Taranaki businesses to benefit from new agreement

A new partnership between Massey University and Venture Taranaki was signed in New Plymouth on Wednesday.

The aim of the partnership is to foster businesses in the region and expand on longstanding research, teaching and alumni connections.

About 80 business people and Massey's senior management team attended the event.

Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey said Massey would do much more than enrol students. “It’s just not enough," he said. "We have to do a whole lot more as a University with the knowledge we have and make it useful for the region. The challenge is to see how we can support new businesses, and grow existing ones.”

Venture Taranaki chief executive Stuart Trundle welcomed the partnership as an opportunity to attract and retain a skilled and talented workforce to the region, which has about 14,000 businesses. It would help translate the region's economic strategy from ideas into action. “We can take one step forward by bringing the Massey University into Taranaki.”

A key outcome of the partnership, developed over several months with a range of Taranaki companies will be a newly appointed Massey staff member in Taranaki who will manage and develop joint initiatives between the university and the region’s businesses.

Massey has about 1000 students currently enrolled from Taranaki at its Albany, Manawatü and Wellington campuses or as distance learners. About 3000 of its more than 100,000 alumni live in Taranaki.