PTEs have 'tougher' funding requirements

Polytechnics do not get favoured over private training establishments (PTEs) in government course-funding decisions, the education and science select committee heard this month, but PTE representatives say the playing field is not level.

The Dominion Post has reported that Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) chief executive Janice Shiner told the committee that PTEs came under more scrutiny because their funding was capped and many were involved in youth training, which required specific contractual arrangements.

The Dominion Post reported Mrs Shiner as saying that PTEs were a "really important point for people coming back into education, either as second-chance learners or young people".

PTEs make up around 14 percent of all tertiary enrolments.

The executive director of Independent Tertiary Institutions, Dave Guerin, told Subtext that PTEs offering higher-level qualifications faced much tougher requirements than polytechnics or universities.

Many of those requirements were reasonable for accountability, but should be applied equally across the tertiary education sector. The current tertiary education reforms seemed to be heading in that direction, Mr Guerin said.

Second-chance education through Youth Training, and its sister programme Training Opportunities, made up a significant proportion of PTE funding and had always been treated differently from EFTS or student component funding, he said.