Lively Open Day across Ara campuses
Hundreds join “walk and talk” tours
Ara Institute of Canterbury’s campuses came to life for 2025 last week with crowds flocking to the first open day for 2025.
It comes as enrolments on the same time last year are already up more 8.6% in Christchurch and 4.4% for Ara’s Southern campuses, with a volume of applications still being finalised.
Enrolled ākonga, prospective students and their supporters flooded onto the Christchurch City, Woolston Trades and Timaru campuses on Thursday, with many travelling long distances to take the opportunity to walk through facilities, explore options and speak with tutors.
Seeking a possible career change from teacher to electrician, Thomas van Workum said he’d been inspired by his brother’s learning experience to make a switch.
Visiting the Woolston Trades campus, teacher Thomas van Workum said he was looking for a change. “I’ve been a teacher for nine years now and it’s not quite what I signed up for, so I thought it was time to change tack. My brother trained as a sparky through Ara and he’s enjoying it. I’m going to try and line up an apprenticeship so that I can have income while I study,” he said.
l-R Rhona Hinds, Noah van Workum and Thomas van Workum
l-R Kylo Khalid and Sakinah Tuan Besar
Kylo Khalid arrived in Christchurch a month ago to join his partner of ten years. Both had enjoyed the chance to explore the Ara campus. “I owned a barbershop in Malaysia, but I am looking to advance my skillset in barbering, and I also want to assimilate adjust to life in Christchurch.”
North Cantabrian Olive Roxburgh said she was looking for her options after a gap year this year. “I want to do a Bachelor of ICT next year after I’ve worked a bit, and it was great to have the different pathways available to me explained. I’m thinking of going into something in infrastructure like cloud computing or networking - it was interesting and helpful.”
L-R Eryn and Olive Roxburgh
Olive's Mum, Eryn said the information about practical work placements and industry connection had also been helpful. “Obviously you want to come to the end of degree and have hope that there will be a job at the end,” she said.
Staff from across the campuses were on hand to manage the queues which quickly formed at the open day expo booths, while others guided group tours or “walk and talk” sessions across the departments.
Ara Manager of Youth and Community Development Mark Simons said his team was very pleased with the turnout.
“It was great to have the campuses buzzing with both new and potential learners. All up we had over 600 registrations which meant the tours and our new Ara 101 welcome sessions were packed. After great conversations with enthusiastic learners and their whānau, it’s fair to say many of our team have tired voices today!”
Director of Southern campuses Leonie Rasmussen reported strong numbers for the event at Ara’s Timaru campus.
Simons said it was great to see so many enrolled students come along to get familiar with Ara’s campuses and have the chance to check in with tutors. “We were also delighted to see great numbers of people still looking for options for 2025 and beyond.”
“The important thing is that it’s not too late for locking in options for the February semester. There are still spaces on a wide range of courses and we’re open to any enquiries. People can easily drop in to our information centre or call our team.”
The best way to explore Ara’s 150+ course options—from community programmes and Level 1 offerings through to master’s qualifications—is by contacting the information centre or visiting the Ara website.
“We have something to fit everyone's study goals and we’re here to help,” Simons said.