Te Pukenga break-up Bill being introduced
Legislation breaking up mega-polytechnic Te Pūkenga will be brought to Parliament this week, but questions still remain about the eventual structure.
Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds will introduce the Education and Training (Vocational Education and Training System) Amendment Bill to Parliament more than 18 months after she first signalled Te Pūkenga would be disestablished.
Te Pūkenga was formally established in April 2020, the 16 former institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) becoming its subsidiaries.
"The government is committed to replacing the failed Te Pūkenga experiment with a financially sustainable, regionally responsive vocational education and training system that delivers the skills and training New Zealand needs.
"We're committed to a smooth transition, with as little disruption for learners and employers as possible. The disestablishment of Te Pūkenga and the establishment of the new industry skills boards is about building a stronger, more resilient vocational system to bring certainty, improve access and support economic growth."
Ms Simmonds had previously criticised Te Pūkenga as being too big and centralised for delivering vocational education outcomes; and proposed breaking it up into a mixture of stand-alone polytechnics and those operating under a federation model.
However, it is not yet known which polytechnics will have their autonomy fully restored — Ms Simmonds said yesterday these decisions would be made in "the middle of the year".
Tertiary Education Union general secretary Daniel Benson-Guiu said Ms Simmonds "has been allowed to make it up as she goes along".
"The proposed Bill introduced to Parliament is complicated. There are a lot of changes that boil down to drawing out this disestablishment of Te Pūkenga for longer, affecting all staff and students.
"There's still no indication of which polytechnics will stand alone, which will merge and which will be federated — the Bill says all of that will be at the discretion of the minister."
Otago Polytechnic executive director Max Sims said Otago Polytech had not yet decided whether to submit on the Bill, but encouraged those interested in the reform to do so.
"We are still focused on engaging with Ms Simmonds and Te Pūkenga to ensure Otago Polytechnic has a viable future, and we continue working towards becoming a standalone institution once again
"The minister did meet the executive directors from all of the country's ITPs [polytechnics] in Wellington on Monday [May 12] — including our executive director, Megan Pōtiki — to update them on the Bill and the government's restructuring proposals, and to hear updates from individual ITPs.
"We continue to work through a series of work streams (including the reviews of Capable NZ and our professoriate) to ensure we're in a financially sustainable position in the future."
Over the past year, Otago Polytechnic has gone through several waves of restructures in a bid to remain financially sustainable and autonomous.
It cut nine programmes late last year, and proposes to drastically downscale Capable NZ, which was once the most popular course at the polytechnic.
matthew.littlewood@odt.co.nz
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