2 minute read
Navigating the storm
Demographics tell a powerful story and, right now, a perfect storm is brewing, says Warwick Quinn of Te Pūkenga.
AUTHOR: WARWICK QUINN, DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE EMPLOYER JOURNEY AND EXPERIENCE AT TE PŪKENGA
Demographically, New Zealand now has far fewer school leavers as a percentage of our population and the situation gets worse from 2023 onwards. Coinciding with that, we have a rapidly ageing population and a greater desire from more people to retire early.
Closing our borders in response to Covid-19 also meant our access to immigrants stopped overnight. There is now some easing of that, but the change will take time to filter through.
Meanwhile, our own young people are at risk of bolting, heading off on their rite of passage, the ‘Great OE’. Those who remain are having no trouble finding full employment, conscious no doubt of forecast economic hardship ahead.
Our challenge—and our opportunity—is working together to fundamentally broaden our thinking about who we offer vocational training to, and how best to do that.
Work-based learning
The recently announced new unified funding system is heavily weighted towards work-based and work-integrated learning. This means emphasis on people upskilling while at work or embedding real industry problems in an academic curriculum that allows learners and employers to work collectively together.
It’s in all of our interests to work harder to attract and retain these on-the-job learners by doing a much better job of meeting their and their employer’s needs. We also need to consider how we offer training. We may need to staircase people in, offering them access to smaller bites of knowledge, delivered in a way and timeframe that suits them, and that aligns with the skill sets employers most want.
Te Pūkenga will have the kind of scale to deliver the change needed to attract and retain these learners and support employers to train their people. All of this adds up to a better skilled workforce and a thriving New Zealand economy.
On 1 October 2023, arranging training for a number of industries transitioned form The Skills Organisation ITO to Te Pūkenga Work Based Learning Limited. For more information go to https://earnlearn-tepukenga.ac.nz
About Te Pūkenga
Te Pūkenga was established to better meet the needs of learners and employers through the creation of a national network of regionally accessible vocational and applied learning organisations. Te Pūkenga brings together the country’s 16 institutes of technology and polytechnics and nine industry training organisations (ITOs).
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