5 minutes with Ally Kettle at Queenstown Resort College
Queenstown Resort College (QRC) has recently employed a new Programme Development Manager to take their tech teachings to the next level. Ally Kettle has taken the newly-created role off the back of working in the industry in South Korea. Originally from Australia, she’s excited to make Queenstown her home and give Wellington and Auckland’s technology sectors a run for their money.
Kettle gained her Master’s in STEAM Education in Australia, which is science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. She wrote the curriculum for four STEAM schools in Melbourne before being headhunted by someone in Silicon Valley, who was opening 21st Century marketspaces in South Korea.
“At first I thought absolutely not, there’s not a hope in heck that I’m going to South Korea,” says Kettle.
“Then, of course, about two days later I thought that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – I can’t not go. Originally it was only to do two schools, but by the end of the first one they realised I had a bit of a knack for it and that I was very passionate and energetic about doing it, and that I’d smashed them out really quick, so we moved really quickly to the third school, which was in Songdo in South Korea. That was just partnering with some of the electronic companies – some of the big ones are Kia, Samsung and Hyundai.”
Kettle partnered with the companies and showed them what she was doing in the education sector and worked alongside them to write the curriculum, integrating their software. Her dad is based in Queenstown, so on her way back to Australia she stopped in and arranged to meet with QRC to find out more about what they were doing in the tech space. The school were so excited they created this new role for her. As the Programme Development Manager, she will both develop the curriculum and travel around the country for tech recruitment.
She’s currently working on seven new micro-credentials to submit to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority for accreditation. These will form shorter courses that can contribute towards a degree. The idea is that these short courses will run across approximately ten weeks but only require three or four days of on-campus learning, making it suitable for those who are working.
“I’m writing one at the moment about leveraging AI models for business growth – that’s the next course that we’ll offer. It’s a big endeavour, but it’s exciting and once we get it up and running Ngai Tahu has come out and said that they’re interested in having their managerial staff undertaking those courses. A lot of people in the Queenstown tech hub are now picking up that we are about to have some offerings in the AI space, which is exciting for such a small, niche little area.”
This year, the University of Otago had budgeted for 4.9% more students than were enrolled – they’re reporting enrolments are down by 0.9%. This is one example of many that universities and polytechnics around the country are echoing. Kettle says they’ve seen a rise in students wanting to dabble in smaller courses rather than committing to long degrees since Covid.
“What they want is to specialise in one niche area, for example, machine learning or digital marketing. They then come up against somebody who has a Bachelor’s in the same discipline, but broader, and essentially know more than that person in one area because they have a very specific micro-credential in it. The data is pointing to a lot of 17- or 18-year-olds, rather than having $40,000 worth of debt, choosing to do micro-credentials and stacking it towards something,” says Kettle.
Ally Kettle and Pradeesh, the college’s Machine Learning Tutor and Tech Ambassador, will be hosting a Tech Talk at QRC on 8 June at 5:30pm. They’ll be talking about tech, AI and ChatGPT for business with guest speakers Dave Hockly from Data Story and Giovanni Stephens from Liger Trading. Registration is necessary and you can do this at qrc.ac.nz/techtalk
