Specific Tairāwhiti leadership role created in Te Pūkenga restructure

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

One job has been axed but a new position created at EIT Tairāwhiti under a wide-ranging restructure at Te Pūkenga - New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.

“Nineteen roles are being disestablished at EIT | Te Pūkenga, (which has campuses in Gisborne and Napier) including one that is currently located in Te Tairāwhiti,” Te Pūkenga tumuaki/chief executive Peter Winder said.

“Our preference is to retain all our people and we are therefore working through redeployment processes with impacted kaimahi (staff).

“The new structure includes a specific Tairāwhiti-based leadership role and all other roles remain as they are. Te Pūkenga continues to be committed to providing vocational education in Te Tairāwhiti and Wairoa, and the new structure does not change this.

“A key focus of our change, as outlined in our charter, is to respond to the needs of our regions. We see this change as an opportunity to build on the great work already in place in Te Tairāwhiti and Wairoa, and use our size and scale to respond in areas that we may not have previously been able to.”

Te Pūkenga, the country’s largest tertiary education and training provider, unveiled its new operating structure earlier this week.

“As one network, our scale, regional ability and delivery focus will help more New Zealanders get the skills and qualifications they need more effectively and with less debt,” Mr Winder said.

The new structure will result in 200 fewer full-time equivalent roles across the network, with the expectation that the majority of affected kaimahi would be redeployed.

The final structure has 602 new roles, with 401 being disestablished. Another 51 positions that are currently vacant are also being disestablished, and 350 fixed term employment agreements will not be extended.