New AgentLab platform launched to support education agents

Launched in early August, the new platform features a wide range of relevant information and updates to support education agents and consultants promoting study with Aotearoa New Zealand. This includes a calendar of agent-focused events and webinars, resources, and latest news and updates from across the Aotearoa New Zealand education landscape. 

In 2022, Education New Zealand Manapou ki te Ao (ENZ) reviewed its agent engagement programme to ensure its offering for education agents is best placed to support the international education sector’s recovery.  

ENZ commissioned Edified to research and evaluate its broad agent engagement programme as well as the ENZ Recognised Agency programme. Refreshing the AgentLab platform to offer agents a wider range of information about Aotearoa New Zealand education was among the recommendations of the Edified report. 

ENZ’s Director – Sector Services, Laura Simpson, said the AgentLab platform’s refresh was guided by a need to better support all education agents, knowing the crucial role they play.  

“We are developing the AgentLab platform with more tools and resources. We will continue to grow the platform to best serve all agents in their work to support students wanting to study with Aotearoa New Zealand. This helps us ensure that agents have access to accurate information, so they are best placed to drive international student recruitment and support the sector’s post-pandemic recovery.  

“This is important work given our goal to grow onshore international student numbers. Rebuilding the sector to a thriving, resilient one is a major focus for Aotearoa New Zealand. We know that the relationship between education providers and agents is the primary one. So our job, set out clearly in Focus Area One of the International Education Strategy, is to make sure we support high-quality education agents in recruiting students to Aotearoa New Zealand and supporting the sector’s recovery,” Laura said.  

The new AgentLab platform is hosted at the same address as the old site at agentlab.enz.govt.nz. It is easily accessed through the single sign-on, MaiENZ portal through which ENZ offers all its digital services to Aotearoa New Zealand’s international education sector. Existing AgentLab users will be able to seamlessly access the new site with their current MaiENZ logins.  

The discontinuation of the ENZ Recognised Agencies (ENZRA) programme that was announced to the sector and education agents in July was also an outcome of the agent engagement review. All education agents – including former ENZRA agents – will be able to access the same level of information and resources via the AgentLab platform. The discontinuation of the ENZRA programme will not affect this.