IN FOCUS
All shook up There have been vocal and varying views on the Government’s proposal to rethink vocational education and training in New Zealand, as NZ Plumber discovers. “LET’S NOT THROW the baby out with the bath water.” That was the reaction of one Industry Training Organisation (ITO) to the Government’s plans for a complete rethink of industry training in New Zealand. According to Skills Active ITO Chief Executive Dr Grant Richardson, Education Minister Chris Hipkins had correctly identified the problems with the current vocational education system but is “looking for answers in all the wrong places”. He was referring to the Minister’s announcement on 13 February that radical changes to the system needed to be made because of critical skills shortages and too many polytechs and technology institutes going broke. “Our system isn’t geared up for the future economy, where retraining and upskilling will be a regular feature of everyone’s working life,” the Minister said. “Instead of our institutes of technology retrenching, cutting programmes, and closing campuses, we need them to expand their course delivery in more locations around the country.” 14
April/May 2019
What’s being proposed? Public feedback was invited by an extended deadline of early April on a range of proposals designed to establish “a unified, coordinated, national system of vocational education and training”. The proposals are to: • Redefine roles for education providers and ITOs • Combine the 16 existing industry training providers (ITPs) into a single New Zealand Institute of Skills & Technology with a regional network of campuses • Have a unified vocational education funding system.
Concern amongst ITOs The proposals would see New Zealand’s 11 ITOs losing many of their core responsibilities, which currently include setting national skill standards, arranging training, and assessing and monitoring training quality. Unsurprisingly, Josh Williams, Chief Executive of the Industry Training Federation (ITF)—the ITO national body— has reacted with concern. Williams said in February that New Zealand’s industry-led training and apprenticeship model provided direct engagement and connection to real employers. The ITF had consistently argued for a more joined-up vocational education system, he said, but was wanting reforms that would strengthen industryled workplace training, rather than dismantle it.
