Outsourced tertiary education - meeting needs, exceeding expectations

Anecdotally, there has been a boom lately in polytechnics receiving EFTS-funding for courses subcontracted to private providers. We look at three such courses that are notching up wins for all involved.

Safety on the farm Lugging a chainsaw to the back paddock on the tray of your tractor or quad-bike is not the casual task it once was. With work place safety a key issue for all employers, even farmers must take all practical care to ensure their workers use equipment safely. Northland Polytechnic spotted the need for locals to access training and contracted local, NZQA-accredited, training firm Rural Training Solutions (RTS) to provide the expertise. RTS director Graeme Couper said the result had been a win for all involved. "Farmers say they need the training but we have found in the past that they just don't want to pay the higher costs when it is delivered purely through a private firm. "Now, with EFTS funding covering it, the costs to farmers are lowered, and the polytechnics have experts to deliver the training - surely that it was it is all about.

"Farmers get the training; the polytechnic gets to fulfil its community charter; a local firm gets a bit of business; and, on top of all that, OSH and ACC will be happy as injury rates drop," Mr Couper said.

Each two-day chainsaw, tractor and all-terrain vehicle safety course is for 8-10 people; comprises one day of theory and one day of practical work; is worth two to four unit standards (10-15 credits); and can be put towards the National Certificate in Agriculture level 2 or 3.

Northland Polytechnic chief executive Terry Barnett said the polytechnic's charter called for the polytechnic to provide training meeting the region's needs. The large distances between centres in the region meant that having a private provider was a sensible way to help build capacity in areas the polytechnic could not easily service.

"Where we don't have a strength we selectively look for a partner," Mr Barnett said.

Nursing programme has healthy outcome

The Plunket Society has been teaching a nursing programme accredited to Whitireia Community Polytechnic since 1996 and now looks sets to boost its teaching services with the addition of a National Certificate for Health Workers.

Plunket's national education manager Jan Pearson said the relationship with the polytechnic had been so successful that the original nursing programme had grown from a graduate certificate to a post-graduate qualification, the equivalent of two masters papers.

Though the programme is accredited through Porirua-based Whitireia, students are located all over New Zealand.

They work and are assessed in the field, with four visits a year from one of Plunket's eight educators as well as two tutorials in either Wellington or Auckland. Plunket bases its standards around Whitireia's quality standards and uses the polytechnic's advisory committees to help guide it, but delivers the programme, itself, with an emphasis on iwi and primary care health service for children.

Whitireia post-graduate studies programme leader Kathy Holloway said the polytechnic received strong benefits from working with Plunket as the society not only taught courses but was also in the field providing nursing services.

"It is important that nursing teaching is in touch with the practice sector. It means the course does not become part of the ivory tower of the academics but is based around what the nursing sector needs in the workplace.

"Plunket has a very clear idea of what how to combine teaching and practice; and in return they get to reinforce their teaching with the resources and quality assurance that Whitireia can offer."

Mrs Holloway said the course-outsourcing model worked well and the polytechnic also used Hospice New Zealand, Wellington Free Ambulance and Medtra, a surgical nursing PTE, to deliver other health courses.

Boosting confidence in academic abilities

Getting people who have not had educational success to believe in their abilities, gain the confidence to get back into study and go on to tertiary education is no easy task.

But a successful new programme at Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) run by PTE the Solomon Group is getting results and seeing growing interest.

Solomon's Pathways to Tertiary Education course develops literacy and numeracy skills for students who want to go on to tertiary education and then encourages them to further learning at MIT.

MIT manager of Pathways Iona Chalmers said that of the 10 students in the first intake of the inaugural course this year, nine had gone on to MIT. The second intake of the course had grown to 24 students.

"We chose the Solomon Group because they have a great record for getting results in literacy and numeracy and they provided a quality learning environment. It's still early days but the increase in numbers in the second intake is a success in itself," Miss Chalmers said.

The course is part of MIT's strategy of working with local PTEs to help align their respective courses with the institute so that students can progress more easily from foundation courses to higher tertiary education.

MIT has run curriculum alignment pilots with 11 local PTEs over the past two years and has built relationships with 24 PTES in the South Auckland community. Pathways for PTE students has recently moved from project status to be part of MIT's core business.

"Students do well at quality PTEs. The smaller environments often mean that they are less intimidated and feel more noticed. They can give more confidence to learners and help them to believe that they are capable of learning," Miss Chalmers said.

"It also means our retention rates improve because when those students get to MIT they are prepared to study at tertiary level.

"PTES have in the past been seen by some as being outside the main tertiary sector, but we see them as having a very relevant role to play. We want to make the relationship work and we are always looking for new ways to work with them."