NMIT’s Richmond campus is set to grow, with the campus expanding to take on 200 students a year.

Currently home to Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology’s horticulture programme, the Richmond campus will be expanded to carpentry courses and Trades Academy and Foundation Studies (TAFS)

The move is part of a suite of refurbishments planned by NMIT, including a $1.2m rebuild of its Applied Businesses school building in the Nelson campus, K block.

NMIT’s Executive Director of Strategy, Enterprise and Sustainability, Grant Kerr, says the decision to move its Trades Academy to Richmond is based on the ‘significant growth’ of the course.

“The move to Richmond provides us with the opportunity to engage closer with industry,” Grant says.

“It also provides us with closer connectivity with Motueka and the surrounding areas – we are seeing a number of students coming out of Motueka area.”

NMIT is currently looking at several options for a building project that would facilitate the courses moving to Richmond, but aims to have the courses up and running in Richmond for February 2021, with tutors and course management staff also shifting their offices across to Richmond.

“It’s certainly an investment for the Richmond area, but the biggest gain for us is going to be our connectivity with the businesses in the region,” Grant says.

“It takes us out of our campus environment, and opens up for more partnership with industry, especially with the growth that is going on in Richmond at the moment.”

Grant says that the move cements NMIT’s commitment to Richmond and the wider region.

Waimea College Principal Scott Haines has also welcomed the move.

“NMIT’s relocation of the Trades Academy to the Richmond Campus is welcome news for Waimea College,” he says.

“Particularly for the students studying trades-academy subjects through the Top-of-the-South Trades.”