Learn Queenstown Lakes – Learning & Development Supplier Schedule
Welcome to the Learn Queenstown Lakes Supplier Schedule. This document is intended to identify quality providers delivering learning & development (L&D) services available for Queenstown Lakes businesses on key topics. This includes Queenstown, Wanaka and surrounds. While a number of the suppliers included in the schedule are based outside the district, their offerings include in-person or online delivery options that can be accessed from the Queenstown Lake District. In some cases, travel for facilitators may incur additional costs, and employers, in this case, might consider working together with other businesses to bring a provider to the district for a particular training to share and reduce costs overall.

This schedule is a snapshot. It does not and is not intended to, represent a list of absolutely all L&D providers delivering training in the Queenstown Lakes District. The suppliers included in it have been recommended by employers and businesses in the district and are known to deliver good quality offerings. The schedule has also been designed to address key skill gaps identified by employers i.e. topics that the business community is focussed on upskilling their
people in. The overall intent of the schedule is to provide a simple starting point for employers to simplify their L&D offering and to share information on quality providers.
We welcome you to make contact with providers included in the schedule directly, to enquire about their L&D offerings, or to book courses/programmes with
them.

I hope you’re all enjoying the pace that the end of 2024 seems to be bringing us.

As we head into the end of the year, it’s time for a quick update on the Learn Queenstown Lakes programme.

Employee voice – Actvo

Firstly, we’re pleased to have the Actvo component of this project underway with all participating employers onboarded, and the majority of users up and running already. Actvo will provide us with the employee voice in this project, including a sample of skills mapping data. The intent is that this will give us a fuller picture of learning needs and skills gaps across the district, when matched against our feedback and input from businesses.

We have 7 employers and over 100 users participating in this pilot programme, across a range of industries from hospitality to professional services.

Employer survey

In October we had the opportunity to share our employer survey results through a series of workshops where we tested & validated the results in order to land on some agreed areas of focus. If you didn’t get a chance to attend any of the workshops, a copy of the survey results is attached for your reference. For those who are interested, the summary slides from the October workshops are available here:

Actions from here

There are four key workstreams that were generally agreed through October’s workshops, as areas of focus for the Learn Queenstown Lake programme going forward.

Those are:

1. Delivery of the agreed Learning Supplier Schedule
   Visibility for employers on learning providers already delivering quality offerings in the district
2. Establishment of an Employer Forum to bring employers together, for purpose, on workforce issues
3. Tertiary education sector engagement
4. Joined up learning programmes – identifying core topics that employers can come together on.
   Management skills development is the topic that has the most traction at this point.

These will all require a collective effort in order to gain some traction. So, in the new year (2025) we will be looking for expressions of interest from those of you who would like to get involved in one or more of these topics. Feel free to let me know before the new year if you have a particular interest in any of the above areas.

Updated timeline

You may recall from earlier in the year that we were looking to have a Supplier Schedule delivered by end November. Given the number of parties involved in this mahi, we have extended that timeline to end January 2025.

Thanks all for your contributions to this project so far, and I look forward to being in touch again in January.

Meri Kirihimete

Meghan

Last year the Queenstown Lakes region announced its carbon zero by 2030 ambition, identifying decarbonisation as a vital component of regenerative tourism. Polestar is a natural partner for Queenstown with this goal, not only producing zero emission cars but with their strong focus on sustainability and reduction of CO2 emissions in the production of vehicles.

Securing the agreement with Polestar for the all-electric cars aligns three great brands that share a common vision and aligned key values.

Destination Queenstown CEO, Mat Woods, said that these achievements resonate with Queenstown Inc.’s goals by showing that it is possible to decouple growth from increased emissions. “We are delighted with the partnership with Polestar – a renowned global EV brand that is committed to sustainability and has the same decarbonisation ambitions as we do. Polestar is a fantastic car to drive and fulfils all the extra requirements we have living in the mountains: super long range, powerful all-wheel drive and proven for our weather conditions,” said Mat.

Developed in Sweden, Polestars are designed to cope in mountain conditions while also delivering high performance alongside lower running costs, something that every business is conscious of. “In this economic climate businesses are conscious of reducing their overheads, particularly with the cost of fuel, and switching to electric vehicles not only reduces expenses but is good for the planet, “ said Mat.

