Craig Musson - Chair
Craig Musson is the Head of Governance for NZ Airline Academy, and previously the owner of NTA, a Land Based Training Provider established in 2000. His intimate knowledge of the vocational and tertiary education sector is invaluable to our membership body.
Craig Musson was the Owner and Managing Director of the National Trade Academy Ltd, a Land Based Training Provider for 26 years before selling NTA to the Skills Group Training Ltd on the 30 June 2026. Craig managed both international and domestic programmes and students during this time. Craig is continuing his involvement in Education and Training as Head of Governance and Board Chair for the NZ Airline Academy, a Commercial Pilot Training institute with over 200 international students in Oamaru and Whanganui.
Craig was involved in setting up the “Primary Sector Training Visa” between Chile and NZ for Vocational Training and is currently working with Government agencies to have this visa extended to other vocations for Level 2 to 4 for the future.
Craig is a member of the Latin America NZ Business Council with the objective of promoting business relationships in Latin America.
Craig is also continuing his interest in international export education as a Business Consultant for International, and is active in providing advice and sharing information with providers with an interest in International Export Education.
craig@nzaal.co.nz
Andrea McCartney
Andrea is the Owner and Executive Director of Valley Education and Training Enterprises (Vetel) a Hauraki-Coromandel based independent tertiary institution. She has been involved in tertiary education since 1993 both in the public and private arenas, so understands the cyclical nature of our business.
Andrea has met many members of ITENZ over the years at events and conferences. She attempts to remain positive no matter what challenges we face and seek solutions to meet the sector’s needs to stay competitive and relevant.
Vetel delivers levels 1-4 programmes through a range of funding provisions; Youth Guarantee, SAC L1/L2 Competitive and SAC L3+ Competitive. Andrea believes her strengths lie in the foundation sector where she would like to see more opportunities and discussions held around making our programmes more accessible for learners whilst maintaining high standards. She understands the difficultly that smaller owner/operator providers face and would like to represent and assist them with making ‘our world’ that little bit easier.
This role requires superb people management and great communication skills. Andrea holds detailed knowledge of current education legislation along with academic and administrative governance. She has great skills in reporting frameworks such as the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, the Tertiary Education Commission and Ministry of Social Development, along with relevant commercial and administrative legislation.
Andrea leads the strategic development of the firm on matters such as business development, business improvement and strengthening customer relationships. She has been instrumental in growing the business from one programme with 12 learners to nine programmes with over 150 learners and subsequent infrastructure and staffing requirements.
andrea@valleyeducation.co.nz
Andrea Ross - Deputy Chair
Andrea Ross is the Managing Director of People Potential Ltd. Andrea holds a Bachelor of Applied Management majoring in Transformational Change and is passionate about managing a team who share her goal of empowering students with education and giving them opportunities everyone should be entitled to.
This year People Potential celebrates 25 years in operation and is a category one provider. People Potential is funded to provide Foundation Training, Youth Guarantees, SAC level 1-6 and holds the contract to Run Youth Service in Whangarei and Dargaville.
People Potential’s head office is in Whangarei but has branches in Kaikohe, Dargaville, Papakura and Hamilton. People Potential runs courses in Adult Education and Training, Business Administration and Management, Early Childhood, Forces and Security, Hospitality and Tourism, IT and Computing , NCEA and Foundation Skills. People Potential also hold the contract for Youth Service in Whangarei and Dargaville.
Andrea is married to Kevin and has two grown up children Shaan and Hannah. All four of them work for People Potential.
Skills Andrea brings to ITENZ include:
andrear@peoplepotential.co.nz
Alex McKegg
Alex is the Associate Director Quality Assurance for New Zealand Skills and Education Group (NZSEG) – a diverse group of four specialised institutions: New Zealand Skills and Education College, Seafield School of English, Edvance Workplace Education, Skilled Crew, and Skills Campus. Together, NZSEG offers a wide range of programmes tailored to both domestic and international learners across Auckland, Waikato, and the Bay of Plenty.
Alex’s prior roles have included those as an Academic Director and as an independent contractor supporting PTE, Wananga and ITPs to build quality systems. This drew on her experience as a Lead Evaluator and Consistency Reviewer for NZQA.
Prior to working with NZQA Alex held a number of leadership and development roles in foundation studies and literacy and numeracy training with the Tertiary Education Commission and Unitec. Alex has been a member of the ITENZ Academic Managers’ forum, Foundation and Bridging Educators NZ (FABENZ) and the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association (ANZEA).
Alex is passionate about making education accessible, relevant and engaging for all learners. Alex is married to Mark and has three grown sons.
Alex@edvance.co.nz
Jenny Jenkins
Hailing from the Highlands of Scotland, Jenny has always had a keen interest in the hospitality industry which she formalised by successfully graduating with a Higher National Diploma in Catering and Hotel keeping from Napier University Edinburgh. Her varied career in hospitality eventually led her into education some thirty years ago. She has been the General Manager for Le Cordon Bleu New Zealand (LCBNZ) for the past 9 years.
