Pim Borren: The Bay’s polytech revival is here – and it needs its community
I am sure everyone across our Bay of Plenty/South Waikato region is aware of the challenges Toi Ohomai has faced through the significant upheavals created by two significant mergers for our local polytechnic.
First, in 2016, the merger between Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Waiariki Institute of Technology, followed four years later with the merger of 16 polytechnics into one mega institute known as Te Pukenga.
Ultimately, both of these changes hurt us badly. We lost touch with our communities, employers, iwi, and our student numbers (and revenues) literally halved over the past 10 years.
Therefore, it is with a great sense of pride that I can share with you the progress Toi Ohomai has made since once again becoming a fully independent institute from January 1, 2026 (governed by local directors).
Our students have started coming back to us as we have started reconnecting across all of the communities we serve, and that has meant 10% growth in students this year and a healthy financial surplus for the first time in a very long time.
When I first became chief executive of then Waiariki Institute of Technology 20 years ago, I was keen to model the polytechnic on Southern Institute of Technology in Southland.
The then-CEO was Penny Simmonds (now Tertiary Education Minister). No one in our sector has made a difference to a local community like Penny did. Invercargill was not only stagnating as a city, it was shrinking.
Penny, at only 38 years of age, came up with the brilliant plan of zero fees for all her students. And it worked.
Invercargill attracted young people from all over New Zealand. The city became revitalised.
The skills being taught locally helped stimulate a flagging economy. Both Invercargill and Southland thrived.
And Penny deserves much of the credit.
In 2006, Rotorua faced similar challenges of a largely stagnant economy. I decided to take some learnings from Penny’s example.
We could not afford to implement free fees across the board, but we did for our school leavers.
Over the six years I was CEO, we tripled our student numbers and both Mokoia and Waipā campuses thrived, as did our smaller regional campuses in Whakatāne, Taupō and Tokoroa.
The secret to Penny’s initiative was the support she received from her local community, her council and mayor, and her local community trusts, who together helped fund the shortfall created by zero fees.
Recently at Toi Ohomai we have reintroduced free fees for school leavers at Mokoia Campus in Rotorua for 2027.
Our hope is that we can roll out the same scheme for our four other campuses, including Tauranga, in 2028.
To achieve this and help stimulate our own economy through improved skills, we also need the support of our local communities right across our region: employers, iwi, councils, community trusts.
Otherwise, the scheme won’t work and local employers (as our economy improves) will once again struggle to find the important skilled employees needed across our industries, trades, health and education sectors.
We know that Tauranga, with its significant growth plan, will need so many more skilled tradespeople to support its infrastructure and housing needs.
Toi Ohomai will have served the Rotorua community for 50 years in 2028.
That’s half a century of support for local employers in training a future workforce and the current one (ie part-time study).
Skills are so important and skills shortages such a handicap for our local economy.
We will approach our communities in Rotorua, Tauranga, Whakatāne and Taupō, to see whether they can see their way to making a significant investment into their local community polytechnic.
The South Waikato Council is one step ahead. Our campus in Tokoroa has been built by Swift (South Waikato Investment Fund Trust) and is a state-of-the-art vocational campus supporting trade training and vocational skills within the South Waikato community.
We are so grateful for their foresight and generosity and I’m certain the $25 million facility will serve its community and local economy well for many years to come.
So many people who live here have studied with us (or worked at one of our campuses).
There is an old saying. You don’t really recognise the value of something until you lose it.
For our region, we have been at risk of losing our polytechnic provision but we are determined to bring it back.
We just need the community to remember how important we are in supporting those people who simply cannot travel to upskill.
Skilled people who add so much local value.
If you don’t believe me, just take a look at Southland.
Dr Pim Borren is the chief executive of Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology.