A new trades academy being set up in Cromwell could be expanded to cater for pupils from all six Central Otago and Queenstown-Lakes secondary schools.
The new trades academy starts in February, based at the Otago Polytechnic's Central Otago campus.
The polytechnic will be the lead provider, in partnership with Cromwell College, Dunstan High School (Alexandra) and Mt Aspiring College (Wanaka).
Education minister Anne Tolley announced the initiative last month and said it would provide practical skills training for 16 and 17-year-old secondary school pupils who were at risk of "disengaging" from education, while allowing them to study for NCEA credits and tertiary qualifications.
The Central Lakes academy at Cromwell will be one of 10 around the country.
Twenty places are available at the Central Lakes academy, with the focus on courses such as construction and building, tourism, horticulture, hospitality, the motor industry and hairdressing.
Central Otago campus manager Jean Tilleyshort told the Otago Polytechnic Council last week she was thrilled with the establishment of the academy.
Pupils who wanted to take part would spend one day a week at the polytechnic and four days at school.
The academy would begin small and probably start with a carpentry course, but would expand according to demand, she said.
It was hoped the remaining high schools in the area - Wakatipu High School (Queenstown), Roxburgh Area School and Maniototo Area School - would also become involved.
At the moment the costs were prohibitive for some of those schools, with time and travel costs one of the barriers.
The council was looking at applying to trusts to cover the transport costs, polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker said.
Polytechnic councillor Malcolm Macpherson said the way the funding model worked, schools "gave up" some of their funding for those pupils who attended the academy.
"If the pupil is here [at the polytechnic] one day a week, the funding is interrupted, and for a small school that has an impact," Mrs Tilleyshort said.
Mr Ker said the trades academy appealed to some pupils who were disengaged from school and education.
In other areas where trades academies had been set up, schools had benefited.
Pupils in the academy who were previously disinterested in their schooling had been "switched on" to learning and remained at school and focused more on their school subjects as well as the polytechnic course.
"You don't have to retain a lot of students [at school] to compensate for the loss of funding [by them attending a trades academy]," he said.
"The country's on to something good here, with the trades academy.
"It's no silver bullet and there's no model for everyone, but it's working well and schools are keeping those year 12 pupils who would otherwise have left."
The polytechnic was working on a different model for Dunedin, "testing the waters " to find something that worked as a partnership between four schools and the polytechnic, Mr Ker said.
"We'll provide the facility and the schools will provide the salaries, and we'll see if it works out and then gauge whether to put in a submission for a trades academy for Dunedin."
