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Career Colleges and Vocational Schools in New Zealand

Career Colleges and Vocational Schools in New Zealand by City:

Auckland

About Career Colleges and Vocational Schools in New Zealand

Vocational education has gained much prominence in recent times due to the constantly changing work environment and education dynamics. Career colleges and vocational schools in New Zealand are specially designed for those who do not want to undertake the traditional higher education option, and instead prefer to get trained in a specialized profession for becoming an industry ready professional.

New Zealand not only has some of the finest career colleges in the world, it is also a popular study destination among students from across the world. Career schools in New Zealand are also known as Trade Schools and are aligned with New Zealand’s National Education Goals or the NEG’s (1) & (3). 

Career education in New Zealand is popularly known as Technical & Vocational Education or TVET and begins at the upper secondary school level itself, with schools forging tie-ups with the tertiary or the higher education providers. In fact, the principal and staff at the secondary school level are instructed by The National Administration Guidelines, to identify such students at level 7, who are at risk of leaving school unprepared for further education/training and hence should be provided with appropriate career education and guidance.

A credit based qualification system, registered with National Qualifications Framework (NQF), for a range of qualifications, further facilitates this process by allowing students to pursue additional vocational courses in New Zealand along with the regular school curriculum. The students also get exposed to valuable work related learning through such courses
TVET at the tertiary level is provided through institutions like Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITPs), Private Training Establishments and Industry Training Organizations.  Such vocational schools in New Zealand provide students an opportunity to pursue courses as varying as hospitality, beauty profession to teaching. Moreover, certain vocational programs are also available in government training institutions and various universities.

New Zealand has 39 ITOs, 20 ITPs and several PTEs imparting quality career education by imbibing the dual teaching method of theory based learning along with the practical on-the-job training routine at a place of apprenticeship.

Industry Training Organizations

ITOs are state funded and help in developing and maintaining the national standard of skills and qualifications for different sectors through on-job training.  They also form pacts with training providers to offer off-job training and courses.
 
Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics

ITPs offer career education in New Zealand as well as training in a variety of subjects like English language training, and introductory courses to full degree programs. A degree from one of the ITP is equivalent to a university degree in New Zealand.

ITPs award nationally and internationally recognized qualifications for a wide range of community interest courses, foundation programs, certificates, diplomas, degrees and postgraduate degrees.  All of these vocational courses are also available through flexible delivery modes such as part-time courses, weekend’s batches, evening classes and online learning.
 
The other unique features of ITPs include lengthy training hours in On-Job Training (OJT), research based learning and industry trained trainers.  
 
Private Training Establishments

PTE’s forte in vocational education in New Zealand lies primarily in specialized industries like travel and tourism, design or English language learning.