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Chief Executive, Liam Sloan, said, “The visit was a great opportunity for Minister Hipkins to see first hand the achievement of NMIT learners and the programmes and facilities that directly help regional growth.”
NMIT’s domestic student numbers are up 2% on last year and domestic enrolments for 2019 are already 14% ahead of 2018 and 31% ahead of 2017.
After a short mihi, Minister Hipkins visited students in the simulation suite that is part of the Nursing Clinical Practice Unit. Second year nursing student, Abbey Mcarley, said that being able to learn on the high tech mannequin for the medical and surgical course was “really, really good because I went out on placement and some of the scenarios we had practised we saw in real life.”
First year nursing student, Olivia Morrison, said she has used it for assessment and it was very useful to hear abnormal respiratory sounds because when they practised on each other, it just sounded normal. Acting Executive Director – Learning, Innovation and Delivery, Susannah Roddick, said the suite is also used by Nelson Marlborough Health to simulate high stress scenarios for junior doctors and house surgeons to practise in a safe environment.
The minister discussed student presidency and the learner voice with SANITI Student President, Abbey Patterson. He shared is experiences as a student president at Victoria University of Wellington in 2000 and 2001.
Minister Hipkins also visited the International Maritime Institute of New Zealand at NMIT. He watched learners in an engine room and bridge simulator scenario. NMIT has a strong partnership with Norwegian company Kongsberg that means the equipment learners’ use is learning edge and future focused.
The minister skippered a ferry in the Kongsberg Bridge Simulator suite into Wellington Harbour. "That was awesome," he said. When the minister isn’t skippering it, the simulator is used to train fishing boat mates, skippers, harbour pilots, and deck watch officers on merchant ships and superyachts.
The minister also had a brief chat with international Maritime learners. NMIT is forecasting a 10% increase in international learners at NMIT for 2019.