The country’s move to the COVID-19 Protection Framework’s Orange setting allowed the Board to meet face-to-face for the first time this year.
The Board received the regular papers and noted – despite the move down settings – our communities were still experiencing COVID-19 infection and dealing with the impact of inflation.
Enrolments
Numbers have been impacted by a buoyant labour market and high cost of living. Learner disengagement due to COVID disruptions has also played a part in enrolments declining 12% year on year at MIT. The picture at Unitec is down on 2021, but on par with 2019-2020.
This outlook is somewhat brightened by the anticipated return of International Students to the country as border restrictions are removed.
The Board was updated on the move towards co-branding with Te Pūkenga prior a national awareness campaign later in the year and a proposed full transition to the national brand in 2023.
Te Pūkenga Transition
The difficulties presented by the current outlook to the financial position of both institutes led the Chair to encourage management to work with Te Pūkenga to ensure a smooth, orderly transition to the new entity for staff and students.
This is to be advanced in a spirit of manaakitanga with Chair Murray Strong and Chief Executive Stephen Town invited to the next meeting to discuss the change.
The Board supported the request by Te Pūkenga to put in place a hiring freeze to help offset revenue shortfalls and ongoing costs.
ConCOVE
The Board has updated on the appointment of Katherine Hall as the new executive director of the Construction Centre of Vocational Excellence. MIT is the regional host of the centre.
Katherine Hall has been named in the role after recently leading the Construction Sector Accord’s People Development and Health & Safety workstreams.
Ms Hall has also previously worked for Competenz and Skills, as well as promoting the successful ‘Got a Trade? Got it Made!’ campaign and helped foster collaboration in the effort to attract more women to trades and engineering futures.
B108 Update
MHUD have agreed to an extension of buildings 73 – 80 in the Southern Zone to align with completion of B108. This remains a challenging high risk project due to ongoing Covid-19 impacts and supply chain challenges. The Board acknowledged the efforts of all involved and passed on their thanks with the continued persistence to keep the project on track.