The New Zealand Herald reported this week that the government has approved fast-track funding, and a law change, for a world-first “tertiary high school” to be located at the Manukau Institute of Technology’s Otara campus.

The school will take 80 to 100 students a year, to start training towards technical and vocational qualifications. It will require legislative changes because most year 11 students are under the school leaving age of 16.

MIT executive director of external relations Dr Stuart Middleton said the school would be a collaboration between MIT and 24 high schools in South Auckland.

Education minister Anne Tolley confirmed at the weekend launch of the Youth Guarantee Scheme that the new school would open in February.

“While similar to trades academies, this initiative is on a faster track and will involve shared funding arrangements between tertiary and schooling funding streams,” she said.

Dr Middleton said the school would be a world first. “There is no programme quite like it that I’m aware of. They do have similar initiatives in America, but they tend not to work collaboratively with the schools. They compete with them.”

A major problem in New Zealand was that students had been fully-funded as long as they stayed at conventional high schools, but then faced student fees to study at tertiary institutes. This will change under the new “youth guarantee” policy, which will provide free places at tertiary institutes for students aged 16 and 17.