‘Operation Phoenix’ helps rescue Tokoroa’s polytech

Monday, 8 September 2025

Pūkenga Rau is the home of Tokoroa’s Toi Ohomai polytech campus which is facing closure after operating at a loss in 2024.

A combined union and South Waikato District Council effort to help save Tokoroa and Taupō’s polytechs from closure has lead to a stay of execution from the Government.

However, South Waikato mayor Gary Petley says the fight to save courses, and staff, from the funding axe is not over yet.

In mid-July the Waikato Times revealed Government plans to permanently close Toi Ohomai’s campuses in Tokoroa and Taupō with students being asked study elsewhere.

South Waikato mayor Gary Petley said the fight to save the town’s polytech is not over.

Officials said the Tokoroa campus made an operational loss of $496,000 last year, and its Taupō campus a $250,000 loss, and that declining enrolments, unsustainable operating costs, and high lease and infrastructure costs had led to the decision to close them.

Tokoroa learners will lose local opportunities to study computing, construction trade, automotive engineering, and te reo Māori courses.

In Taupō, students would lose their construction trade and automotive engineering courses.

South Waikato mayor Gary Petley, left, and MP Louise Upston helped open Tokoroa’s $14 million Pūkenga Rau building, the home of the town’s polytech, two years ago.

At the time Petley said it was “a short-sighted and lazy decision” with Taupō MP Louise Upston also expressing concerns, and asking for an explanation from officials.

Since then, the council widened the scope of “Operation Phoenix”, initially set up to help staff who had lost their jobs at Kinleith Mill, to include the potential loss of its polytech.

Petley said MP Louise Upston told those at a meeting on Thursday last week that there was funding available to continue with courses in Tokoroa and Taupō, but the Operation Phoenix working group would have to undertake an analysis of what courses to save.

Petley said it would be a community-led analysis.

Taupō MP Louise Upston said she has asked members of Project Phoenix to undertake a detailed study of what courses should be provided in Tokoroa by Toi Ohomai.

“The community knows the community best, and we will find out what those needs are and engage with government agencies to apply for funding and deliver the outcomes required.

“But it’s a long way off a forgone conclusion,” he said.

Te Hautū Kahurangi - Tertiary Education Union is relieved the proposals could be reversed.

“If the proposals had gone ahead, they would have seriously undermined the Government’s stated intention of shaping a ‘locally led, regional responsive, and future focused’ vocational education and training system,” the union’s Rotorua branch co-leaders said in a statement.

“While delivery could look different moving forward, a win is still a win, and this one belongs to us and our communities.

“We commend the institute's decision to maintain access to public vocational education and training across the Bay of Plenty and parts of South Waikato.”

They want students in Taupō and Tokoroa to continue to have opportunities to access localised public vocational education and training, so progress made under Te Pūkenga (the former name of the centralised national polytech organisation) to remove barriers to learning won’t go to waste, “and education can deliver equitable outcomes for all learners regardless of where they reside”.

Taupō MP Louise Upston, whose electorate extends to Tokoroa, said she was committed to “protecting and strengthening local vocation education opportunities across our region” and was pleased to see there is “likely to be reprieve for Toi Ohomai across Taupō and Tokoroa”.

“In Tokoroa, I have tasked Project Phoenix with leading a focused investigation into the education and training needs of the South Waikato District.

“This includes understanding how local employers and learners are feeding into current Toi Ohomai programmes and identifying which courses will best serve our region’s future workforce.

“The taskforce is now working with urgency to provide Toi Ohomai with clear, community-informed recommendations that reflect the district’s labour market needs and aspirations.”