UCOL's co-branding has begun

The co-brand with Te Pūkenga and UCOL will remain until March when the UCOL brand will be retired. Photo / Bevan Conley

Any new material produced at UCOL now involves co-branding, as it transitions to Te Pūkenga / New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology - the new national provider for polytechnics.

The co-brand with Te Pūkenga and UCOL (the Universal College of Learning) will remain until March, when the UCOL brand will be retired.

But by the end of the year, UCOL staff will be employed by Te Pūkenga, and learners enrolling in 2023 will be enrolled with Te Pūkenga.

"The transition from UCOL to Te Pūkenga is going well and is part of our business as usual approach," UCOL's executive director of community engagement Christine Beech said.

"The new operating structure for Te Pūkenga is currently being developed, but systems and processes used at UCOL will remain including our enrolment and IT systems."

Beech said the new operating structure outlines how they would bring together teaching, training, learner wellbeing, employer functions, and regions into one transformative structure.

She said this operating structure was expected to include both national and regional arrangements, which staff at UCOL would be consulted on between July 19 and August 16.

The operating structure was being made in support of a larger future operating model for Te Pūkenga, which demonstrates what Te Pūkenga does, and how it will do it.

The Te Pūkenga website states the operating model was designed to "enable planning and build a consistent and co-ordinated view across the country".

Beech said it would include new academic regulations, unified programmes, and learner support for students.

She said they were currently working to help establish relationships with other subsidiaries (polytechnics) of Te Pūkenga to provide a collective of intelligence, information and resource.

"It is expected that this model includes both national and regional arrangements, with final decisions expected in September."