The Gateway funding mechanism is issued by the Minister responsible for tertiary education. The funding mechanism outlines the general form and essential components of the fund. It provides the mandate for us to allocate the funding and what the funding can be used for, and details how we administer the fund.

Funding is agreed off-Plan via a funding confirmation letter. A school that receives Gateway funding is required to:

• comply with the requirements of the Education Act 1989, and
• comply with the conditions specified in its funding letter.

We provide Gateway funding so schools can meet the costs of arranging and managing workplace learning for enrolled students, including workplace assessment.

A school can either manage the Gateway programme itself, or use a broker to provide all or part of the programme on its behalf.

While a school may use the funding to meet the costs of a broker, Gateway funding is not to be used to pay for students to attend courses provided by tertiary education organisations. The value of the programme lies in the way it supports students’ transition into the workplace .

Accessing Gateway funding

If your school doesn’t receive Gateway funding currently, and is interested in doing so, please submit an application to us before 31 August.

To apply, complete the Gateway Funding Application Form (Word, 30 Kb).

Please also read these web pages and the Gateway Handbook (PDF, 855 Kb) about ensuring that your school delivers a high-quality Gateway programme.

We consider applications in September for funding for the following calendar year. As we have a limited amount of funding to allocate, we consider an application from a new school only if sufficient funding is available.

Please contact our Sector Helpdesk to find out more about how to apply.   

Funding allocation 

When allocating Gateway funding, we consider:

• whether a school is eligible
• the appropriate number of Gateway students for the school, based on previous delivery levels, and
• average unit standard credit achievement by students on the Gateway programmes the school offers. 

Gateway funding is allocated per place on a sliding scale – as the number of places increases, the amount of funding per place decreases (the first place is funded at $2,844.00 and 85 or more places are funded at $1,022.22 per place (excluding GST)). 

Full details of the payment rates are available in Gateway – funding rate sliding scale (Excel, 40 Kb).

Schools that are new to Gateway are eligible for an establishment payment of $4,444.00 (excluding GST) to assist with set-up costs.

For more details see the Gateway Handbook (PDF, 855 Kb).

Decreasing your funded Gateway places 

You can ask to reduce your funded Gateway places if you are likely to enrol fewer students in the programme than you agreed to.

If your school knows it won’t use all of its Gateway allocation for a particular year, please contact the Sector Helpdesk as soon as you can.

To apply for a reduction in Gateway places, complete our Proposal for decreased places form (Word, 39 Kb) and email it to our Sector Helpdesk. 

Gateway funding is paid in monthly instalments. The payment amounts are in equal instalments from January to June, and in equal instalments from July to December.

Our approach to calculating your 2019 indicative allocation for Gateway

The purpose of Gateway funding

Gateway funding enables secondary schools to give senior students access to structured workplace learning integrated with school-based learning. Students’ learning is assessed in the workplace and they can achieve credits on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) towards their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

The workplace learning should include:

• set unit standards for the student to work towards and achieve
• specific assessment methods.

How we calculated your 2019 indicative allocation for Gateway

Your prior performance information was used to calculate your 2019 indicative allocation.

To determine the starting point for calculating your 2019 indicative allocation we compared your 2017 actual Gateway delivery with your 2018 allocation

If your 2017 actual delivery was below 95%, we used the lesser of your;

• 2017 allocation, or
• 2018 allocation.

If your 2017 actual delivery was 95% or above, we used the greater of your:

• 2017 allocation, or
• 2018 allocation.

If you delivered Youth Guarantee for the first time in 2018, we used your:

• 2018 allocation.

Once we established your starting point we then considered your Gateway 2017 average credit achievement per distinct learner

If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was zero

• You receive a zero indicative allocation

If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was greater than zero but fewer than 10

• Your indicative allocation was reduced by 25 percent

If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was 10 or greater, but fewer than 18

• Your indicative allocation was reduced by 15 percent

If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was 18 or greater, but fewer than 20

• Your indicative allocation was reduced by 5 percent

If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was 20 or greater

• You are eligible to apply for an increase in learner places in 2019

How we will calculate any recoveries for 2018 Gateway funding

We will recover funding if you under-deliver in 2018

We will recover funding if you deliver less than 100% of your allocated Gateway funding. We will recover the difference between the value of actual delivery and 100% of allocated Gateway funding.

Recoveries are based on:

• your delivery volume data (total number of distinct learner places), submitted through Workspace 2. 

If we are satisfied on reasonable grounds that a school has not met or is not meeting the conditions on funding we may revoke or suspend the funding under section 159ZF of the Education Act 1989.