming weeks and months, so if you see me, please say hi. I look forward to speaking with as many of you as possible. A reminder that you can seek support from your managers, colleagues, our People, Culture, and Wellbeing team, and other available support services.

Lastly, I wish to advise you that as part of this national office review, our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) colleagues Andrew McSweeney and Keri-Anne Tane are leaving Te Pūkenga.

Keri-Anne first became part of the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST) as Director of People and Culture in 2020, following her previous role as Executive Director of People, Culture and Capability at Toi Ohomai where she was part of the leadership team which amalgamated Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Waiariki Institute of Technology. This was a perfect background to support Te Pūkenga as we worked to join 25 different vocational education and training organisations.

In 2022, Keri-Anne was appointed Chief People Officer at Te Pūkenga and has worked tirelessly with her team to support the establishment and now disestablishment of Te Pūkenga. Her strong leadership and values-driven approach to her mahi have seen her guide her team through multiple challenging situations. I have the utmost respect for how Keri-Anne navigates change and how she always puts people foremost and at the heart of her decision-making. I would like to thank Keri-Anne for her authentic and purposeful leadership.

Keri-Anne will leave us at the end of May. Most of her responsibilities and team will return to business divisions, except for payroll, the Human Resources Information System team (HRIS), and Wellbeing and Safety, which will all remain part of national office for now.

Andrew joined Te Pūkenga as Chief Executive of ServiceIQ when it became part of Te Pūkenga in July 2022. In December 2022, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Learner and Employer Experience and Attraction. Many of you will have met Andrew during the consultation period and witnessed first-hand his commitment to continually improving the way we deliver vocational education and training in New Zealand and internationally. We highly value Andrew’s knowledge and expertise including the compelling reputation and connections he has with a wide range of stakeholders. Andrew has been a valued member of our executive leadership team, bringing not only a unique set of skills and experience to the table but also great energy, humour, and enthusiasm for the tasks we faced, even at their most difficult. Andrew leaves us at the end of April.

Andrew’s responsibilities will transfer to Paora Ammunson. These include marketing, international, insights and reporting and learner success:

• Marketing: Marketing campaigns and initiatives have been transferred to business divisions.
• International: Business divisions will continue to lead international student recruitment, divisional relationships, marketing and staffing, and Peter Richardson will continue his coordination role until Te Pūkenga is disestablished. This ensures we continue our interactions with Education New Zealand (ENZ) and Immigration New Zealand. Peter will also continue coordinating the China Alliance and ENZ-sponsored student recruitment events.
• Insights and reporting: Shane Wohlers will continue in a national role to maintain some national capability.
• Learner success: A small team will continue to support the Learner Success Plan. Over the next six months, Peter Makara will lead the winding or packaging up of all projects and transferring them to business divisions or our new entities. This will include Intellectual Property, processes and documents, resources, and, where applicable, budget funding.

I speak for my fellow ELT members, past and present, in thanking both Keri-Anne and Andrew for their contributions to our team. They will both be missed, and we wish them well in their future endeavours.

Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui.

Gus Gilmore

Tumuaki | Chief Executive 

Ngā kōrero hou
Our updates

Stay healthy this winter: vaccinations now available at Te Pūkenga campuses

This year, protecting yourself and your colleagues is easier than ever! We are pleased to announce that vaccinations are now available on-site for all kaimahi.

Getting vaccinated is the best way to defend yourself against illnesses like the flu and COVID-19. These viruses can be serious and can potentially impact your health and wellbeing.

Here's how to get your jab:

• Visit Te Whare to find out when and where vaccinations are happening at a Te Pūkenga campus near you.

Even if you're part of a Work-Based Learning Business Division, you can still take advantage of these on-site vaccinations!

Let's work together to create a healthier workplace for everyone. Get vaccinated this season and stay protected!

Business divisions can now sign up for ACTS sustainability memberships

Te Pūkenga is now a registered member of Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS)!

