ITI Articles

This month ITI welcomes the New Zealand Tertiary College (NZTC) as a new member (view their member page here).

Established in 1982 as Kindercare Early Childhood Teachers College, the College changed its name to New Zealand Tertiary College in 1997. Next year, NZTC will celebrate its 25th year of providing specialist early childhood teacher education in New Zealand.

General Manager Selena Fox says that in considering membership of ITI, NZTC reflected on the goals of the organisation and the ways in which NZTC could contribute both to ITI and its members. “It is critical for leading private training providers to support the promotion of the significant value and opportunities that PTEs offer to NZ industry, professional bodies and students,” says Selena. “The Directors of NZTC have long supported investigating and undertaking innovative projects that reflect our central focus of offering leading early childhood teacher education.”

“We look forward to collaborating with other ITI members and contributing to discussion, dialogue and support networks…we see that ITI has the potential to add significant value to the NZ education system as a whole, and we look forward to both being supported in our endeavours and supporting other members in theirs”.

NZTC has certainly played an important part in the private training sector thus far; the College has become a pre-eminent provider of qualifications leading to teacher registration in New Zealand and their innovation and forward thinking in the area of distance learning has resulted in almost 80% of their students choosing this flexible mode of study throughout New Zealand.

NZTC is also currently developing a specialist early childhood degree, a Bachelor of Teaching (Early Years). This is a major step for the College that will allow its current students and alumni to staircase to the degree qualification in the field of early childhood education. As Selena notes, “We feel that this will positively contribute to the promotion of the key role private providers play in the provision of degree opportunities for New Zealand students.” There is a further intention in 2007 to develop a Graduate Diploma in Management (Early Childhood Education) to support the industry by providing graduates who are professionally equipped to lead and manage early childhood centres.
 
Much of NZTC’s strength comes from its strong focus on students’ needs and developing ways to support them to reach their goals. “I would have to say the proudest moments for me are the moments I share with our graduated students each year at the NZTC annual Graduation ceremony,” says Selena. “Sharing this special time with our students, their families and friends reminds me of the difference NZTC makes each day in the lives of New Zealanders and our profession. As they celebrate the achievement of their goals, we celebrate the opportunity of supporting and guiding them along the way.  I am always humbled by the reality that these students had a choice of training providers… and they chose NZTC.”

ITI's April newsletter included an invitation to potential members - you can check it out here if you want to find out more.