Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs) 2012

The 2011–13 planning environment

ITPs will need to deliver on their core roles, meet Government expectations, and support the TES priorities within the resource allocations for their Plans.  A capped tertiary education funding environment, with limited funding for enrolment volume growth will continue over the planning horizon.

ITPs will need to:

• manage enrolment levels in line with agreed Plans
• anticipate the educational and financial consequences of the introduction of performance-linked funding
• ensure the maintenance of high levels of overall institutional financial performance. 

Meeting Government expectations for ITPs

The TES defines the core roles and expectations for ITPs as:

Core Roles	Government Expectations
To deliver vocational education that provides skills for employment To undertake applied research that supports vocational learning and technology transfer To assist progression to higher levels of learning or work through foundation education	Enable a wide range of students to complete industry-relevant certificate, diploma and applied degree qualifications Enable local access to appropriate tertiary education Support students with low literacy, language and numeracy skills to improve these skills and progress to higher levels of learning Work with industry to ensure that vocational learning meets industry needs

ITPs make differing contributions to meet the Government expectations and support TES priorities, depending upon the education needs of their catchments. For some smaller ITPs, this may involve progressing learners to higher levels of learning at other tertiary organisations. For larger ITPs, this may involve delivering higher levels of learning and undertaking applied vocational research. Both approaches will be important in supporting achievement of the TES.

Plans will not need to include a lengthy discussion of the educational needs of each ITP’s learner groups. However, during the Plan engagement process each ITP will need to demonstrate how it will respond to the educational needs of its catchment, including local industry and learner groups.

ITPs must attend to the needs of their local catchment first and foremost, with particular focus on the priority groups in the TES. The needs of these groups must be prioritised ahead of more easily reached learners elsewhere.  ITPs that propose to shift provision away from their local catchment will need to demonstrate how local tertiary education needs will be met.

Some ITPs will have a wider or national role in specialist provision, where critical mass achieves the best educational results for learners. However, in a low-growth funding system opportunities to develop further specialist roles will be limited.

Councils should also be aware of the educational and financial consequences of expanding provision in low performing programmes. Poor educational performance will result in future revenue reductions for institutions, and likely interventions to improve educational delivery.

The TES emphasises the importance of maintaining high levels of financial performance. ITPs will need to manage costs within existing available funding streams and continue to seek efficiency gains. Financial performance will be monitored through the TEC’s financial monitoring framework.

In summary, for the 2011–13 planning horizon, each ITP will need to:

• Determine which of the Core Roles, Government Expectations and TES priorities to focus on in order to meet the needs of its local industries, communities, and learners
• Right-size the institution so that it is fit for purpose, in line with this focus
• Improve educational delivery and performance, reflected through Plan performance commitments
• Fit operating and capital costs within revenue
• Collaborate with schools and other tertiary organisations to provide learners with more effective pathways for achieving higher qualifications, and to reduce unnecessary duplication
• Exercise strong governance and leadership.

Achieving the TES priorities

ITPs will contribute to the following TES priorities:

• Increasing the number of young people (aged under 25) achieving qualifications at level four and above, particularly degrees
• Increasing the number of Māori students enjoying success at higher levels
• Increasing the number of Pasifika students achieving at higher levels
• Increasing the number of young people moving successfully from school into tertiary education
• Improving literacy, language, and numeracy and skills outcomes from level one to three study.

In addition, ITPs will contribute to the TES priority: Strengthening research outcomes by being research-informed in regard to their educational provision. A further research contribution will be led by some ITPs that undertake applied research that supports vocational learning, and that work with business and industry to transfer technology to the economy.

There are three key areas that ITPs will be required to focus on in order to support the TES priorities:

• Aligning provision to support the TES priorities
• Raising achievement rates for enrolled learners
• Enabling successful learners to contribute to the local and national economy.

Aligning provision to support the TES priorities

The TES states the Government wants to see more young people, Māori, and Pacific peoples achieving at higher levels (NQF Level 4 and above), particularly at degree level.