Membership gives every business division access to a range of programmes, resources and opportunities for members and organisations to work towards a sustainable future.

You can find out more about signing up for membership here.

Te Pūkenga kaimahi and ākonga can sign up with their division email for access. The membership portal provides access to member-only content, including international resources, webinars and an online member database.

ACTS engages with, empowers and exemplifies organisations working to tackle complex social, economic and environmental challenges and support meaningful change towards a more sustainable future.

Your access to diverse sustainability resources and connections with peers throughout Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and beyond awaits!

Membership is valid until February 2025.

Rainbow Tick cultural identities workshops now on!

Rainbow Tick, a cultural identities workshop, is being offered for the first time to Te Pūkenga kaimahi.

Otago Polytechnic is pleased to share more opportunities to learn about Rainbow diversity and inclusion in the workplace via the new facilitated online workshops.

Fill in this form to register your interest. Numbers are limited and places will be allocated on a first-in basis. Registration will be confirmed via a calendar appointment and Teams link.

Learn how kaimahi can support and foster a culture of inclusion and belonging through three workshops. Workshop 1: Rainbow 101, Workshop 2: Active Allyship, Workshop 3: Cultural Identities. Each workshop runs for an hour and a half on Teams.

Visit Akoranga kaimahi | Kaimahi learning on Te Whare to register your interest and find out more about what the workshops offer.

If you have any questions, please email the People and Culture team at Otago Polytechnic: PeopleAndCulture@op.ac.nz.

Does distance from providers affect education achievement and course completion?

A new study, led by Prof. Sharon Brownie, Adjunct Professor at Wintec | Te Pūkenga, looks into whether how far you live from your tertiary education provider affects how well you do in your studies.

The study, called ‘Equity of access and participation in tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand: the tale of three regions’ (it’s open access), dives into the idea that being far from a provider might make it harder for learners to succeed. Prof. Brownie’s team looked at learners in three different areas covered by Te Pūkenga business divisions.

Guess what they found? It turns out that when providers centralise their offerings, it can create what they're calling 'educational deserts' – places where it's tough for students to access education. On the flip side, when providers reach out to students in more remote areas, it helps level the playing field and improves how well everyone does in their studies.

They also found something interesting about international students – having a lot of them around might affect how domestic students participate and how well they do, but more research is needed.

It's cool to see research like this trying to make education more accessible for everyone. Check it out!

Downer Maōri leaders graduate via Otago Polytechnic's Capable NZ pathway

A group of Māori leaders at Downer have graduated with bachelor’s degrees from Otago Polytechnic | Te Pūkenga as part of a groundbreaking initiative involving Te Puni Kōkiri and Capable NZ.

They crossed the stage at the Dunedin Town Hall on Friday 15 March in a graduation ceremony that capped a journey that began in September 2022, when 10 tauira (participants) embarked on the Te Puni Kōkiri cadetship programme, Te Whanake Timatanga, which offers Māori employees the opportunity to advance their careers and achieve a recognised NZQA qualification, with funded training, guidance, and support.

The Downer cohort have all completed the Bachelor of Applied Management programme through Capable NZ, a school within Otago Polytechnic that provides alternative pathways to qualifications for experienced adults who are in the workplace.

“Each graduate had previously completed Downer’s Te Ara Whanake (Māori leadership) programme, so this bachelor’s qualification is a crucial next step in supporting tauirato support Māori aspirations that ultimately develop tauira into senior management positions,” says Jarrod Telford, Downer Pou Matua.

“Our 10 graduates come from all over Aotearoa comprising five wāhine and five tāne, and hold a range of different roles across our business – from Contract Managers to Engineers and Quantity Surveyors.

“Many have been in our business for a number of years. They have a wealth of skills, knowledge and experience, but sometimes the lack of a formal qualification can be a block to career advancement. It is Downer’s hope that this programme becomes a real game changer for whānau and the company.”

