1 in 4 don't feel their wellbeing is taken into consideration
Employees of New Zealand's Institute of Skills and Technology have expressed doubts aboutthe future of their careers years after the historic merger in 2020, according to a new survey.
Te Pūkenga, the largest vocational education provider in New Zealand, was established in April 2020 after the government announced that it was merging country's 16 Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITP) and nine Industry Training Organisations.
But years after the major merge, anxieties are still bubbling among those who were affected by the change, according to an internal Te Pūkenga survey, as reported by Stuff.
Career doubts, low recommendation
The survey, answered by 4,311 respondents or 50% of staff, found that a third are doubting their career progress in Te Pūkenga.
"One in three ITP kaimahi (employees) don't believe there is a future for them in Te Pūkenga," the survey said as reported by Stuff.
This comes as only 12% of the respondents said they understood how the change will impact them and their roles.
In a separate question, 28% said they didn't feel their wellbeing was taken into consideration by their subsidiary or business division. Another 29% said they felt their wellbeing was considered, according to the report.
Te Pūkenga also received a low recommendation score from the respondents, who gave it a -59 score, with every polytech getting a score below zero.
Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson told Stuff that they "understand" the uncertainty involved following the massive merge, adding that they are "addressing this without kaimahi as a priority."
Layoff reports
The results of the survey, which was carried out in November 2022, were released in the heels of reports that Te Pūkenga could be laying off hundreds of jobs.
Te Pūkenga chief executive Peter Winder previously told Nine to Noon that they would be laying off mostly managerial jobs.
"It's a number that will be more than 200 and less than a thousand, considerably less than a thousand," Winder said as quoted by Radio New Zealand.
"The exact number depends on where we sit with vacancies and attrition and we're working through that at the moment. And our strong preference and the reason we've had a recruitment freeze for some time is to avoid redundancies."
The move follows a 10% drop in enrolments in 2023, according to the RNZ report.
