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Chief Executive’s ReportWelTec touches the lives of manypeople. Our reach goes far beyondstudents and staff, it extends outinto the wider community, as well asinto the businesses and industry thatdepend on our projects, graduatesand research for their own success.We have a major impact on the country’s economy, deliveringmany of the people, knowledge and skills that build and sustain ourcountry.So, while we are proud of all we’ve achieved in 2012, we share oursuccesses and achievements with a large number of stakeholders.We again owe a debt of gratitude to the iwi, businesses and otherstakeholders who partner with us so that our students can havepositive outcomes.Our Educational Performance Indicators, which are covered in detaillater in this report, are very positive. Provisional TEC results for 2012show WelTec has the second highest course completion rates of allITPs at 81 percent. This is an outstanding result and I congratulateall academic staff and those staff providing services and supportto students, particularly the student mentoring and Tamaiti Whangaistaff.Te Runanganui o Taranaki Whanui continued to play a key role inengaging young Maori in tertiary education in the Hutt Valley andprovided valuable input to the Chief Executive’s office and TamaitiWhangai team.Pasifika Church Ministers from the Wellington region joined withWelTec and Whitireia to support Pasifika scholarship students whowere entering tertiary education for the first time under a new TECfunded initiative.Chief Executive of Business New Zealand Phil O’Reilly spoke ata breakfast we hosted in May 2012. He congratulated us on thethings that we are doing in Wellington and the Hutt Valley. Henoted that WelTec is very adept at playing in the real world andthat polytechnics are a safe place for business. We are local andcan take science, technology, engineering and maths into practicalcontexts. He commended WelTec’s contribution to assistingbusiness get strategic and lead innovation. We also believe that iswhere our strengths lie.Strategic Partnership with WhitireiaThe Strategic Partnership with Whitireia has established a combinedCouncil and Academic Board. Drawing on the strengths of bothinstitutes we are able to give students easier access to a diverserange of programmes. Nine key projects were agreed for 2012.Excellent progress was made on all projects with staff from bothinstitutes working together to establish and deliver project outcomes.Dr Peter Coolbear was appointed to the role of independent Chairof the Combined Academic Board. Peter is the Director of AkoAotearoa, New Zealand’s National Centre for Tertiary TeachingExcellence. Ako Aotearoa’s vision is to contribute to the bestpossible educational outcomes for all learners which is exactly whatthe Combined Academic Board will be focused on through theestablishment of new collaborative relationships.Reaching beyond our shoresIn 2012 we signed an agreement with Guangxi Polytechnic ofConstruction (GPC) in China. GPC is a highly respected andspecialised construction school offering three-year diplomas inarchitectural technology, quantity surveying, civil engineering,landscape design, public utility (water, gas, and transportation),construction management, interior design and IT.Under the agreement, students will spend two years studying inChina and then move to New Zealand to complete the last yearof WelTec’s New Zealand Diploma in Engineering (Civil) and theDiploma in Creative Technologies. This is an exciting arrangementthat will see the joint development of curriculum and the exchange ofstaff and students between the two institutes from 2014.We were invited back to Hong Kong Cyberport in 2012 to delivera creative technologies programme. Cyberport is a creative digitalcommunity, owned by the Hong Kong Government, that nurturesstart-ups. The relationship has the potential to attract even morestudents in the future, as well as a unique teaching and learningexperience for WelTec tutorsTechnology Transfer VouchersThrough our subsidiary, WelTec Connect Limited, we gained threenew technology transfer vouchers. Technology transfer vouchersallow accredited institutes of technology or polytechnics [ITPs] tomake a positive contribution to the research and development ofexisting industries and to the growth of new industries.These three projects gained from a range of our services, includingIT programming, digital media, process and product developmentas well as business and capability development. They provide animportant opportunity for WelTec staff, students and internationalstudent interns to work on projects with industry alongside WelTecConnect’s staff.2012 ANNUAL REPORT | 23