QRC Te Tai Tokerau closing after decade as Northland's top hospitality training provider

Northland's top hospitality training provider is about to close its doors, leaving hotels scrambling for staff and forcing school leavers to travel long distances to seek qualifications.

QRC Te Tai Tokerau opened in Paihia in 2016 as a satellite campus of Queenstown Resort College.

More than 1000 young people have graduated with hospitality qualifications since then, many going on to forge successful careers.

The students are accommodated in a lodge with full pastoral care a few blocks from the school.

QRC chief executive Charlie Phillips said the school itself was running well, but it had become increasingly challenging to operate the student lodge.

The slow post-Covid recovery was another factor.

With 10-year leases for both the school buildings and the lodge coming up for renewal, the college had to make a call about whether to keep the Paihia campus open.

"We had a commitment there. We gave it 10 years, and we're just in a position where we had to renew long-term commercial commitments."

Phillips said the college believed it could be just as effective providing courses from its Queenstown base, and offering about 25 scholarships a year to ensure study remained accessible to young Northlanders.

When the Paihia campus first opened most students were young Māori from rural Northland.

More recently, students had been drawn from every corner of the North Island, but about a third of the roll continued to be made up of Northlanders.

"It was very much a social enterprise that we embarked on, and it was marginal. So it could show a small profit or a loss on any given year, depending on the circumstances," he said.

"And the truth is, recovering from the disruption of the pandemic was difficult. We gave it five years post-pandemic to see if we could build it up. The college itself operated really well, but the residential accommodation that we offered became challenging."

Phillips said he was sorry to be leaving the North.

"We've really enjoyed the way that the community has embraced us and welcomed us, and we've enjoyed adding value to it over the last 10 years. And yeah, I'm sad about it, it was certainly a passion project, and we feel really proud of what we achieved."

Phillips said the college had tried to find partners or a buyer to keep the Paihia campus open.

"We would've been happy to take on some partners or to transition into new ownership, but that just wasn't to be. So we felt it was the appropriate thing to merge the campuses."

Setback for region

The co-owner of the Duke of Marlborough Hotel in Russell, Riki Kinnaird said the closure was a huge blow to the region.

It came at the same time as Northland's biggest vocational training institute, the Whangārei-based NorthTec, faced an uncertain future amid government reform of the nation's polytechnics.

Kinnaird said QRC students did some of their training at the Duke, and provided a steady stream of workers of the age and experience level the hotel needed in large numbers.

"And the students are good. They're well trained, polite, and if they finish their course, they've got a good start in life and we know they'll stick to task."

While young Northlanders would still be able to study at QRC in Queenstown, for some families that could be too great a barrier, he said.

"It's not just about the course. Paihia is centrally located, it has accommodation, and the pastoral care that it provides our people gives faith to mum and dad that their kids are looked after. That's a really big deal, and moving away from our region is scary, especially for people who are rural and not used to busy-ness."

Kinnaird said he was deeply concerned for Northland's future if the region lost both QRC and NorthTec.

"If NorthTec goes by the wayside as well, because they're next cab off the rank, and they're looking at their own model, then Tai Tokerau [Northland] is in a really bad place for education beyond high school," he said.

"I'm worried that it'll become too hard and kids just give up and parents give up. We need NorthTec, and we need QRC, and we need them doing well and playing their part in the ecosystem. It's a worse place without them."

However, Kinnaird said he understood the problems QRC was up against.

"I do get it, at some point their business model has to be commercial and be profitable. There are ways to make it work, but it's just too hard at the moment."

Kinnaird said QRC's leadership would also be missed, with Phillips playing an important role during Covid in retaining and upskilling staff across Northland's hospitality industry.

"Losing that kind of leadership and direction is a big deal. They're good people. Charlie and his team will be hard to replace."

Focus Paihia community trust chairperson Pete Robinson said the town would lose more than just educational opportunities.

As part of their studies, QRC students were required to do volunteer work, and had given many hundreds of hours to Rotary projects around the Bay of Islands.

Nine students had signed up for a community working bee this coming weekend, he said.

"They're a great asset to the town," Robinson said.

The impeccably turned-out students also brought life and vibrancy to the town.

"I like their style, the fact they are always smartly dressed. I can't think of any interaction I've had with any of the students that's been anything other than very positive."

The final cohort of about 80 QRC Te Tai Tokerau students will graduate in March next year.

Meanwhile, NorthTec, Northland's biggest vocational training provider, last week released a new strategy document as it fights for survival, with feedback open until 31 October.

The Whangārei-based institute had been rolled into the previous government's mega-polytechnic Te Pūkenga.

Under the current government's de-merger, 10 polytechnics have been returned to local governance, but the future of training institutes in four regions - Northland, Taranaki, Wellington and West Coast - will be decided next year.

They have until then to prove they can be viable as stand-alone institutes.

A restructuring process involving staff and course cuts is continuing at NorthTec, though it has backed away from initial plans to axe training in forestry and primary industries.

Close to 100 people attended another "Save NorthTec Hui" on Monday called by former student and tutor Hūhana Lyndon, now a Green MP.

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