Te pukenga

Executive director of UCOL's business division, Brian Trott, said each of the courses enrolled “two or fewer learners”. In 2021, UCOL's Level 3 and 4 food and ...

I don’t want to see all of our people going across to the Palmerston North campus every day.” That was the plan.” What’s next?” “One of the reasons we created Te Pūkenga was because the old model was unsustainable and was forecast to be in financial trouble if we didn’t take action. That’s not good enough,” he said. A bus departs from the Whanganui UCOL Te Pūkenga campus at 6.45am and arrives in Palmerston North at 7.45am. ”Part of the idea behind Te Pūkenga was that each region would be able to assess where our skills gaps are, and then our local training and education providers, under the Te Pūkenga umbrella, would then be able to make sure our courses are being tailored to fill those skills gaps. “You don’t have the same level of energy, engagement and enthusiasm that people based in Whanganui, who are fighting for a Whanganui course and students, would have. ”My provocation was to come back with a journey map and a plan to get back things back in order again and reinvest back into Whanganui, both in dollars but also in energy, and with the business community as well. Whanganui MP Steph Lewis said the unemployment rate in Whanganui was at 3.3 per cent and around 10 per cent of young people in Whanganui were not in education, employment or training. ”I asked yesterday what the plan was, and the feedback I got was, ‘We are going to have a workshop’. Four courses at the UCOL Te Pūkenga Whanganui campus have been axed for the year, with the tertiary institution blaming low enrolment numbers and high levels of employment.