All shook up - NZ Plumber

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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.”

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.

14 April/May 2019

“We are not at all convinced that central management of workplace training and apprenticeships would incentivise more employers to engage and participate,” he said.

Garry Fissenden, Chief Executive of The Skills Organisation— the ITO for the plumbing, gasfitting and drainlaying sector—was among the individual ITOs also voicing their concerns, saying in February that thousands of apprentices and students would be disadvantaged under the proposed reforms.

He believes the replacement of regional polytechs by a national NZ Institute of Skills and Technology would create “immediate uncertainty among businesses at a critical time our nation’s economic development”.

Turn to page 77 for the results of a recent Skills Organisation survey on the proposals.

Survey of Master Plumbers

Master Plumbers sent out a survey to its membership to help inform the Master Plumbers’ submission on the proposals. “We agree that the current training provider model needs reform to ensure they are financially viable in future—but most importantly providers need to be of high quality and meeting industry needs,” says CEO Greg Wallace.

Master Plumbers was disappointed by the lack of engagement by the Ministry of Education with industry associations before releasing the proposed changes and by the fact that urgent issues such as tutor shortages and substandard provider facilities were not addressed in the consultation document.

“The skills mismatch”

Business New Zealand has come out in support of the Government’s proposals for change, saying businesses need a system that can keep pace with the changing environment of industry, where a job for life will no longer exist.

“We welcome changes to the vocational education system that ensures that learners are able to step in to jobs where we have businesses in desperate need for staff,” said Chief Executive Kirk Hope in February.

However, he went on to say that Business NZ wants to make sure industry training is not weakened by any of the proposed changes. “Industry training and apprenticeships play a vital part of the vocational education system and the workplace is a great environment to learn in.”

The Tertiary Education Union (TEU) has also welcomed change to what it sees as “the broken competitive system”. “The proposed changes are aimed at ending the market competition between education providers, which has led to hundreds of courses closing, thousands of students missing out on learning opportunities, an unhealthy growth in management layers in the tertiary education sector, and $100 million in bailouts over the last few years for polytechnics unable to survive financially,” the TEU noted in February. It says reforms must guarantee significantly increased funding for the sector and ensure access to tertiary education for all.

“A priority for the Minister must be to make sure ITPs stay broadly and deeply connected to the communities, both regional and urban, in which they are placed,” said TEU National President Michael Gilchrist in February.

Where to next?

Public consultation closed in early April and the Government is now considering feedback received. Decisions are expected to be announced mid year. ■