MEDIA RELEASE
Youth Guarantee a success at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic
In figures released earlier this month by the Tertiary Education Commission, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic was named as one
of the top five performing ITPs (Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics) in the Government’s flagship Youth Guarantee
initiative.
Established by the National led Government in 2010, the purpose of Youth Guarantee is to improve the educational
achievements of at risk 16 and 17 year olds by providing them with an opportunity to participate in a range of
vocational courses. It’s part of a wider youth opportunities package designed to create new work, education and training
opportunities for young people.
Kuku Wawatai, Director Māori and Community Development at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, said the success of the Youth
Guarantee programmes at the Polytechnic is due an innovative, and some would say radical, approach to learning.
“Instead of confining students to textbook theories we should allow them to tackle real problem-solving issues in the
real world and allow them opportunities to change the world as part of their learning process,” said Mr Wawatai.
“Instead of treating class time as a management problem’ we should abandon scheduling and collectively redesign the
learning day to make it appropriate and relevant to student interests.
“Instead of treating these young taonga who have not had an enjoyable compulsory sector experience as potential
deviants, we ought to treat them as people who are capable of mutual trust.”
With the majority of the Youth Guarantee students identified as Māori, the Polytechnic has focused its innovative
approach to learning based on the unique experiences and challenges facing these learners. That approach remains at the
forefront of the Polytechnic’s continued efforts towards education achievements within the Youth Guarantee programme and
the wider institution.
Bay of Plenty Polytechnic was one of the first of the ITPs to provide the free study programme in 2010. Their unique
approach was so successful they were granted an additional 24 students for 2011, seeing 63 young people having the
opportunity to successfully engage in lifelong learning. The Polytechnic looks forward to delivering more successful
outcomes in 2012.
Ends.