Wanganui’s education partnership up for award

Wanganui’s education partnership up for national award

Wanganui’s groundbreaking tertiary education partnership, based at the Matapihi ki te Ao campus, is a finalist for a prestigious national education award.

The Whanganui Tertiary Education Collaborative Venture (WTECV), led by Whanganui UCOL, is one of two finalists in the category of Successful Cooperation – working successfully with other education providers, the community or industry, in annual awards by the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics of New Zealand (ITP New Zealand).

The Wanganui venture is a New Zealand first in the tertiary education sector.

The ITP awards are open only to institutes of technology and polytechnics: however Whanganui UCOL Principal Julia Pedley says they offer an excellent opportunity to acknowledge publicly the cooperation and support of private providers in the Wanganui region and their significant role in the success of the WTECV project.

“We believe that this is significant recognition of the cooperation, effort and commitment of all providers involved in the project and underscores the value of the collaborative venture to tertiary education in Wanganui. Everyone involved should therefore take some credit and enjoy the success of the award application so far,” she says.

The project follows a commitment by UCOL and the Tertiary Education Commission in 2006 to invest in the redevelopment of UCOL’s Whanganui campus as a regional centre for collaborative tertiary education and student service provision. This led to the WTECV project, in which a government-funded institution (UCOL), private providers and support agencies, such as Career Services, StudyLink and Work and Income New Zealand, work together to improve outcomes for students.

Ten private providers are now part of the collaboration: Ag Challenge Limited, Bedford Avenue Developments Limited, Land Based Training Limited, The Whanganui Learning Centre Trust, Trade and Commerce Centre Limited, Training for You Limited, Tupoho Whanau Trust Incorporated, Wai Ora Christian Community Trust, Workforce Developments Limited and YMCA Wanganui Incorporated.

In September last year the venture launched another New Zealand first – the new One Stop Shop which enables over 400 students and staff from all tertiary education providers involved in the collaborative venture to use the facilities and resources on the new UCOL campus. This includes the Library/Learning Commons and personal computers.

Julia Pedley says the project has demonstrated that competing public and private education providers, along with Iwi, can successfully cooperate and work towards a citywide tertiary education community that is vibrant, innovative and focused on increasing student participation, progression and successful course completions.

“Successful cooperation between providers underpins the entire project,” she says. “While it is easy to talk about cooperative, collaborative models, it is significantly harder to put them into practice. Despite this, the Whanganui Tertiary Education Collaborative Venture is succeeding in its cooperative processes, meeting its objectives and showing positive gains for the community.”

The winners of the ITPNZ awards for 2009 will be announced at ITP New Zealand’s 2009 conference, Skilling New Zealand’s Recovery, in Wellington on 10 June. ITP New Zealand is the national association for the country’s institutes of technology and polytechnics. The awards recognise excellence and innovation in the sector.

UCOL has an excellent track record in the awards. Last year its Student Resource Centre in Palmerston North was first for Innovation, and in 2007 the UCOL Personal Education Plan (PEP) won the award for Best Initiative for Improving the Student Experience.

ENDS

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