New Zealand has high quality educational infrastructure and institutions but lacks the passion to promote them overseas, a major education provider has said.
The New Zealand School of Travel and Tourism and the Auckland School of Technology Director Vivek Varma said an aggressive marketing strategy will help promote New Zealand as a world class education destination.
“We have competitive education products but a majority of international students (typically Asians, including Indians, who form a significant number) still look at New Zealand as an option that is less desirable than US, Australia, Canada or the UK,” he said, speaking to Indian Newslink.
Acknowledging the importance of the integrity of education providers, he expressed concern that a few ‘less than desirable practices and practitioners’ in an industry that boasts of more than 1000 providers can destroy the image of New Zealand as a great education destination.
“Education is a business no doubt, but it is a business with the greatest need of ethical standards and integrity,” he said.
A Personnel Management and Industrial Relations graduate and an alumni of the prestigious New Delhi based Oberoi School of Hotel Management, Mr Varma has been involved with the hospitality industry in several parts of the world for more than two decades.
Better Programmes
Following his migration to New Zealand, he embarked on a Project to identify the skill sets and other resources required to promote better qualified graduates in the hospitality industry. His focus was on putting in place appropriate training programmes to improve the professional competence of people graduating in the hospitality industry.
The New Zealand School of Travel and Tourism (www.nzstt.com) and the Auckland School of Technology (www.ast.ac.nz) are NZQA approved institutions, with the former specialising in Travel, Tourism and Business courses and the latter on Cookery, Coffee Preparation and Food Hygiene.
Mr Varma said that New Zealand is currently over dependent on Asian markets including India.
“We should be able to leverage our close ties with the UK for mutual benefit and take advantage of the British Pound-New Zealand Dollar disparity. We should also examine existing and emerging opportunities in the countries of the European Union. The expatriate communities in the Middle East can also be a huge market for the education sector. This is virtually untapped,” he said.
According to him, the Export Education sector and Immigration New Zealand should synergise their activities for the overall benefit of the economy.
This can be done by identifying and promoting courses that have strong employment outcomes in the local market, he said.
“It is a known fact that many international students aspire to work at least for a few years in the country of their study. Many others would also like to consider long term or permanent residence as an option after investing so much on their education,” he said.
Mr Varma said students completing courses that provide generic rather than specialised skills will find it difficult to get jobs relevant to their qualifications.
“This forces them to take any job available or worse, adopt measures that are less than desirable to get a good job. This is detrimental to everyone involved.
“New Zealand’s success in the international education marketplace will be significantly higher if we can work on strengthening this area,” he said.
