Ara degree pathway for NZMA students

Ara Institute of Canterbury and New Zealand Management Academies (NZMA) have signed a pathway agreement for NZMA hospitality graduates to pathway into the Ara Bachelor of International Tourism and Hospitality Management degree.

Tony Gray, Chief Executive of Ara, and Mark Worsop, Chief Executive of NZMA, signed the agreement at Ara today.

The agreement will allow NZMA students who graduate from the NZ Diploma in Hospitality Management programme to receive 180 credits towards the Ara degree, giving them the opportunity to complete the three year degree in half the time.

The Ara Bachelor of International Tourism & Hospitality Management has been created in direct response to industry needs for skilled professionals to fill management roles in the booming NZ tourism and hospitality sector. The degree is delivered in Christchurch, giving students access to a vast range of hospitality and tourism industry providers in the South Island’s visitor gateway city. Ara students complete two major industry-based projects as part of the degree, ensuring graduates are work-ready and have firsthand experience and connections with the local tourism and hospitality sector.

Ara Tourism & Hospitality Degree leader Dr. Michael Shone says the new pathway will offer NZMA graduates an ideal opportunity to build upon their existing training and gain a higher qualification for a growing industry sector. “The Christchurch tourism and hospitality sector continues to flourish. As we see the new convention centre and more new hotel capacity being developed in the city we can expect strong demand for tourism and hospitality management professionals. Ara’s Bachelor of International Tourism and Hospitality Management graduates are ideally placed to meet that demand.”

For NZMA, the agreement provides a valuable opportunity to expand their network of education partnerships to the South Island, NZMA Chief Executive Mark Worsop says. “Ara and NZMA both have a long history of hospitality education and training, and we share a belief in the importance of work readiness and industry relevance in our programmes. This is a great opportunity for NZMA graduates to accelerate their professional development with the Ara degree.”

With the agreement now signed, Ara and NZMA will collaborate on promoting the pathway to the NZMA student and graduate community, ahead of the next intake for the Ara Bachelor of International Tourism & Hospitality Management in Christchurch on February 2019.

Context/background info:

NZMA is a private vocational training provider with campuses in Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua, Porirua and Christchurch. Headquartered in Auckland, NZMA is part of the New Education Group, the vocational and higher learning division of Academic Colleges Group (ACG).

NZMA offer a wide range of vocational courses in hospitality, cookery, business, contact centre, retail, construction, electrical engineering, health, plumbing and gasfitting, and early childhood education.

Both NZMA and Ara are NZQA Category 1 providers, ensuring that pathway students will receive high quality education and support at both partner institutions

The NZMA-Ara pathway mirrors a similar hospitality management pathway for NZMA diploma students with Auckland University of Technology, signed in 2015.

NZMA and Ara staff began discussing the pathway option in May 2018, and collaborated on the credit mapping and agreement development process over the winter months, sigining the final agreement in October 2018.

The agreement was signed by Tony Gray, CE of Ara, and Mark Worsop, CE of NZMA.

NZMA currently offers the NZ Diploma in Hospitality Management in its Auckland and Waikato campuses.

Domestic and international students with the NZMA NZ Diploma in Hospitality Management will be eligible to apply for the Ara pathway programme. The programme will be advantageous for international students seeking to gain work experience in New Zealand after their studies, as degree graduates will be eligible to apply for a three year post-study work permit to work in the Canterbury region.

Industry outlook:
MBIE figures show that Christchurch international visitor spending was $209m for the 2018 June quarter, up 14.3 percent on June 2017). Growth in visitor spending follows the trend of the visitor economy, with guest nights and arrivals increasing. However, spending growth exceeds that of arrivals, implying spend per visitor is increasing. Domestic spending shows similar trends with 14.8 percent growth for June 2018 on the same quarter last year, reaching a total spend of $473m over the quarter.(Christchurch and Canterbury Quarterly Economic Report, Pg 10: https://www.cdc.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/2018-Q2-Economic-Update.pdf)

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