NEWS

It was a real pleasure to get back on campus in mid May after the COVID-19 lockdown period but we acknowledge what a privileged position we are in, in comparison to the many businesses that have suffered over the lockdown period. SIT was extremely well set up for remote learning with our SIT2LRN distance delivery unit that has operated since 2003, and we were able to move most of our programmes to distance delivery relatively smoothly in comparison to many other tertiary education providers. That doesn’t mean that staff and students had it easy over the lockdown. Many staff had to put in a lot of extra work to adapt to the different delivery format and ensure students continued to engage in their studies. Students unfamiliar with distance learning had to make significant adjustments to their learning style also. But in general our developments in distance delivery which started back in 2003 and have evolved with technology over the past 17 years, put us in a very good position to carry out our core functions remotely.

SIT derives approximately 65 – 70 % of our income from Government funding and the bulk of the remaining income is from international students. Thankfully we had a significant number of international students already at SIT by the time the borders closed and so while we will be around $1.5m behind our forecast income from international students we have avoided a more major impact for this year.

Our key focus is now on working with our community to support the economic recovery. 

We have moved quickly to work with the Agricultural and Forestry industries to help address looming skill shortages by providing awareness promotion and short training programmes for recently redundant workers from particularly the tourism and hospitality sectors. We are well placed to take additional students into all the trades programmes that are being made available free of charge to assist with retraining and upskilling for employment.

We are working to get international students into the country with strict quarantine rules to bring much needed additional spending power into our local communities and businesses.

We are continuing with the development of our St John’s Centre for the Creative Industries, a $16m project that will ensure 18 months of construction work. And we have applied to the “shovel ready infrastructure fund” for support for our $23m Kelvin St Apartment complex which would give another boost to the construction industry over the 2021 and 2022 years, and support the Invercargill CBD upgrade if it is approved.

The Southland and wider Southern communities, and SIT, have worked collaboratively to good effect over the past 2 decades and we are familiar with having to work through difficult times together. We are committed to continuing that partnership.

On a personal level, many of you will be aware that I have recently been selected as the National Party candidate for the Invercargill electorate for the upcoming election. To ensure a clear separation between my campaign and my SIT duties, I will be on leave from SIT from the end of June until the election, at which time, depending on the electorate results, I will either be resigning to take up the role of Invercargill Electorate MP or returning to my SIT Chief Executive duties.

Kind regards

Penny Simmonds