ITENZ welcomes new board members
We are very pleased to welcome two new members to the ITENZ Board, Alex McKegg and Patrick Rennell.
At the same time, we say farewell to three long-serving members, Paul Chalmers, Jeremy Sole, and Sandra Hutton.
Patrick Rennell has been involved with the tertiary education sector for over 20 years in New Zealand, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Starting career as tutor and lecturer at Massey University and WelTec he has also held management positions within business schools in Australian College of Kuwait and Bahrain Polytechnic.
He is a strong advocate for the PTEs and the value they bring to the education sector in New Zealand.
Alex McKegg is the Academic Manager (and at times Acting-General Manager) for Edvance Workplace Training. Edvance specialises in delivering workplace literacy and numeracy education. Edvance also delivers foundation skills training in the community utilising Intensive Literacy and Numeracy and ACE funding.
Alex’s prior roles have included those as an Academic Director and as an independent contractor supporting PTE, Wananga and ITPs to build quality systems. This drew on her experience as a Lead Evaluator and Consistency Reviewer for NZQA.
Prior to working with NZQA Alex held a number of leadership and development roles in foundation studies and literacy and numeracy training with the Tertiary Education Commission and Unitec. Alex has been a member of the ITENZ Academic Managers’ forum, Foundation and Bridging Educators NZ (FABENZ) and the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA).
Alex is passionate about making education accessible, relevant and engaging for all learners. Alex is married to Mark and has three grown sons.
ITENZ Conference 2023 brings together leaders from across the PTE, VET, and international education sectors.
For two days, leaders from across PTE, VET, and international education sectors came together to discuss, question and collaborate on the future of PTEs and tertiary education in Christchurch.
TEC, Chief Executive, Tim Fowler, summed up the mood with a Linkedin post on Day One. “Having a great day at the annual ITENZ conference in Christchurch. PTEs do an amazing job and fulfill an important role in the tertiary education system.”
With over 150 people present, including the Minister of Education, politicians from the four main parties, chief executives and representatives from government agencies, WDCs, and CoVEs, exhibitors from complimentary industries, and delegates from PTEs, the conference provided a wonderful opportunity to learn, share and network.
The chance to network with senior staff from government was described by one attendee as “gold” and another as “awesome” while many others singled out networking with fellow providers, speakers, and exhibitors as a highlight.
“Brilliant conference, great organisation and opportunities to network.”
Delegates were treated to a wide range of plenary and breakout sessions. Alan Kan’s session on ChatGPT was particularly popular, as were sessions resilience, wellbeing, engaging wahine Māori and an update on international education. A highlight on Day Two was the political panel, comprising representatives from the four main political parties presenting their policies.
In feedback, 98% of respondents gave the conference 4 or 5 out of 5 on the satisfaction scale.
“Having the ability to network was awesome. The food was incredible! Coffee even better! The Trade Stands were great also. Always good to get insight into other options for Student Management systems etc”
