Your recent Weekend Mix magazine feature, "Degrees of difficulty", investigated not only the effects of "qualification creep" but also some of the factors that have driven its rise. Well-intentioned and certainly topical, the article examined a range of prevailing cultural dynamics to which tertiary institutions and individuals alike are increasingly attuned. This includes the important question of a qualification’s relevance — be it to an individual, a community or an industry.
The 7700-plus learners enrolled in programmes at Otago Polytechnic do so for a range of reasons. Regardless of their backgrounds, their motivations, they leave with a range of skill-sets specific to qualifications — and that is what employers want.
Feedback from employers and stakeholders informs us that we prepare work-ready graduates able to adapt to whatever placement in which they gain employment.
Otago Polytechnic’s latest Graduate Destination Survey has found that 96% of our graduates are either employed or undertaking further study. For Otago Polytechnic’s Maori graduates, it is even higher — at 99%.
And figures from the Tertiary Education Commission for 2016 show Otago Polytechnic has the best qualification completion rate in New Zealand at 90%.
Although I’m loath to single out any one programme, I’ll use nursing as an example of our work-ready, relevant approach: significantly, almost all (92%) of the nursing students who graduated in November 2017 have employment already. Yet, as important as healthcare expertise is to our communities, Otago Polytechnic embraces wider-reaching notions of nurturing. In fact, one of the core values at Otago Polytechnic is caring.
I’d argue these six letters (caring) are as relevant to our collective future than any letters that might follow a graduate’s name.
We proudly claim, "Our people make a better world." And we empower our learners to do so through a wide range of innovative programmes.
Take the design sector.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers report last year detailed the total contribution of design to the New Zealand economy — approximately $10.1 billion in the year to March 2016. This equated to 4.2% of New Zealand’s GDP, and 4.4% of New Zealand’s total employment.
However, design is about much more than making money. In fact, it has the potential to reshape economic paradigms.
To paraphrase World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schawb, we stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way many of us live, work and even relate to one another.
The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production; the Second used electric power to create mass production; the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of last century, used electronics and information technology to automate production. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterised by a fusion of technologies that blurs the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres. This has implications for not only what we do, but also who we are.
It will affect our identity and all the issues associated with it: privacy, notions of ownership, consumption patterns, the time we devote to work and leisure, and how we develop our careers, cultivate our skills, meet people and nurture relationships. What is being done to address such seismic shifts?
One answer can be found in our doctor of professional practice programme. Launched late in 2017, the programme is for people seeking to achieve a high-level qualification while also making a significant contribution to their organisation, hapu, iwi, community or profession.
The inaugural doctorate programme features highly skilled learners, all of whom gained entry after a rigorous, competitive selection process.
Yet more significant is the fact that those enrolled in the doctor of professional practice are looking to help others.
For example, one will investigate flaws in social welfare systems. Another is researching an unfortunate but increasingly prevalent issue — student mental health.
It is run out of Capable NZ, a school within Otago Polytechnic that has developed a highly successful independent learning pathway framework through which more than 1200 learners — mostly in the workforce — have graduated with degrees and postgraduate qualifications.
Amid this discussion of a rise in the number of people with qualifications, I’d suggest more value be ascribed to the relevance of the skills and knowledge that people gain.
