Fears Northland’s NorthTec will become a ‘shell’ of former self under new model

NorthTec's main campus in Raumanga, Whangārei. In 2023 alone, 1,373 people graduated from NorthTec, 250 of those registered nurses.

Tertiary educators fear hinted job cuts at the only Northland-based polytech will lead to cancelled courses considered vital to the region.

Tertiary Education Union representatives worry the job losses will see the region’s most accessible education provider become a shell of its former self.

NorthTec is part of Te Pūkenga, the national network of 25 polytechs and industry training organisations the Government has committed to dissolving.

The changes themselves and their impact remain unclear.

Tertiary Education Union national president [Tiriti] Julie Douglas said Northland was high on many deprivation scales and course or job cuts would trigger widespread impact.

“We’re trying to get [the community] to realise this is their taonga that’s going to be lost.”

NorthTec provides education courses for certificates, diplomas, graduate diplomas and degrees as well as a trade academy, training schemes, and nine work-based learning programmes.

Nursing courses feed into Whangārei Hospital, while other courses feed into businesses and trades, Douglas said.

This year there were 3822 people enrolled at NorthTec, and 975 have already completed their courses.

In 2023 alone, 1373 people graduated, 250 of those registered nurses.

Te Pūkenga executive director [Rohe 1] Toa Faneva said ensuring the future of NorthTec was a priority, especially at a time of regional investment such as the four-lane highway and Whangārei Hospital.

“We need to make sure we’ve got a good platform for the future. We’ve got to keep educating people. We’ve got to be viable financially.”

Tertiary Education Union organiser Jill Jones said she has watched NorthTec become a “shell of what it once was” over the past few years.

Cuts to the art programmes jarred the creative community in 2021 and resulted in redundancies.

Jones said NorthTec fulfilled a vital community function.

Sixteen of the country’s Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics merged into Te Pūkenga in 2020.

Douglas said the point of the merger was to create an education system resilient to the ups and downs of enrolment.

In 2023, the incoming Government announced it would dissolve Te Pūkenga and replace it with several institutions.

Douglas said four years had not been long enough to judge the national network’s success.

RNZ reported in August that the Government’s preferred option was to merge eight organisations — excluding NorthTec, which would remain a standalone institute.

Faneva said NorthTec was not exempt from the Government’s call for controlled spending.

Toa Faneva, executive director for Te Pukenga [Rohe 1], which includes NorthTec. Faneva was as Chief Executive of NorthTec in 2021.

However, he said it would have to be done in a way that still prioritised Tai Tokerau, such as retaining agency in decision-making in a region with unique needs.

“We’re massive in terms of geography and we’ve got smaller communities dotted around all these metal roads. So we’ve got to come up with a model that sort of works for us in Tai Tokerau.”

Douglas was concerned the changes would spell a move to a private education sector and farming out to businesses which was harmful when taxpayers pay for the provision of education.

“It’s about developing citizens and humans and there’s a lot of pastoral care in that and that’s not funded when we talk about private training establishments.”

Douglas was worried a new model would rely on remote education which parts of Northland lack the infrastructure for.

“At a low level, people are often isolated, lacking in confidence, every single contact that we can have is good for people, and that sort of stuff isn’t quantifiable and is overlooked when some of these policy decisions get made.”

Faneva said solely moving everything online would never work, but nor would campus-only provision.

“We’ve got to come up with a really innovative model.”

Douglas was concerned in two years there could be huge demand from jobseekers wanting to upskill but no capacity to deliver.

Faneva said NorthTec would need to adapt and integrate more with what was happening in the region’s industries.

That could include boots on the ground when the four-lane highway gets built, he said.

“It would be a real tragedy if Northland would have to import skills from outside the region.”

Faneva acknowledged the past few years had been an unsettling time for staff during periods of “constant change”.

“It’s been really sharply felt by our staff and [with] some of the tough decisions that lie ahead for us, they’ve always kept their eye on the ball.”

He said staff continued to be clearly focused on student success.

The organisation currently employs 211 permanent staff and 32 fixed-term employees.

Brodie Stone is an education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.