The College of Future Learning NZ renamed itself from its previous trading name of ACP Computer Solutions Ltd, to more correctly reflect the services provided by the College. For reporting purposes and ease of use, this name is often abbreviated to FutureCOL.
When ACP first began business in 1986, the company's focus was around the computer industry, predominantly in the area of mainframe computer programming for local corporate clients. This often involved training staff on newly written software packages and generally assisting people deal with the changes technology bought. As part of this service, this company began to offer formal computer training and this demand became huge as the share market crash resulted in many computer illiterate people's jobs being made redundant and as the computer skills became essential to finding employment.
As time progressed, ACP officially entered the formal education arena by becoming registered and accredited with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, formalising training through nationally recognised qualifications and by becoming a training provider with the Ministry of Education.
After recognising that Hawkes Bay was likely to become a key region for quality food, excellent wines and superb dining experiences, CEO Liddy Trotter moved the College to larger modern premises and built on a hospitality training kitchen and restaurant to begin hospitality training in cookery and front of house training along with barista (coffee), wines and beverages. Hospitality training has resulted in students gaining employment in Hawkes Bay 's top food establishments after receiving quality training in smaller class sizes that are simply second to none. Fantastic employment outcomes reflect the level of knowledge and skills developed through these high quality training programmes.
Special attention has been given to high level Business Administration and Corporate training options whereby both unemployed and employed people are trained in skills sought by administration centres. The level of this programme reflects industry needs and high employment has strongly reflected that there are too few people in business with this level of skills so have encouraged to continue delivering this type of training. Once again FutureCOL has recognised the need for training for both part-time as well as full-time training in this area to match both employed and unemployed peoples needs.
In more recent times the CEO has recognised the need to provide pre-apprenticeship trades courses to young students keen to develop a career with a future. A range of trades training is now available with more likely to be made available over the next year or so.
The College is well poised to deliver training that supports both local and international employment markets, thus meeting the College's objectives of SKILL ME FOR EMPLOYMENT, EQUIP ME FOR LIFE.