Tai Poutini Polytechnic lends a hand in hard times ahead

Tai Poutini Polytechnic is responding to the worsening economic climate and rising unemployment by offering students education courses at no cost to them, in an effort to help upskill the West Coast in preparation for an economic turnaround.

 

The polytechnic is seeing increased local redundancies as a result of the global financial crisis and is putting systems in place to train people to make them employable in industries demanding skilled workers.

 

Unemployment is predicted to increase to 5.7% by 2010 so Tai Poutini Polytechnic is acting now to boost skilled labour and offer training to build on existing skills.

 

CEO of Tai Poutini, Paul Wilson says the decision to extend no fees until 2009 has been made to help those who may have lost their jobs and cannot afford high tertiary fees.

 

"Offering no tuition fees for next year is our way of supporting the community at a difficult time when unemployment is up and people are losing their jobs," Wilson says.

 

Industry employment growth in the West Coast region over the past five years has been the strongest in the mining, construction, wholesaling, tourism-hospitality, business services, education and cultural-recreational sectors. Tai Poutini encourages students to enter these industries while they continue to be in demand.

 

"We have identified the courses suited best to industries that will contribute to the turnaround of the recession and recommend people make the most of the opportunity to study for free while it is available," Wilson says.