The Gateway funding mechanism is issued by the Minister responsible for tertiary education. The funding mechanism outlines the general form and essential components of the fund. It provides the mandate for us to allocate the funding and what the funding can be used for, and details how we administer the fund.

Funding is agreed off-Plan via a funding confirmation letter. A school that receives Gateway funding is required to:

• comply with the requirements of the Education Act 1989, and
• comply with the conditions specified in its funding letter.

We provide Gateway funding so schools can meet the costs of arranging and managing workplace learning for enrolled students, including workplace assessment.

A school can either manage the Gateway programme itself, or use a broker to provide all or part of the programme on its behalf.

While a school may use the funding to meet the costs of a broker, Gateway funding is not to be used to pay for students to attend courses provided by tertiary education organisations. The value of the programme lies in the way it supports students’ transition into the workplace .

Accessing Gateway funding

If your school doesn’t receive Gateway funding currently, and is interested in doing so, please submit an application to us before 31 August.

To apply, complete the Gateway Funding Application Form (Word, 35 Kb).

Please also read these web pages and the Gateway Handbook (PDF, 792 Kb) about ensuring that your school delivers a high-quality Gateway programme.

We consider applications in September for funding for the following calendar year. As we have a limited amount of funding to allocate, we consider an application from a new school only if sufficient funding is available.

Please contact our Customer Contact Group to find out more about how to apply.   

Funding allocation 

When allocating Gateway funding, we consider:

• whether a school is eligible
• the appropriate number of Gateway students for the school, based on previous delivery levels, and
• average unit standard credit achievement by students on the Gateway programmes the school offers. 

Gateway funding is allocated per place on a sliding scale – as the number of places increases, the amount of funding per place decreases.

For more details see the Gateway Handbook (PDF, 792 Kb).

2020 funding per place

The first place is funded at $2,895.00 and 85 or more places are funded at $1,041.00 per place (excluding GST). 

Full details of the payment rates are available in Gateway – 2020 funding rate sliding scale (Excel, 20 Kb).

2021 funding per place

Full details of the payment rates are available in Gateway – 2020 funding rate sliding scale (Excel, 20 Kb).

These rates include a general 1.6% increase to funding for 2021. 

Decreasing your funded Gateway places 

You can ask to reduce your funded Gateway places if you are likely to enrol fewer students in the programme than you agreed to.

If your school knows it won’t use all of its Gateway allocation for a particular year, please contact the Customer Contact Group as soon as you can.

To apply for a reduction in Gateway places, complete our Proposal for decreased places form (Word, 40 Kb) and email it to our Customer Contact Group. 

Gateway funding is paid in monthly instalments. The payment amounts are in equal instalments from January to June, and in equal instalments from July to December.

Our approach to calculating your 2021 indicative allocation for Gateway

2021 Gateway indicative allocations

Purpose of Gateway funding

The purpose of the Gateway Fund is to support school students’ transition into the workforce by offering them workplace learning while at secondary school. Gateway programmes are based on a formal agreement and  individualised learning plans between the school, the student and the workplace.

How we calculated your 2021 indicative allocation for Gateway

The information below provides a summary of how your indicative allocation was calculated. For more details regarding your specific allocation, please contact customerservice@tec.govt.nz or your Relationship Manager.

Starting point

To determine the starting point for calculating your 2021 indicative allocation we compared your 2019 actual Gateway delivery with your 2020 allocation.

Note: Your 2019 actual delivery has been adjusted for any additional funding provided (including flexible funding), funding rate increases, and significant policy changes. Your reviewed 2020 allocation includes Plan changes and excludes one-off adjustments. We make these adjustments to ensure we are accurately comparing your 2019 actual delivery with your 2020 allocation, in dollar terms.

If your 2019 actual delivery was below 95%, we used the lesser of either your:

• 2019 actual delivery to learners, or
• 2020 allocated learner places

If your 2019 actual delivery was 95% or above, we used you:

• 2020 allocated learner places

If you delivered Gateway for the first time in either 2019 or 2020, we used your:

• 2020 allocated learner places

Determining your final 2021 funding allocation

To determine your final 2021 allocation, we will consider the following information in our assessment and/or engagements with you:

• Your actual delivery of learners as submitted through the December 2019 actual delivery report, and
• Your year-to-date 2020 delivery and any further rate increases.

Next, we consider your Gateway 2019 average credit achievement per distinct learner

If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was zero or if you did not report any Actuals for 2019:

• Your 2021 initial allocation is zero.
  • If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was greater than zero but fewer than 10
• Your 2021 initial allocation was reduced by 25 percent from your starting point.
  • If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was 10 or greater, but fewer than 18
• Your 2021 initial allocated learner places were reduced by 15 percent from your starting point.
  • If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was 18 or greater, but fewer than 20
• Your 2021 initial allocated learner places were reduced by 5 percent from your starting point.
  • If your average credit achievement per distinct learner was 20 or greater
• Your 2021 initial allocated learner places was 100% of your starting point.

How we will calculate any recoveries for 2019 Gateway funding

We will recover funding if you deliver less than 100% of your allocated Gateway funding. We will recover the difference between the value of actual delivery and 100% of allocated Gateway funding.

Recoveries are based on:

• your most recent actual delivery volume data (total number of distinct learner places), submitted through Workspace2. 

If we are satisfied on reasonable grounds that a school has not met or is not meeting the conditions on funding we may revoke or suspend the funding under section 159ZF of the Education Act 1989.