A craft brewing course - the country's first at a tertiary institute - should be under way by the middle of next year at the campus, polytech chief executive Phil Ker said yesterday.
''We need a partner ... I want to plant a seed about investing in the campus,'' he told the Central Otago District Council meeting in Alexandra.
He outlined plans to expand the campus to cater for 500 students, more than double the number now.
A microbrewery and new training restaurant were included.
Mr Ker said legal work was being done to determine whether it was possible for the polytechnic to source crowdfunding for the brewery.
''It'll cost about $300,000 to kit it out, so 300 people, each putting up $1000 is one possible way of funding it.''
It was a good chance to come to a ''mutually beneficial arrangement'' with an investor for the restaurant, as well. The polytechnic was open Monday to Friday, but not during the evenings, and it was closed over the summer holidays, so it was a good chance for a commercial operator to run the restaurant with the polytechnic as an equity partner.
The craft brewing and adventure tourism courses were among the new programmes planned and the polytech planned to combine its three Central Otago sites into one, on Bannockburn Rd.
It operates from Molyneux Ave, another site in Cromwell's industrial area and from Bannockburn Rd, where it has an orchard, vineyard, a base for its stonemasonry course and its sports turf training facility.
Within 15 years, the Central campus would cater for up to 500 students and be a ''centre of excellence for land-based training and food, beverage and hospitality training'', Mr Ker said.
Student accommodation would be part of the expansion and the first stage would provide beds for 20 students by August next year. The Bannockburn Rd site was seen as ''too remote'' and the current Molyneux Ave site would be the base for accommodation.
