Celebrating 40 years
Comcol New Zealand
Kia ora, Talofa lava.
"Creating better lives for our community"
Celebrating Comcol’s 40 years – the brief story of the past, present and future
For forty years Community Colleges New Zealand has been pioneering, innovating, and delivering our vision of ‘creating better lives for our community.’ In July 1983 this organisation started out, literally in the back of a bike shed on the grounds opposite Rangiora High School. It was a very humble beginning.
Two local businessmen Tony Hall and Alex Murray set up the Rangiora Enterprise Trust in association with the Rangiora Borough Council. In addition to running their own businesses and managing family commitments, they had recognised a looming national crisis of high unemployment would need a local response. Following Tony’s time of living in the UK in the 1970’s when the economic impacts of the global oil crisis affected communities, he had gained knowledge and contacts to help innovate a local solution. They based their model on the Scottish Enterprise Trust and began to provide training courses to meet their communities’ need for vocational skills and pastoral care. Horticulture and bee keeping were the first courses that started in July 1983.
With immediate success and then securing interest from government to fund their training programmes, they formed the Rangiora Training Institute, in collaboration with Rangiora High School and the community.
Expanding further with hospitality, commercial skills, computing, tourism, outdoor recreation, trades and sport programmes, they also created the tasks and learning modules for each programme. This preceded NZQA’s qualification standards. They were pioneers for a movement of empowering people to gain work skills and qualifications in hands-on learning environments.
Recognising Tony’s practitioner’s influence on vocational education he was invited and served as a board member of the NZQA Board from 1992 to 1999, as commissioner for the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission from 2002 to 2003, and as a commissioner for the Tertiary Education Commission from 2009 to 2012.
During the late eighties and nineties the organisation evolved, becoming The Academy Group (NZ) Ltd operating in both the North and South Island. In 2001, the business partnership became two separate entities. Alec retained the North Island and Christchurch locations as Academy Group and Tony established Community Colleges New Zealand Ltd (CCNZ) to operate in Marlborough, North and South Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
In 2004 Tony began the process to establish charitable status (for CCNZ) and in 2007 transferred his private ownership to a registered charitable organisation (CC10303). The team continued to provide vocational education programmes, under MSD’s Access programme and then TEC’s Youth Guarantee fees-free programme.
In 2012 Comcol successfully tendered for and began delivering MSD’s Youth Service contract throughout its South Island locations; Rangiora - North Canterbury, Christchurch, Timaru - South Canterbury, Dunedin - Otago and Invercargill - Southland (and in Marlborough and Nelson up until 2019).
Our dedicated Comcol team of youth coaches and support staff touch the lives of close to 1000 young people and their whānau each year. They work actively and intensively to identify an individual's goals and the best path to reach them. Guiding young people with tailored support and practical tools such as budgeting, parenting courses, drivers licences, and supporting options for education, work-based training and employment is impactful. Changing lives from a dependence trajectory to empowerment has many positive effects for our communities. Our delivery of the Youth Service contract successfully helps young people gain independence and success.
For forty years, our team; Tony (1983 to current), Doug Reid (1987 to current), Beryl Wilcox (1998 - 2017), Virginia Archer (1997 - 2019), Andrea Armstrong (1997 to current) and Kate O’Connor (1999 to current) supported by a wonderful team of dedicated people, have positively advocated for the needs of Aotearoa’s foundation learners. They have made many representations in Wellington to policy makers and politicians, been involved in advisory groups and research activity and always strived to provide a voice representing better outcomes for foundation learners.
However, over the years the delivery of education to meet the needs of foundation learners steadily became burdened by government policy along with increasingly restrictive eligibility and compliance. There was no room for pastoral care, adventure-based learning, and an individual needs approach. In late 2021 the difficult and sad decision to suspend our youth education delivery under the fees-free Youth Guarantee programme was made.
While immensely disappointed to suspend the Youth Guarantee programme, we believed we could successfully demonstrate a needs-based model of vocational education. Following on from late 2021 our North Canterbury team has been forming connections in our community to find out what would help young people succeed, as we no longer had a vocational education provider in our region. How could we ‘make the rungs of the ladder close together so they could achieve success?’ What could we create and do differently with the freedom to start afresh?
At the beginning of 2023 we commenced a 12 week , three days a week, GROW programme for 15 to 24 years, focusing on Goals, Resilience, Opportunities and Wellbeing. We are also establishing a community native nursery on our whenua in Rangiora, which will involve our young people, providing them with education and work-place learning opportunities, taking them closer to nature and building work-ready relevant skills for food, fibre, sustainability and nature-based jobs.
We are coming full circle and returning to land-based activities in Rangiora along with applying sustainable practices across all our Comcol locations, and we strongly believe it is the right thing to do. We will continue to innovate and respond to the needs of our community and our environment for the greater good of people and climate change in Aotearoa.
Our mahi can be both challenging and rewarding – we are here to change lives for people, whānau and community, for the better. Our whakataukī reflects our vision, focus and values; “Poipoia te kākano kia puawai – Nurture the seed and it will blossom.”
Thank you for being an important part of our forty-year journey.
For forty years Community Colleges New Zealand has been pioneering, innovating, and delivering our vision of ‘creating better lives for our community.’ In July 1983 this organisation started out, literally in the back of a bike shed on the grounds opposite Rangiora High School. It was a very humble beginning.