The partnership supports the collaboration between DQ and Queenstown Business and their joint commitment to leading the way for businesses in sustainability and innovation. Queenstown Business CEO Sharon Fifield says, “Whenever there is a need to upgrade fleet, the smart decision is to invest in electric.  This not only benefits the planet, but also the bottom line of businesses by moving away from unsustainable and expensive fossil fuels. With Polestar now having three models available, there is an option for all businesses looking to reduce emissions.”

Queenstown Business and Destination Queenstown members can also benefit from the partnership, with Polestar offering an exclusive member’s discount.

Bruce Fowler, Polestar New Zealand Brand Manager, acknowledges that the move to fully electric vehicles might feel like a big step for any business or private owner, “Having been developed in Scandinavia, Polestar vehicles are built to handle anything the most bitter southern winter might offer. With onboard heat pumps, a Polestar can even be pre-warmed ahead of your drive. Polestar is also supported by a nationwide service network, including Queenstown Lakes.

About Polestar

Polestar (Nasdaq: PSNY) is the Swedish electric performance car brand determined to improve society by using design and technology to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility. Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, its cars are available online in 27 markets globally across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Polestar plans to have a line-up of five performance EVs by 2026. Polestar 2, the electric performance fastback, launched in 2019. Polestar 3, the SUV for the electric age, launched in late 2022. Polestar 4, the SUV coupé transformed, is launching in phases through 2023 and into 2024. Polestar 5, an electric four-door GT and Polestar 6, an electric roadster, are coming soon.

Polestar has a goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2040. Becoming truly climate-neutral means eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions across operations, and all phases of a car’s life cycle. This includes emissions from supply chain and manufacturing, as well as energy use during the car’s use phase. The Polestar 0 project supports the company’s ambitious goal of creating a truly climate-neutral production car by 2030. The research initiative also aims to create a sense of urgency to act on the climate crisis, by challenging employees, suppliers and the wider automotive industry, to drive towards zero.

View, book a test drive or purchase at  www.polestar.com

View Letter Here

We met with senior Immigration officials recently in a bid to connect them to the realities of national policy setting and when processes and systems don’t support what is being offered.  There just aren’t any easy answers and I am constantly amazed at the innovative solutions businesses are coming up with to keep the doors open.

Speaking of innovative, this week I am proud to welcome Sharon Fifield to the team.  Many of you will be familiar with the dynamo that is Sharon and she is bringing her passion, connections and ideas to a new role with us, as the Head of Business Growth.  As the name implies, Sharon is going to be focused on enabling our business community to reach its potential.  Workforce, attraction, retention and development will be a key component of this, as is partnership, innovation and technology.  I am really excited to see what she will be delivering in the near future and have no doubt you will be hearing from her and seeing her soon.

While Sharon will be adding to your options of sharing your views with us, your continued support of our business confidence survey has been critical to inform our advocacy over the past couple of years.

Along with QLDC, Ignite Wanaka, The Lakes Weekly and jobfix.co.nz, we are encouraging local businesses to participate in the final quarterly Business Confidence Survey for 2022.

The more data collected enables trends to be tracked and eventually, we will be able to forecast what is to come based on the data collected over time. Please take the survey today as your input is vital and the more companies that take the survey the more robust the data will be.

We encourage one response per business and suggest business owners or senior managers complete the survey on behalf of the business.

We know your time is valuable and in recognition of this, on completing this survey you can enter the draw to win a $500 Mediaworks voucher and a bottle of Peregrine wine. Congratulations to Nomad Safaris who won the Q3 survey prize!

The survey is open from Wednesday, 9 November for all businesses in the Southern Lakes area and closes at 5 pm on Wednesday, 23 November.

Complete the Business Confidence Survey Q4.

Last, but not least, I hope to see many of you at our Annual General Meeting on Thursday, 24 November.  A chance to reflect on the year and hear from NZSki, who are kindly hosting us at Coronet Peak again from 5pm.

We will also be announcing the successful board members so please make sure when the link comes your way that you make it count.  We are fortunate to have both Jo Finnigan (St Moritz) and Hamish Walker (Premium Real Estate) re-standing but also Johnathan Chen (Remarkables Park) and Jenna Adamson (Wynn Williams).  You can find out more about them on when voting opens on Monday, 14 November.