National says it will return autonomy and independence to the Southern Institute of Technology, as well as other the other institutes and polytechnics around the country, if elected to govern this September.

During a tour of SIT's nursing campus this morning, National’s Education spokesperson Nikki Kaye and Tertiary Education spokesperson Dr Shane Reti announced the party's plans to re-establish  the polytechics as independent legal entities to ensure that "industry training is led by industry, not government" – all within the first 100 days of taking office.

Earlier this year, the government announced that all 16 of the existing institutes of technology/polytechnics (ITPs), would become subsidiaries of a new and larger entity, called the 'New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology' (NZIST).

The new system came into effect on April 1, when the new legislation – the Education (Vocational Education and Training) Amendment Bill – was enacted.

The Tertiary Education Commission’s website says this new system will create a "unified vocational education system, [which] will bring together industry and educators to make sure New Zealand’s workforce is fit for today’s needs and tomorrow’s expectations."

However, National has been strongly opposed to this reform, saying the government’s “expensive and disruptive restructuring plan is a massive over-reaction to the issue of Institutes of Technology and Polytechnic’s financial sustainability.”

Following today’s tour, Ms Kaye said the SIT had been one of the top performing polytechnics in the country and deserved to keep the profits it had worked hard to generate.

"This means that more than $40 million of [SIT] assets that have been worked hard [for] by the community, National is guaranteeing that those assets will stay with the community," Ms Kaye said.

However, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today that National’s claims that the merger would be damaging for ITPs and regional economies was “full of mistruths and falsehoods”.

“This is a desperate throwback and would be a momentum killer at a time when New Zealand is ramping up training,” he said.

“We’re giving industry and the regions like Southland more say. Southland will keep its assets and there will be more courses available for learners.”

He said Labour was also investing half a billion dollars in free apprenticeships and courses, and in supporting businesses to keep apprentices on.

“It’s increasingly obvious that National’s policy cupboard is bare. There’s no innovation, no new ideas and no energy,” he said.

During the tour, Dr Reti acknowledged that across the polytechnic sector some polytechnics had "struggled" financially and had also struggled under the leadership of National.

He said the focus should be on replicating "the magic" of what SIT created and applying it to the underperforming polytechnics to copy.

"SIT is the flagship polytechnic in our view... why would you want to change that? It wasn't broken it didn't need fixing," he said.

"[The question is] what magic from SIT can we sprinkle on the other ITP'S to make them as successful as what SIT has been?"

Dr Reti and Ms Kaye toured the nursing campus of Southern Institute of Technology, alongside National MP Hamish Walker and National Invercargill candidate Penny Simmonds.

Mrs Simmonds, who has temporarily stepped down from her position of SIT chief executive to run her campaign for the Invercargill seat, said she was pleased that National was listening to the voices of the Invercargill people who sent in “hundreds of submissions,” against SIT losing its independence to the reform.

Dr Reti said there would be a financial burden to disestablish the new national vocational system,which would likely be in the "one's of millions [of dollars].”

Ms Kaye said the plan was to utilise some of the $700 million that the government has set aside for the education reforms to pay for this cost.

She said this was not about National “just undoing these reforms because they are done by the government,” it was about setting the country up for success in a new economic post COVID-19 climate.

"We are now in a time where New Zealanders are facing an incredibly deep recession. We know many of our institutions have taken a massive hit as a result of not being able to have international students."

However, Dr Reti acknowledged funding for the other under-performing polytechnics was still a concern.

Dr Reti responded to questions about what would happen to the other polytechnics around the country that had been struggling if they were to go back to being independent.

He said due to increasing unemployment as a result of COVID-19, tertiary enrolments were expected to rise, bringing in more revenue for ITP'S around the country as people looked to up-skill when they were out of a job.

"What we know is that for every 1% of unemployment you get what's called the counter 'counter cyclic' [trend] where people return to the tertiary sector because they're not in work anymore."

"More numbers, more funding so [the ITP'S] balance sheet looks better." But he said there would still be the issue of creating efficiency within the under-performing polytechnics which "will need to be looked at."

During the tour, SIT's head of nursing Johanna Rhodes and Bachelor of Nursing Year 2 programme manager Karyn Madden, showed the group through the nursing campus, where they met and spoke with nursing students and tested out the new 'Hololens' augmented reality headsets -- which SIT has been using as the latest training tools for nursing students.

SIT has been among the very first in New Zealand to embrace cutting-edge technology such as augmented reality for training students and says its continued investment in technology ensures its students receive one of the most contemporary education experiences currently available.