KEY POINTS:
It's the classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper.
Jeremy Morley, who last week took over as operational chief executive of Te Wananga O Aotearoa, has worked for three years as the Crown manager to sort out a mess - financial and otherwise - at one of New Zealand's largest tertiary institutions.
For Mr Morley it has been a personal journey - from a typically cynical Pakeha standpoint at the start when he was virtual receiver for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to one of total belief in the organisation.
"Why do I want to be there, it's because I believe in the place - where it sits in the tertiary landscape. It is an incredible critical organisation. You need organisations like this that offer second chance learning.
"I believe in the strategy and the business plan and the spirituality of the place. It's full of a lot of soulful people."
Mr Morley says it has been a remarkable turnaround that has gone unnoticed.
"There is this misconception that the Government has bailed this institution out."
The Government appointed a Crown manager in 2005 because of concerns not only about the wananga's finances but what an Auditor-General's inquiry found to be problems of nepotism, poor record keeping, expensive overseas travel and poor course management.
The problems arose partly as a result of phenomenal growth.
Evolving from the Aotearoa Institute, a private training institute set up in the late 1980s, it was incorporated in 1993 as a Crown entity, one of three wananga. Establishment funding of $60 million came from a Treaty of Waitangi settlement.
In the 2000s it grew until by 2005 it had 34,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students. Growth had been spurred by huge enrolments in its foundation learning, programmes - Mauri ora (Maori culture and New Zealand history), employment skills certificate, and Te Ara Reo language courses.
When Mr Morley arrived at the Te Awamutu head office, the wananga was in a precarious financial position.
"It had a strong asset base but didn't have any cash in the bank and it was losing money."
It had a $170 million budget but a sudden drop in student numbers caused a crisis. It was heavily over-staffed and had a high cost structure.
Mr Morley and the PWC team of nine had a lot of firefighting to do. Together with the wananga management, they set up a restructuring plan to pare the business back to its core - foundation learning and traditional cultural courses, plus a variety of other courses that were still in demand.
Gone went some of the courses that attracted public criticism - in such things as gospel music and relaxation massage.
The restructuring, enacted by management and the council, was done with a lot of integrity and dignity, he says.
"The way things happen in the Maori world is there is a lot of consultation. They want to see a win-win situation."
He never feared a collapse and the Government had made it clear throughout it wanted the institution to survive.
What amazed Mr Morley was that throughout the restructuring demand for wananga's courses remained high.
"The astonishing thing is right through that period of restructuring - 05 to 07 - it maintained a very, very strong core business. There was a very strong demand for its programmes and that demand is still there."
That was essentially because the wananga was offering courses that fulfilled a need.
Its primary demographic is Maori women of an average age 40. Many left school with no qualifications, have had their children and wanted the tools to get them back into the workforce.
The wananga offered employment courses, basic computing, business and languages course as well cultural and self-knowledge programmes.
"The bulk of the courses are still being run today and they sustain the wananga," says Mr Morley. "We now have a portfolio of programmes where the emphasis is on quality."
The PWC team concentrated on lifting the quality of courses.
Today, with NZQA audits it is just a matter of ticking the boxes, Mr Morley says.
"Now it doesn't need another audit for 12 months because it's happy where the wananga is."
Retentions, completion and graduation rates compare favourably with similar institutions and are way ahead of universities.
Wananga courses are mainly one year and, to graduate, students have to complete all parts of the course.
The organisation has slimmed down to a $120 million budget, staffing has dropped from 1800, or 1450 FTEs, to 1300, or 850 FTEs.
It still has 18,600 FTE students, barely down from in 2005, who learn on 141 sites on 11 campuses.
Its 2007 accounts recently got a tick from the auditor for the first time in three years as well as recording a profit of $5.2 million.
Mr Morley says the restructuring was funded internally by "tidying up" the asset base.
The Government provided a $20 million stand-by loan to assist cashflow but that was used only four times and each time quickly repaid.
In November, it was replaced with a commercial bank loan.
Today, the wananga has $30 million in the bank against nothing three years ago, and assets of $80 million.
It is on the cusp of finalising a $60 million suspensory loan that was a part of the Treaty settlement. About $40 million was paid in 2005 and, assuming performance indicators are met, the remainder will be converted to equity in stages.
The Government has committed $150 million over thre years to wanangas.
Aotearoa, by the far the largest, will get about two-thirds of this.
Mr Morley says the wananga is not completely out of the woods.
"We need to get back to a business as usual mentality. People need to be empowered and be accountable for what they do."
The focus ahead will be to change its demographic more towards youth.
With the Government looking to keep people in school until 17, Wananga is looking to take some of those not wanting to be at school into its care. It is already into early childhood education, about to open its fourth centre, in South Auckland.
Mr Morley says he was swayed to quit Wellington and PWC by the inspiration and commitment of the people working for the wananga.
He says the Wetere family, including former chief executive Rongo Wetere who resigned after the Auditor-General reported contracts worth millions were awarded to family members, were visionaries.
"People vilify Maoridom, but look what Governments had to do to the BNZs and New Zealand Steels," he says.
Mr Morley's philosophy is people who don't make mistakes don't make decisions.
During his 20s he was a high flyer "in the halcyon days of the 80s". He worked for disgraced entrepreneur Rod Petricevic at Euronational.
Mr Morley returned to university to finish an arts degree in education, then accountancy. He joined PWC in 1993 before he qualified in 1997 as a chartered accountant, where he took on some heavyweight receiverships.
"To me, business recovery work is a vocational job. The people who do it see it as a vocation."
After 14 years , Mr Morley felt in need of change. He believes the job at Te Wananga o Aotearoa will fulfil both his vocations - fixing businesses and developing a second chance educational institution.
* TE WANANGA O AOTEAROA - WHO AND WHAT IT IS
In 2007 TWOA delivered 64 qualifications to 36,941 full-time and part-time students (or 18,578 equivalent fulltime students).
71 per cent of students completed their courses, and 75 per cent attempted all the assessments and stayed until the end of the programme. Student satisfaction rates were 96 per cent.
The programmes covered areas such as business and computer studies, teaching, environmental management, social sciences, Maori language, employment and life skills, and traditional Maori arts including carving and weaving.
The programmes with the most students were Te Ara Reo Maori language (24 per cent) Mauri ora (Maori culture and New Zealand history) (16 per cent), business management (19 per cent), computing (11 per cent).
The wananga has 853 fulltime equivalent employees (FTEs), down from a high of 1432 in 2004.
Programmes are delivered in classrooms, marae and at home.
New programmes for 2008 include business and the internet, clinical supervision, environment, prison service, indigenous research and Maori governance.
The wananga has 11 main campuses, and operates from 141 sites throughout New Zealand.
Student Profile: In 2007 the typical TWOA student was a Maori woman, 40, with no secondary school qualifications, who was working before enrolling and who may continue to work while studying.
Last year, 49 per cent of TWOA students were Maori, 24 per cent Pakeha, 18 per cent Asian, 5 per cent Pacific Island, 4 per cent other.
38 per cent of TWOA students left secondary school with no qualifications.
- NZPA
