SIT set to lose identity as part of Te Pukenga

Institutes of technology and polytechnics will lose their individual identities and be absorbed into the single Te Pū kenga brand.

Ahead of the 2023 transition to the new entity, the individual polytechs have been launching combined branding to ‘‘raise awareness’’ of the national mega polytech.

While the loss of individual brands will be good for those previously struggling, a marketing expert says those with strong local presence such as the Southern Institute of Technology and Canterbury’s Ara will risk losing that trust among learners.

Preparation was under way for the national launch campaign, which would be followed by a ‘‘co-ordinated learner recruitment campaign’’ with local providers across the country for semester one next year, Te Pūkenga acting chief executive Peter Winder said. ‘‘As a new national organisation, it’s essential that we introduce Te Pū kenga to New Zealand.’’

The existing institutes of technology and polytechnics (ITPs) would transition into Te Pū kenga by December 31, and the network would move towards a single Te Pū kenga brand during 2023.

‘‘We are also working with tangata whenua – hapū and iwi – at the local ITP level to ensure that ingoa Mā ori [Mā ori names] of significance have the opportunity to live on in the context of campus and building names,’’ Winder said.

The mega polytech has attracted a lot of controversy as opponents say it is the wrong model for Aotearoa, and concerns were raised in a damning report over its budget blowout even before it has begun.

Winder said one of the key outcomes being sought was that students should be able to learn in the way that best suits their circumstances, and in particular be able to earn as they learn in-work.

He believed Te Pū kenga would bring together campus-based, online and on-thejob learning into a unified network. The model also sought to ‘‘remove unnecessary duplication, cost and competition between individual institutions, benefiting learners, employers and taxpayers’’.

Ara, which is the result of the Aoraki Polytechnic and the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology amalgamation, will lose the brand that it spent $1 million on marketing in 2015-16.

Ekant Veer, a marketing professor at the University of Canterbury, said rebranding to a centralised service would be a ‘‘difficult space’’ in much the same way that individual district health boards will have to navigate the health sector revamp.

School leavers could find it ‘‘scary’’ and daunting launching into tertiary education with a previously unknown entity, he said.