About Us
Welcome to Coastguard Education, the leading provider of recreational boating education in New Zealand
Royal New Zealand Coastguard Education Ltd was formed in 1979 as a non-profit organisation to provide a comprehensive range of boating courses throughout New Zealand. The organisation is registered as a category 2 provider
Coastguard Education staff and tutors are highly experienced and qualified to ensure the best learning experience for students. Our Westhaven office is open Monday to
Our Commitment To Quality Learning Environments
At Coastguard Education, we are committed to providing high-quality learning experiences. All our training venues operate under a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure they meet our suitability standards for safety, accessibility, and learning effectiveness. Our educators are fully qualified and bring extensive knowledge and experience to every session. Whether in-person or online, all classroom environments and virtual platforms are equipped with technology and resources that meet or exceed required standards, ensuring a consistent and engaging learning experience for all participants.
Directors
Andrew Murray
Carl McOnie
Head of Education & Training
Dr Melanie Miller
Strategic education and capability leader with 20+ years’ experience designing and delivering high-impact learning across government, tertiary, and community sectors.
PhD-qualified and values-driven, I bring deep expertise in blended learning, stakeholder engagement, and culturally responsive program design.
I’ve led national capability uplift initiatives, managed large-scale curriculum development, and built inclusive learning cultures that empower volunteers and professionals alike. With a strong foundation in compliance (TEC, NZQA, HSAW) and
I am committed to advancing safety, equity, and excellence in education—anchored in bicultural practice and global citizenship.
Senior Programme Delivery Lead - Internal
Sandip Patil
Marine Chief Engineer (Foreign Going) with over 21 years’ experience in commercial shipping, maritime operations, inspections, investigations, emergency response, and technical training.
Holds a Bachelor of Mechanical/Marine Engineering and an MBA, with post graduate research/PhD paper on port congestion and supply chain reliability in Oceania’s container shipping sector.
Brings strong engineering and operational leadership from commercial and response vessels, complemented by shore-based experience in safety, risk assurance, and national training delivery.
Also served as a Programme Coordinator/Curriculum Manager and Marine Engineering Tutor, responsible for overseeing training delivery and capability development, while incorporating contemporary teaching methods and emerging technologies to support maritime, shipping, and response activities.
Academic & Compliance Lead
Marie Laycock
Qualifications: General and Obster
Experience: Over 14 years in academic leadership roles, including Head of Department, Academic Manager, and Quality Lead at Institutions like Kauri Academy, Manukau Institute of Technology and Future Skills Academy.
Key Responsibilities: Training and assessing students, leading tutor and admin teams, programme development and evaluation, compliance documentation, and policy reviews.
Technical Expertise: Proficient in LMS platforms (Canva, Moodle) SELMA,
Training Development Lead
Malcolm Hay
LMS Management: Proficient in Moodle administration, including troubleshooting, course creation
Content Development: Skilled in designing course content, resources, assessments, and activities tailored to learning objectives.
Data Reporting: Experienced in retrieving and analysing reports from Moodle to support academic and administrative needs.
Technical Expertise: Adept at resolving LMS issues and ensuring seamless functionality for users.
Training Coordinator
Radhika Raju
Academic operations and Compliance reporting with expertise in Student Management System (SELMA), regulatory reporting, and tertiary administration.
Responsible for managing enrolments, certifications and student records while ensuring compliance with NZQA and TEC requirements.
Overseeing academic data integrity, qualification and course completion processing reporting across multiple platforms includ
Works collaboratively across and within teams to support programme delivery, ensure operational continuity and high-quality learner experience across all academic and certification processes.
Coordinating enrolments from initial application through to completion, and ensuring timely communication with learners, assessors, and internal teams.
Training Coordinator
Kristen Saunders
Having recently joined the team as training coordinator. Kristen is an active member of the CG Comms Volunteer unit (8 years) and a CNZ committee member.
Training Coordinator (External)
Bevan Welsh
This role is the interface between the public and Coastguard Education & Training’s short courses. This involves answering queries about courses, matching people to their appropriate course and enrolling them.
There are two main categories of courses: public & private. Public courses – classroom and online are published on the website and st
Private clients will also put their staff on public courses, sometimes classroom, but more often online & homest
The setting up of classroom courses, both public and private, requires the booking of venues, tutors and sometimes accommodation. Details are uploaded to the booking system to generate a course ID, and in the case of a public course
Considerable email communications are required to confirm students on courses and to provide them with login details and reminders.
There is considerable pastoral care required, with students having many questions about their courses, requests for date changes/withdrawals, issues with logins and course progress, acknowledgement of cancellations, refund requests and seeking results.
Currently, student and course details require manual loading to the Booking System, Selma and Moodle.