LCBNZ is an international Culinary Arts school in Wellington offering both vocational and higher education programmes. Graduating from Massey University with an MBA in 1997, she firmly believes in life- long learning and is passionate about using her business and networking skills to support private training establishments to prosper.
Jenny was Chair and Director of the Australian Association of Hotels Schools (AAHS) for five of the seven years she spent working in the private hospitality education sector in Sydney. She returned to New Zealand to enable her to be an active participant in the life of her young grandchildren. Jenny also sits on the Board of Toast Martinborough, the Board of Le Cordon Bleu Australia and the Restaurant Association Education Trust. Her passion for education and her support of international student participation here in New Zealand places her in a strong position to effectively represent the interests and concerns of ITENZ members.
Patrick Rennell - Treasurer
Patrick has been involved with the tertiary education sector for over 20 years in New Zealand, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Starting career as tutor and lecturer at Massey University and WelTec he has also held management positions within business schools in Australian College of Kuwait and Bahrain Polytechnic.
He is the Chief Executive of the Horowhenua Learning Centre Trust. A charitable trust PTE with a focus on youth social services, foundation & vocational education, and employment support. HLC/LTTM is based in Levin with satellites campuses in Palmerston North, Kapiti and the Wairarapa and delivers programmes through literacy & numeracy, Youth Guarantee, SAC 1-2, and SAC 3+ funding. Through its social services and employment operations the Trust also contracts to the Ministries of Education, Social Development, Health, Youth Development and Pacific Peoples.
Patrick has a wealth of experience in education management and academic governance. He is the Chair of the Education Horowhenua, a Horowhenua District Council (HDC) education sector steering group, a member of the HDC Community Wellbeing Committee and the Kapiti District Council Education Hub Committee.
He is a strong advocate for the PTEs and the value they bring to the education sector in New Zealand.
patrick@hlc.ac.nz
Emily Cordwell
Emily is an educational leader and manager with global experience in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She is passionate about education and making it accessible for all, leveraging the latest technological advancements. In 2022, she completed a Master’s in Digital Education, focusing on the motivation and engagement of adult learners in online environments.
Since moving to New Zealand, Emily has brought her experience as a tertiary educator in the UK to roles, starting with Yoobee College before joining NZIE, where she spent five years. During that time, she progressed from Tutor to Programme Leader to Product Development Manager. She led the transformation of a Level 7 programme from a traditional face-to-face model to a 100% online format, enabling national (and COVID-resilient) delivery. She also expanded NZIE’s portfolio by developing micro-credentials. Emily joined AsureQuality in 2023, where she was responsible for the commercial viability, growth, and quality assurance of the AsureQuality Academy.
In 2025, Emily joined Literacy Aotearoa as the General Manager Delivery & Partnerships.
I am a proud dual citizen of the UK and NZ, I am currently studying Te Reo with the Open Polytechnic. I live in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) with my husband and two children. We enjoy exploring Aotearoa in our caravan, often finding ourselves in remote parts of the country. I share our adventures on my YouTube channel, Emily in NZ.
Jon Smith
Jon is an established and proven senior strategic academic leader with over twenty years ‘experience within further, and higher education, and the learning and training sector, having worked intensively with domestic and international learners. Jon is highly experienced with a range of international educational qualification structures, awarding bodies, standards, and associated quality frameworks and systems. Jon’s current role is that of General Manager Quality Assurance at the Skills group.
His previous roles at NZQA, Northable, NorthTec and various roles in the UK have allowed him to work in a range of multicultural environments in different countries with learners, staff, employers, and industries. These experiences have provided a solid understanding and deep appreciation of stakeholder needs, capabilities, challenges, support requirements and the social disadvantage that learners may encounter whilst in education and training.
Jon was actively involved with Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) work streams in his previous roles at NZQA and Senior Leadership roles within the ITP sector. Jon has been an NZQA External Evaluation Review (EER) team member conducting EER and Targeted Evaluation Reviews (TER) across the sector.
Jon is passionate about quality assurance and continuous improvement. Outside of work Jon coaches at Northland Football Club, and enjoys spending time with his family.
Wayne Dyer – Chief Executive
Wayne has been involved with tertiary and international education for 30 years. He started as an English language teacher working in Spain, Turkey, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and over the years had roles as a teacher, teacher trainer, course book writer, Director of Studies, and Principal.
His experience includes both public and private sector and, in addition to working in PTEs, he has held management positions at RMIT university in Australia and Unitec in Auckland.
His extensive experience in working with providers includes working with PTEs, workplace trainers, ITPs and ITOs to develop teaching skills, working with NZQA as an external EER evaluator, and participating in sector-wide working parties and governance groups. He has worked closely with government agencies, both as a provider and as a sector representative.
Wayne brings broad leadership, strategic management, and governance experience, including that gained most recently as Group Principal of ICL Education Group and Chair of English New Zealand, the peak body representing the English language sector.
He has a strong interest in individual, organisational and sector development and works to build strong and trusted relationships with stakeholders and partners and to achieve quality outcomes.
Wayne lives in Auckland.
wayne.dyer@itenz.co.nz