Two local businessmen Tony Hall and Alex Murray set up the Rangiora Enterprise Trust in association with the Rangiora Borough Council. In addition to running their own businesses and managing family commitments, they had recognised a looming national crisis of high unemployment would need a local response. Following Tony’s time of living in the UK in the 1970’s when the economic impacts of the global oil crisis affected communities, he had gained knowledge and contacts to help innovate a local solution. They based their model on the Scottish Enterprise Trust and began to provide training courses to meet their communities’ need for vocational skills and pastoral care. Horticulture and bee keeping were the first courses that started in July 1983.
With immediate success and then securing interest from government to fund their training programmes, they formed the Rangiora Training Institute, in collaboration with Rangiora High School and the community.
Expanding further with hospitality, commercial skills, computing, tourism, outdoor recreation, trades and sport programmes, they also created the tasks and learning modules for each programme. This preceded NZQA’s qualification standards. They were pioneers for a movement of empowering people to gain work skills and qualifications in hands-on learning environments.
Recognising Tony’s practitioner’s influence on vocational education he was invited and served as a board member of the NZQA Board from 1992 to 1999, as commissioner for the Tertiary Education Advisory Commission from 2002 to 2003, and as a commissioner for the Tertiary Education Commission from 2009 to 2012.
During the late eighties and nineties the organisation evolved, becoming The Academy Group (NZ) Ltd operating in both the North and South Island. In 2001, the business partnership became two separate entities. Alec retained the North Island and Christchurch locations as Academy Group and Tony established Community Colleges New Zealand Ltd (CCNZ) to operate in Marlborough, North and South Canterbury, Otago and Southland.
In 2004 Tony began the process to establish charitable status (for CCNZ) and in 2007 transferred his private ownership to a registered charitable organisation (CC10303). The team continued to provide vocational education programmes, under MSD’s Access programme and then TEC’s Youth Guarantee fees-free programme.
In 2012 Comcol successfully tendered for and began delivering MSD’s Youth Service contract throughout its South Island locations; Rangiora - North Canterbury, Christchurch, Timaru - South Canterbury, Dunedin - Otago and Invercargill - Southland (and in Marlborough and Nelson up until 2019).
Our dedicated Comcol team of youth coaches and support staff touch the lives of close to 1000 young people and their whānau each year. They work actively and intensively to identify an individual's goals and the best path to reach them. Guiding young people with tailored support and practical tools such as budgeting, parenting courses, drivers licences, and supporting options for education, work-based training and employment is impactful. Changing lives from a dependence trajectory to empowerment has many positive effects for our communities. Our delivery of the Youth Service contract successfully helps young people gain independence and success.
For forty years, our team; Tony (1983 to current), Doug Reid (1987 to current), Beryl Wilcox (1998 - 2017), Virginia Archer (1997 - 2019), Andrea Armstrong (1997 to current) and Kate O’Connor (1999 to current) supported by a wonderful team of dedicated people, have positively advocated for the needs of Aotearoa’s foundation learners. They have made many representations in Wellington to policy makers and politicians, been involved in advisory groups and research activity and always strived to provide a voice representing better outcomes for foundation learners.
However, over the years the delivery of education to meet the needs of foundation learners steadily became burdened by government policy along with increasingly restrictive eligibility and compliance. There was no room for pastoral care, adventure-based learning, and an individual needs approach. In late 2021 the difficult and sad decision to suspend our youth education delivery under the fees-free Youth Guarantee programme was made.
While immensely disappointed to suspend the Youth Guarantee programme, we believed we could successfully demonstrate a needs-based model of vocational education. Following on from late 2021 our North Canterbury team has been forming connections in our community to find out what would help young people succeed, as we no longer had a vocational education provider in our region. How could we ‘make the rungs of the ladder close together so they could achieve success?’ What could we create and do differently with the freedom to start afresh?
At the beginning of 2023 we commenced a 12 week , three days a week, GROW programme for 15 to 24 years, focusing on Goals, Resilience, Opportunities and Wellbeing. We are also establishing a community native nursery on our whenua in Rangiora, which will involve our young people, providing them with education and work-place learning opportunities, taking them closer to nature and building work-ready relevant skills for food, fibre, sustainability and nature-based jobs.
We are coming full circle and returning to land-based activities in Rangiora along with applying sustainable practices across all our Comcol locations, and we strongly believe it is the right thing to do. We will continue to innovate and respond to the needs of our community and our environment for the greater good of people and climate change in Aotearoa.
Our mahi can be both challenging and rewarding – we are here to change lives for people, whānau and community, for the better. Our whakataukī reflects our vision, focus and values; “Poipoia te kākano kia puawai – Nurture the seed and it will blossom.”
Thank you for being an important part of our forty-year journey.
"We’ve helped thousands of rangatahi gain qualifications, life skills and confidence through our practical hands-on mahi and awesome dedicated staff"
Kate O'Connor
General Manager
Kate O'Connor
General Manager
Mission, Vision & Values
Our mission is to provide an environment that creates opportunities for success in education, employment, wellbeing, and sustainability.
Our vision is creating better lives for our community.
Our values guide how we behave and act as we provide a nurturing environment to guide rangatahi on a positive pathway in education, employment and personal wellbeing.
We recognise the diversity of each other and our communities, and we all have something to share and learn from each other. We care about everyone's health and happiness, and ensuring sustainability for future generations.
Our vision is creating better lives for our community.
Our values guide how we behave and act as we provide a nurturing environment to guide rangatahi on a positive pathway in education, employment and personal wellbeing.
We recognise the diversity of each other and our communities, and we all have something to share and learn from each other. We care about everyone's health and happiness, and ensuring sustainability for future generations.
“People first….the staff and rangatahi and having the ability to be the reason change happens. Making a positive difference in people’s lives. We don’t just talk about stuff, we get stuck in and get it done.”
Comcol Team Leader
