New ATC CEO: “there’s no one size fits all”

New ATC CEO: “there’s no one size fits all”

New ATC CEO, Chris Hubbard, is stepping into his role with a promise to move away from a “one-size-fits all” approach to education.

Hubbard was appointed at ATC last month and replaces founding CEO Trevor Wilson as head of the educational institution - one of New Zealand’s largest Private Training Establishments (PTE’s).

ATC’s four divisions are Vision College, TrainMe, Instant, and Leadership Development New Zealand. It has campuses in Christchurch, Hamilton, Auckland and Pukekohe.

And with Chris’s appointment comes a personal passion to tailor education to suit individual needs.

“I believe education is like business; in-that you’ve got to start with the customer and his or her needs. Unfortunately education doesn’t have a very good history of being customer-focused. A lot of institutions’ programmes are very ‘one-size fits all.’

“For years we have assumed people’s knowledge is the same because we teach a class full of people the same information. We then expect them to regurgitate it so we can assess, mark and give them a ticket to move on.”

“This is not how natural learning works. Natural learning is individualised, it’s socialised, it’s constructive, and it builds on what you already know.”

“At ATC, we don’t want to simply distribute mass information, we want to tailor it to meet individual needs, and we will continue to work on teaching strategies that deliver useful content that builds on what people already know.

“Our aim, across all our courses, is to focus on the student experience first and then make sure we more than meet government requirements, rather than the other way around.”

Hubbard brings to ATC 15 years’ leadership experience in the education sector.

Prior to his current role he spent four years at NMIT in Nelson as Director of Service Industries and Learning Innovation and Group Manager of Community Support and Service Industries.

He also spent 11 years at UCOL in Palmerston North undertaking roles as Marketing Manager and Head of School for Photography, Art & Design.

According to Hubbard his recent move to ATC aligns his “Christian passion” with his “education passion.”

ATC’s Christian heritage remains a foundational thread within the institution.

“In the past it has been compared to the model of a Christian school. These schools are well-respected and attended by mainstream community, with an underlying Christian value system,” he said.

“We offer a mix of both mainstream and Christian courses. The idea being as it was in the beginning – to let our Christian passion for people-development spill out into education,” he said.

ATC was formed in 1984 in a partnership between Vision Church Eastside in Hamilton and City Church Christchurch.

Today its four divisions are Vision College, TrainMe, Instant, and Leadership Development New Zealand. It is headquartered in Hamilton with three other campuses in Christchurch, Auckland and Pukekohe.

The PTE is one of New Zealand’s largest with more than 150 staff and approximately 1,000 students offering around 20 NZQA accredited programmes from degree to entry level across four campuses.

Hubbard has started in the role and is based at ATC’s Hamilton head office on Ruakura Road.

ENDS