News

Secondary school career advisors respond to planned Ara’s Te Pūkenga transition

Secondary school career advisors respond to planned Ara’s Te Pūkenga transition

Canterbury career advisors take a city campus tour of Ara Institute of Canterbury. Image supplied by Te Pukenga.

Over 40 Canterbury secondary school career advisors were told little would change for them in practical terms when Ara Institute of Canterbury transitions to Te Pūkenga in November this year, at a recent professional group meeting.
Following a presentation about the upcoming changes to the tertiary education sector, the advisors took a tour of Ara’s Music Arts Facilities to learn more about the new specialisations in the Bachelor of Music programme – Music Creation and Music Production – featuring several student performances.
Jenni McLaughlin, career advisor at St Margaret’s School, who attended the meeting, says she’s now in a position “to reassure students that everything is still in place and continuing as it has been at Ara”. She said:
That’s good to know when relaying information to our students and parents. People aren’t unduly worried about it because Ara has such a strong reputation locally.
Ara’s Youth and Community Development Manager, Mark Simons, says he explained to the group that “we know that Ara is still here as a place – we will still offer everything we do currently”.
Learners will still apply and enrol in the same way, but the logo on the application form will be different.
“Changes are starting to happen internally as we evolve towards Te Pūkenga,” says Simons, “but for our outwards-facing relationships, the only thing people will notice is a transition towards a name change”.
“Ara will still have the same people, the same relationships with schools, and the same courses. Over time, our courses will slowly be unified across the network, and Ara is an active and prominent participant in these unifications.”
Career advisors received the information with “pragmatic acceptance,” says Simons.
He suggested that because advisors themselves have been through so many structural changes in education, they seemed to have a good understanding of what this change means for their students and themselves.
For programmes like dual enrolments for high school students and one-day taster days, this group will notice little difference next year.
School News

School News is not affiliated with any government agency, body or political party. We are an independently owned, family-operated magazine.

Share
Published by
School News
2 years ago

Recent Posts

Building on our strengths in education

Professor Stuart McNaughton explains how Aotearoa New Zealand's education system can build on its strengths…

1 week ago

AI tutors could be coming to the classroom – but who taught the tutor, and should you trust them?

AI tutors sound like a futuristic dream which promise to improve equity, but it comes…

1 week ago

Literacy skills: The key to all learning

We spoke to the MoE and literacy education experts to learn more about structured literacy,…

1 week ago

Continuing your learning journey: PLD in 2025

For students to have the best educational experience, they must have access to the most…

1 week ago

The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge

This new initiative is correcting the low handwriting standards in New Zealand, and will benefit…

1 week ago

“It’s our identity”: backlash to Te Ahu o te reo Māori cuts

Both students and educators have spoken against the recently announced $30 million slash to Te…

2 weeks ago