The TES sets out the Government’s national priorities for the tertiary education system over a medium term horizon.

The first four TES priorities will be achieved over time through a combination of:

• improvements to the school system, including successful transition from school to tertiary studies
• the engagement of older learners, within local communities, who need additional skills for success in tertiary education or the labour market.

This means that ITPs will need to develop a carefully planned response (including collaborative arrangements) to the TES that balances national and local priorities, setting out their proposals for preparing learners for successful progression to NQF Levels 4 and above.

This will result in institutions identifying an appropriately challenging change path to better target programmes towards the education needs of young people, Māori, and Pacific peoples.

The TEC will engage with ITPs to identify how each institution’s provision and enrolment profile relates to educational needs of catchment demographics, the TES priority groups, and the delivery of other tertiary organisations.

ITPs will also be expected to identify how they can support Government secondary-tertiary education initiatives, and provide strong pastoral care for secondary students transitioning into tertiary education.

NQF Levels 1-3: Preparing learners to achieve at higher levels of tertiary education and gain meaningful employment

The ITP sector will continue to have an important role in delivering this education.
ITPs will need to adequately prepare learners at lower levels of the framework and to actively support progression in line with each learner’s skill development, in order to then support higher-level achievement for the TES priority groups. 

The TES signals the need to improve literacy and numeracy results for learners at NQF Levels 1-3 .  ITPs that offer provision at NQF Levels 1-3  will be required to show, during the Plan engagement process, how they intend to achieve this TES priority.

Effective provision at these levels also prepares learners to succeed at higher levels of tertiary education and progress to higher skilled jobs. This includes learners that have not been enabled to succeed in a secondary school environment, learners without previous tertiary qualifications, and migrants.

The TEC will be engaging with ITPs on the volume and nature of provision at NQF Levels 1-3 .  Provision at these levels will be expected to:

• be practical and vocationally focused
• strengthen learners’ literacy and numeracy skills
• be predominately delivered in a face-to-face mode
• result in increased progression to higher levels of study, and the skills development that contributes to the learner gaining meaningful employment.

By the end of 2011, ITPs will have built their capacity and capability to deliver embedded literacy and numeracy and should plan to increase this as a proportion of their NQF Level 1-3 provision.  Including literacy and numeracy as part of NQF Levels 1-3 provision will become ‘business as usual’.

Raising achievement rates for enrolled learners

The TES states that a key driver to improve the value of public investment in tertiary education is to improve course and qualification completion rates. Course and qualification completion rates indicate learners have achieved their learning goals, and are associated with better employment and social outcomes.

Therefore, ITPs need to be aware of the educational needs of learners, enrol learners into programmes that meet each learner’s needs, and support each learner to succeed.  Learner achievement rates will influence future funding allocations to ITPs.

As part of the Plan development process, the TEC will be providing each ITP with past course and qualification completion performance information in relation to the TES priority groups. ITPs will be expected to outline how they intend to raise educational output performance, to support the development of performance commitments in these areas.

The TEC will also discuss the performance of institutions in supporting learners to continue their study towards a qualification (as measured by retention/continuation), and progressing learners to higher levels of learning in tertiary education (progression data/measures).

Enabling successful learners to contribute to the local and national economy

The TES states that one of the Government’s six main structural policy drivers is to ensure New Zealand has the skills it needs to drive economic performance.

For ITPs, this means providing qualifications that respond to the changing skill needs of business and industry, and preparing learners with the skills they need for a successful career.

The relevance of qualifications will continue to be determined by how well they meet the needs of learners, business, iwi and communities. It is expected that during Plan engagement each ITP will be able to provide evidence that shows how it engages with these groups and the impact of this on the proposed programme of delivery. 

The TEC will continue to work with the sector to develop approaches to capture the employment outcome performance of qualifications. These will inform future funding decisions and the publication of performance information.

Institutions should plan their provision on the basis that outcome performance will inform funding and monitoring processes in the future.