Toi Ohomai's Mokoia campus. Photo / Andrew Warner
A “shocking” proposal to cut more than 160 jobs at a tertiary institution threatens the closure of two campuses, a union says.
The Bay of Plenty and Waikato-based Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology has proposed to disestablish the jobs of 166.7 full-time equivalent staff, with a net loss of 63.9 roles after proposed new roles are filled.
Te Hautū Kahurangi Tertiary Education Union said the cuts would affect campuses in Rotorua, Tauranga, and Whakatāne and “most disturbingly” threaten the closure of Tokoroa and Taupō campuses.
It comes two years after a $14m trades training facility purpose-built for Toi Ohomai opened in Tokoroa, and just weeks after Tokoroa’s Kinleith Mill closure left about 150 people unemployed.
Toi Ohomai said the proposal was in response to a Government expectation to become “financially viable”.
With declining student numbers in Tokoroa and Taupō, the cost to run multiple campuses, and a drop in income, “it is just no longer viable to operate in this way”.
Toi Ohomai was yesterday among 10 training institutions to be re-established under regional governance next year, as the Government disestablishes national network Te Pūkenga.
Union branch kaiarataki takirua (co-leaders) for Toi Ohomai Rotorua Santana Ammunson and Ashton Ledger are learning facilitators at Mokoia campus and learned on July 4 their roles were impacted by the proposed restructure.
Ammunson said their team could reapply for comparable proposed new roles.
“Whereas the rest of our support services teams, they have just been disestablished.”
She said morale on campus was “very grim”, with concerns the loss of “frontline support systems” would impact student success.
Ammunson said losing the Tokoroa and Taupō campuses would limit access to “a local place of study” for those communities.
Ledger said the scale of the cuts was “shocking”.
“I feel for Tokoroa because they’ve just had Kinleith Mill close … so many people are unemployed and there’s an opportunity to get those people upskilling or back into education to help them with a new pathway.
“They’re pulling out the one, perhaps saving grace, from that region … ”
His main concern was potential learners being at risk of losing “everything”.
Ledger called the situation “kind of ironic”.
He said Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds had said the Government wanted to ensure learners had access to regional vocational education training.
“All these change proposals … undermine that vision.”
Toi Ohomai executive director Kieran Hewitson said the “significant driver” for change was a government expectation of being “sustainable and financially viable”.
The proposal included ceasing delivery of campus-based programmes in Taupō and Tokoroa from 2026.
Hewitson said courses with the highest number of ākonga (students) in Taupō and Tokoroa were the New Zealand Certificate in Automotive Engineering (level 3) and the New Zealand Certificate in Te Reo (Reo Rua) (level 2).
The proposal retained the latter in Taupō. All other campus-based programmes would no longer be offered, Hewitson said.
“Where we can identify partnerships with employers, hapū and iwi and other groups to deliver programmes, we will.”
All ākonga could complete the programme they were enrolled in, she said.
Hewitson said the changes reflected where it must focus its “limited resources”. It did not reflect staff and communities’ “great mahi” or there no longer being a need.
It would still work with Taupō and Tokoroa communities, “but in a different way”.
She acknowledged kaimahi (staff) had been through many changes.
The latest was “necessary to prepare us to thrive in a world post-Te Pūkenga”.
Hewitson said it was committed to delivering excellent vocational education and training within its “funding envelope”.
“This requires us to think, and do, things differently to ensure a sustainable, responsive organisation fit for the future.”
Consultation with staff would close on August 3.
Responding to criticism of the cuts, Simmonds said the Government was committed to delivering a vocational education and training system that was “stable, responsive to industry needs, and financially sustainable for the future”.
The Government started disestablishing Te Pūkenga in 2023 as it worked towards a new structure.
“I acknowledge that this involves some difficult decisions, but they are necessary to fix a system that has been disrupted for too long by the failed centralisation experiment.”
Simmonds said the Government had asked the Tertiary Education Commission to work with Te Pūkenga to support polytechnics to review their operations to ensure the sector’s viability.
She was not privy to information regarding polytechnics’ operational decisions but it was important they ensured “overall viability and maintain their relationships”.
Simmonds acknowledged staff who had endured uncertainty “for many years” and thanked them for their commitment to the sector.
On Monday she said re-establishing the 10 polytechnics was a “major milestone in building a vocational education system that’s locally led, regionally responsive, and future-focused”.
These changes were part of legislation before Parliament, expected to pass in October. The legislation also allowed mergers or closures if any polytechnic could not achieve viability.
Labour tertiary education spokesman Shanan Halbert said the changes returned the sector to “a model that was never financially viable”.
“The result will be major job losses in local areas.”
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.