Te Pūkenga proposal would cut more than 400 jobs

The national vocational education organisation has been briefing its 10,000 staff on a proposed overhaul. Photo / wintec.ac.nz

By RNZ

RNZ understands Te Pūkenga has proposed cutting 960 roles, with about half redeployed to new roles.

The national vocational education organisation has been briefing its 10,000 staff on a proposed overhaul to bring together its polytechnic and workplace training divisions.

The institute refused to comment on the details of the proposal until it had finished talking to staff, but described the announcement as a “significant step forward”.

In a statement on Thursday afternoon, Te Pūkenga chief executive Peter Winder said the proposal would create jobs and disestablish others.

“Impacted kaimahi can apply for more than 550 new positions identified in the proposal. Many of the impacted positions are at management level, with the proposed structure reflecting a total net reduction of 404 FTEs [4.34 per cent of total kaimahi].”

Tertiary Education Union organiser Daniel Benson-Guiu said the losses appeared to affect about 90 per cent of the organisation, and most were among management roles.

“One of the concerns our members will have is if they go, who is going to pick up their work or how will that work be distributed? And our members are already facing extremely high workloads because Te Pūkenga hasn’t been replacing staff as they’ve left.”

Benson-Guiu said the institute also provided long-awaited details of how it would bring together polytechnic and workplace training.

He said staff would be organised in regional rather than local organisations, but also nationally according to their fields of study.

Benson-Guiu said it could be several months before the cuts were confirmed and it remained to be seen if the new structure would work.

Winder said the proposed operating structure would help realise the benefits of having a unified national organisation for vocational education and training.

“We can enable people to complete national qualifications wherever they live, and to better take advantage of the combinations of on-campus, on-the-job and online training that learners and employers increasingly demand.

“But like the rest of the tertiary sector, we have also faced considerable financial headwinds. Our change proposal seeks to address the challenges inherent in the previous system. A unified structure will remove expensive duplication and inefficiencies in the system.”