Karen McGuinness, Director of Investments at Te Puni Kōkiri, says the cadetship programme “provides a proven avenue for Māori of all ages to gain skills and to progress into higher‑paid, more senior roles”.

“The programme enables them to become leaders in and beyond the workplace," she says.

"The flexibility of the cadetship programme to support kaimahi (employees) of wide-ranging ages, skills and seniority levels is a strength that provides opportunities to support the Māori workforce in ways not available through other government programmes.”

Capable NZ offers mature and experienced professionals and community leaders an affirming and flexible path to gaining a formal academic qualification. Through its unique Assessment of Prior Learning (APL) methodology, it recognises learning that has already been acquired.

“This innovative partnership between Downer, Otago Polytechnic and Te Puni Kokiri offers a transformational pathway for mature and experienced pakeke,” says Associate Professor Kelli Te Maiharoa, of Capable NZ.

New Zealand’s international student numbers exceed pre-pandemic levels; Indian student numbers on the rise

Don Ishan Sirimanne, Head of Product Marketing and International Market Development at Unitec, recently gave his views on the growth in ākonga numbers from India to the New Zealand Herald.

His column is republished below:

Aotearoa New Zealand’s tertiary institutions have long been some of the world’s most sought-after for international students, and the current data indicates that numbers among some key demographics have not only bounced back but are in fact exceeding pre-pandemic levels. For instance, Unitec-Te Pūkenga’s applications for the first semester of 2024, from Indian students alone, have already equalled what was received from that cohort throughout the entirety of 2023.

As institutions watch numbers keenly to detect a resurgence, applications to Unitec from students from India have reached 3097 for semester 1 this year, compared with 1550 for semester 1 in 2019. These numbers are indicative but will firm up by mid-March, when late enrolments close and the academic year kicks off in earnest.

As for our sector overall, in 2019 about 11,000 full-time equivalent students from overseas studied with New Zealand polytechnics. By August 2023, as the effects of the pandemic receded, the demand from overseas students was exceeding projections: Te Pūkenga was expecting about 4900 international students through the year, up from 2800 in 2022.

Based on what we are seeing at Unitec, we expect our own re-enrolment cycle to come back to pre-pandemic levels by 2025, a year faster than what is projected for the sector as a whole.

Aotearoa is a site of advanced studies and a doorway to success.

It is important to note that Unitec’s international students from India are already highly educated – they are typically doing their Bachelor’s degree in India and coming to New Zealand for postgraduate study that will set them on a path to career success, whether they remain in New Zealand or return to their homeland.

International education is not a path to residency, though the vast majority of students from India – at least 80 per cent who come through Unitec – want to set up their lives and build their careers here, often in the fields of tech, construction, and business. They have ambition and they see New Zealand as more of a family-orientated society than their other options, such as the United Kingdom and Canada.

Numbers for different cohorts of international students vary across institutions and course types, and Unitec’s status as a dominant player in the Indian market reflects the substantial investments we have made to attract this interest and demand; I visit India regularly and made a trip in January 2024 to visit education agents who serve as conduits for inbound students, supporting their visa applications so they can set themselves up here, meet their obligations, and make the most of their study and work experience entitlements.

The sector is enormously valuable and has built-in capacity. Export revenues for the country’s international education sector overall were worth over $5 billion pre-pandemic and were the fourth largest contributor to our economy. Importantly, we can grow this sector without adding extra cost – in other words, we already have the institutions and structures to meet the demand and grow the sector further.

We have also developed new ways to help overseas students put down roots here and add their skills and talents to the New Zealand economy. Over the 2023-24 summer Unitec held a summer job fair which attracted a huge cohort of international students – the first time we had done this, and students loved it and derived enormous value. They are extremely keen to feed in what they are learning at Unitec and about how we do things in New Zealand back into the companies they work for – building our cultural and economic ecosystem and helping our country operate at on a global scale.