About Us

PINZ focuses on projects that seek to strengthen individual and institutional capacities through: review, technical assistance and training. PINZ has a long history of providing effective education, HRD, and TVET consultancy services. A large part of our services are aimed at strengthening the capacity of government organisations, enabling them to promote more effective tertiary education systems. We also look to build inter-institutional linkages between New Zealand government institutes and overseas tertiary providers.

PINZ is owned by a consortium of the major government tertiary sector institutions in New Zealand, including institutes of technology and polytechnics, colleges of education (teacher training institutions) and universities. Our services span all aspects of education from early childhood through to tertiary. For a current list of PINZ shareholders and member institutions click here.

PINZ draws on the experience of the tertiary sector in New Zealand, and an extensive base of international consultants.

Establishment of PINZ

In the early 1990s the New Zealand Education System went through extensive reforms, including devolution of responsibility for institutional management and education delivery to individual institutions. A significant aspect of these reforms was the ability for government tertiary institutions to establish business enterprises to promote their services.

An initiative resulting from this commercial freedom was the establishment of Polytechnics International New Zealand Limited (PINZ), in 1994. PINZ was set up by a consortium of institutions from the New Zealand TVET sector, as an international consultancy company, which aimed to utilise the extensive human and physical resources of the consortium on education, training and social infrastructure projects.

This consortium now consists of 20 educational institutions and includes institutes of technology, polytechnics and universities.