The Waikato Institute of Technology has partnered with the Ngati Hei Trust to open the first satellite campus in Whitianga in years.

Wintec is one of New Zealand's largest and leading Institutes of Technology with 840 staff and 20,000 students studying degree programmes, diplomas and postgraduate qualifications annually.

Described as a ‘seedling' of a much bigger commitment to the community, a small group of horticulture students have started tuition at the Rural and Community Services Building on a waterfront site on Buffalo Beach Road.

The site is due to pass into the ownership of Ngati Hei Trust as part of the Treaty of Waitangi Treaty settlements.

The classroom is operating in currently unused buildings and over a large area of former community gardens that were, up until just a week ago, completely covered in weeds.

The course's head tutor is Hot Water Beach resident Howard Saunders, who has more than 40 years' experience in the industry and once held the title of our district's acting Head Gardener.

Howard says the organisation is grateful for the opportunity to provide higher education in the community on such a highly valuable and sought-after site. Under his tutorship, an area has already been cleared and planted with a first row of crops on the site.

'This is prime real estate, and while up until recently it was all outgoings, Ngati Hei now get a small amount of income but have immediately chosen to do something that really helps the community.”

The programme includes daily 'hands-on” skill development and is based on research with industry about what they needed from graduates.

It covers soil science, plant establishment, weed identification and control, and foundation skills for continued specialist study including a second term Applied Horticulture Services course specialising in Landscape Construction, which begins in July.

The current horticulture general course teaches students how to grow native plants from seed and gives them the foundation skills to develop horticulture projects in their community, including ecological restoration.

Ngati Hei spokesman Joe Davis says the course is something they've been trying to get going for many years.

'This is a [nationally recognised] course that is about horticulture, our wetlands; it's about our coasts, our water quality, our harbours, our streams – it's all connected.

'As Howard says, we are saving the planet one tree at a time. It's a priority that we should all be taking.”

Howard's experience includes planting the Coromandel's biggest wetland restoration – on private land at Hot Water Beach - and major town centre upgrades and commercial landscaping projects from early planning to installation.

The horticulture Level 3 students are among a number being taught the course at campuses at Hamilton Gardens and other satellite sites at Huntly and Springhill Prison.

A Level 2 course was first taught by Wintec in Thames in the past few years a Level Four course in 2015. Enrolment numbers were twice that anticipated, allowing two courses to run simultaneously in Thames as well as Coromandel Town in 2015.

Wintec Horticulture offsite programme co-ordinator Fiona Taylor says they decided not everything needs to be on the coast of the Coromandel, so put this programme together with the best elements from the previous programmes and with Howard Saunders as the main tutor.

She says while the 16-week Whitianga-based horticulture course has begun, there are still a few limited places for students who would be able to enrol by the end of the week.

Wintec encourages anyone interested to contact Howard or Fiona on [email protected] immediately to talk through what's involved.