ITI Articles

ITI's executive director, Dave Guerin, had an opinion piece published in NZ Education Review newspaper in October about the TEC's discussion paper on the distinctive contribution of private training establishments (PTEs). The piece is quite long and is attached, rather than being printed directly in the newsletter. The key points in the piece are summarised below and you can find the TEC discussion paper here.

- The TEC’s proposed definition of private training establishments’ (PTEs) distinctive contribution to the tertiary education system is a big step forward. The main change is that it reasonably represents the things that PTEs add to New Zealand’s economy, if not its society.

- In recent years, the government has used a very limited definition of what PTEs contribute to tertiary education, which is “to offer niche education and training that augments or complements the provision of public providers”. The definition did not support long-term planning in PTEs, or recognise PTEs’ contribution to the country.

- When Dr Cullen announced the latest set of tertiary reforms in April, ITI challenged the TEC to sit down with us, and other PTE groups, to develop a meaningful distinctive contribution for PTEs. To their credit, TEC staff have been working with us since May to shape such a PTE role.

- One aspect that has been missed from the proposed PTE definition is the achievement of social outcomes. Tertiary education has a mix of economic and social outcomes, with community involvement, education of children and political participation being just as important as higher wages and better jobs.

- Overall, though, the proposed PTE distinctive contribution is a good effort. It almost reflects all the good things that PTEs do and has been based on a serious engagement between PTE peak bodies and the TEC.

The next step is to see how the various subsectors' distinctive contributions can operate alongside each other, and what that means for regional facilitation and funding. That will be a topic for ITI's December newsletter.