Te Pūkenga (New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology) covers the country's 25 polytechnics and industry training organisations. Photo: supplied
The national training organisation Te Pūkenga has revealed an $80 million deficit for 2022.
The institute published its first annual report covering all 25 polytechnics and industry training organisations it took over last year.
It said the deficit was higher than forecast but a lot lower than the $280m loss the 16 polytechnics would have made without their merger into the new organisation.
The institute said it would make another deficit this year, but expected to be on the path to profitability next year.
Its chief executive Peter Winder said the creation of Te Pūkenga was "a once-in-a-generation transformation" that would allow it to deliver new approaches on a large scale.
"It is also large and complex. Financial sustainability remains a key focus which we are addressing through increased international enrolments, property rationalisation, greater efficiencies and reducing duplication through a unified organisational structure," he said.
The report said Te Pūkenga had 270,993 learners last year, including 140,222 workplace trainees and apprentices.
It said 11 percent of its students were in architecture and building programmes and 20 percent in engineering and related technology.
The report said there were indications of significant reductions in domestic students enrolling in campus-based courses this year.
"If enrolments are significantly lower than budgeted, then we will need to make considerably more dramatic savings across on-campus delivery," the report said.
Auditors refused to give the annual report their unqualified approval.
"Te Pūkenga could not correctly determine the breakdown of the Parent's cash flows from operating activities, nor the reconciliation of the net deficit to the net operating activity cash flow. The scope of our audit was limited as Te Pūkenga was unable to provide us sufficient supporting information to enable us to verify the breakdown of the Parent's operating cash flows for 2022, nor the reconciliation of the net deficit to the net operating activity cash flow," they said.