July 20, 2026
Formal tertiary participation is softening. In 2024, 10.4 percent of the population aged 15 and over was enrolled in formal tertiary education, down from 10.8 percent in 2023 (source: Education Counts, Tertiary participation, 2025). Total formal enrolments then fell a further 1.1 percent between 2024 and 2025, from 399,685 to 395,095 (source: Education Counts, Tertiary participation, 2025). For adult and community education providers, that squeeze meets a softer labour market with seasonally adjusted unemployment at 5.2 percent in the June 2025 quarter (source: Stats NZ, Unemployment rate at 5.2 percent in the June 2025 quarter, 2025). Learners increasingly need proof that a course leads somewhere.
Adult and community education (ACE) in New Zealand is delivered across schools, tertiary education institutions, wananga and private training establishments as well as community organisations, funded in part through the Tertiary Education Commission's ACE Fund (source: Tertiary Education Commission, Adult and Community Education Fund, 2024). The measurable slice sits inside formal tertiary. 16,835 domestic students enrolled in adult and community education at public providers in 2024, according to Ministry of Education data published through Education Counts (source: Ministry of Education via Education Counts, Adult and community education dataset, 2025). That is a fraction of the wider ACE population once schools, PTEs and community delivery are counted in, which is why proving where each learner ends up matters more than counting seats.
Spacewalk gives your organisation a private, branded job board for your adult learners, so your team spends its time on teaching and support rather than searching public sites for roles.
Build your branded Spacewalk job board and invite your talent community in minutes
Whether you choose to stream roles automatically, invite employers or post them yourself they are automatically matched to your talent pool
Track applications, placements and community engagement from one reporting dashboard
Unlike generic job boards, Spacewalk gives you a branded, private or public jobs marketplace your talent actually trust, with sourcing, matching and reporting running automatically in the background.
Learner data is regulated by the Privacy Act 2020 and its 13 Information Privacy Principles, administered by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Privacy Act 2020 principles). The Privacy Amendment Act 2025 introduced IPP 3A from 1 May 2026, which extends notification obligations to information collected about a learner from someone other than the learner themselves (source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Privacy Act 2020 principles).
When your team introduces learners to employers, the OPC's guidance on privacy in recruitment expects that information stays with people directly involved, that referees are only contacted with the applicant's consent and that unsuccessful applications are securely destroyed unless the applicant has agreed you can keep them on file (source: Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Privacy in recruitment). Right-to-work verification remains with the hiring employer. This is context, not legal advice.
This is an illustrative scenario, not a customer story. A New Zealand adult education provider stands up a branded board for its foundation-skills cohort and invites learners in the final weeks of the programme. An employer-direct feed matches each learner to live vacancies by qualification and location, and tutors see who is applying and interviewing rather than hearing about it months later. When the provider prepares its next self-assessment, the team exports applications and landings by cohort instead of assembling anecdotes.
No. Spacewalk sits alongside your LMS as a branded job board and matching layer, so learners have a next step into work while your enrolment and assessment data stays where it is.
From an employer-direct job stream of verified, active roles with direct apply links, matched to each learner's skills, qualification and location. Your team can also post roles or invite local employers to post, but the vacancies are not scraped from job boards or aggregators.
Yes. Your cohort gets its own branded board, so the experience feels like part of your provider rather than a generic job site.
By producing outcome-level data. Spacewalk tracks registrations, applications, interviews and landings by cohort, so your team can evidence what happened to learners after the programme.
No. Right-to-work verification stays with the hiring employer. Spacewalk connects learners to live vacancies and tracks their progress.
The Privacy Act 2020 and its 13 Information Privacy Principles apply, and from 1 May 2026 IPP 3A adds a notification obligation for information collected about a learner from someone other than the learner. Recruitment-related information handling should follow the Office of the Privacy Commissioner's guidance.
Spacewalk supports adult and community education providers across English-speaking markets, including Australian adult education providers, UK adult education providers and adult education providers in the United States.
Explore Spacewalk for New Zealand private training establishments, New Zealand employability programmes, New Zealand university careers services and New Zealand outplacement services.
