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, 35 Kb).

Please also read these web pages and the Gateway Handbook (PDF, 792 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 Customer Contact Group 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.

2019 funding per place

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, 792 Kb).

2020 funding per place

The first place is funded at $2,895.00 and 85 or more places are funded at $1,041.00 per place (excluding GST). 

Full details of the payment rates are available in Gateway – 2020 funding rate sliding scale (Excel, 42 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 Customer Contact Group 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 Customer Contact Group. 

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 2020 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) or towards their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

We will send 2020 indicative allocation letters to all schools who are delivering Gateway in 2019.

How we calculated your 2020 indicative allocation for Gateway

Your prior performance information was used to calculate your 2020 indicative allocation.

To determine the starting point for calculating your 2020 indicative allocation, we reviewed your 2018 actual Gateway delivery and your 2019 allocation

Summary table of performance calculations

If your 2018 actual delivery was below 95% of your 2018 allocation of learners, we used the lesser of your:

• 2018 allocated learners, or
• 2019 allocated learners.

If your 2018 actual delivery was 95% or above of your 2018 allocation of learners, we used the greater of your:

• 2018 allocated learners, or
• 2019 allocated learners.

If you delivered Gateway for the first time in 2019, we used your:

• 2019 allocated learners.

Next, we consider your Gateway 2018 average credit achievement per distinct learner measure

If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was zero or if you did not report any Actuals for 2018:

• Your 2020 initial allocation is zero.

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

• Your 2020 initial allocation was reduced by 25 percent

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

• Your 2020 initial allocation was reduced by 15 percent

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

• Your 2020 initial allocation was reduced by 5 percent

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

• Your 2020 initial allocation was 100% of your starting point.

How we will calculate any recoveries for 2019 Gateway funding

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 most recent actual delivery volume data (total number of distinct learner places), submitted through Workspace2. 

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.