KEY POINTS:
Employers look set to get extra help to take on and keep apprentices after Prime Minister John Key's Jobs Summit in Manukau today.
The all-day meeting, bringing together 195 chief executives, Government and union leaders, is also expected to give more help to redundant workers to retrain and relocate to new jobs.
Mr Key said yesterday there was some "headroom" in the Government's coffers to fund some of the proposals and others were already being costed.
But ministers appear to have rejected more costly options such as Australian-style blanket subsidies for new apprenticeships or subsidies for employers to move workers on to four-day weeks with the fifth day in state-funded training.
"Some very expensive things which are good ideas have been taken off the table because they're unaffordable," Mr Key said. "Some of those initiatives will cost the Crown some money and they're worthy initiatives that we want to fund."
He would not give a ballpark figure of what the Government was willing to put in, but said money could be reallocated from other areas or it could be new money depending on the project.
"I don't have a number in my head, but we've been doing work with officials on some of the projects already to get a sense of how much they will cost and where they will sit."
Andrew Little, of the country's biggest private sector union, the EPMU, said pre-summit talks about the four-day working week had "now turned into the nine-day fortnight".
"I think there is a willingness to explore that and look at the potential costs for training," he said.
Summit participants have already been working by email and conference calls in six major working groups and 13 sub-groups to develop concrete proposals to put to today's conference.
Fairfax Media New Zealand chief executive Joan Withers, who is co-chairing a group on workers' skills and transition with The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, said each group's "first cut" of proposals was presented to Mr Key in a meeting in Air New Zealand's Auckland boardroom on Tuesday night.
"The chairs have been meeting regularly two or three times a week so we have all been aware of what's going on in the wider group," she said.
Her group had identified "sweet spots" of potential job growth, ways to help redundant workers retrain and move into those growth areas, other ways to encourage upskilling and retraining and specific ideas to keep and expand the number of apprentices.
Industry Training Federation director Jeremy Baker said his group proposed a $50 million short-term "industry skills recovery fund" to be allocated by industry training organisations in the most effective ways for each industry.
"We want to give more flexibility to industries about how they use the resource," he said.
"Some have downturns. Others are counter-cyclical, such as automotive repair - when you stop buying new cars everyone spends a lot more on maintaining their existing fleet.
"There's going to be more demand for social workers and those sorts of people.
"We need to have flexibility for each industry to respond."
Rather than a subsidy to take on new apprentices, as announced recently in Australia, Mr Baker advocates bonuses for employers who keep apprentices until they complete their training.
He also advocates wage subsidies for employees attending pre-apprenticeship training such as literacy and numeracy.
"We're not talking massive subsidies.
"This is all marginal stuff that would give the employer just enough to make them say, 'I'll hang on'," he said.
Ideas from other groups which may make it into the summit's proposals include stronger "buy NZ" policies for government departments, help for local councils and iwi groups to fund infrastructure investments and campaigns to attract foreign investment, overseas students and tourists.
Mr Tindall said that private sector participants were ready to play their part.
* The view from both sides
Stephen Tindall, business: We are facing a reasonably brutal time, but members of the summit are quite optimistic about New Zealand's potential to come out of this better than our competitors. It represents a unique opportunity to change the tone of the way we think - a real NZ Inc approach. We are not going to depend on the Government for that. We'll play our part.
Stephen Tindall, founder of The Warehouse, is co-chairman of the working group looking at retaining and retraining employees.
Andrew Little, union: What John Key wants are some practical measures that can be implemented pretty smartly and trying to debate macroeconomic policy and law changes simply isn't going to cut it. There is a real issue about wanting to keep apprentices in work, where if companies are making people redundant they make apprentices redundant, how they might be retained in some other way and how that might be subsidised or paid for by the Government.
Andrew Little, the EPMU's national secretary, is on a team looking at issues facing large employers.
Joan Withers, business: We are working on encouraging people into education and training - finding ways that people who are affected can upskill or retrain in ways that we can enhance and encouraging the private sector and the Government to assist with funding.
Joan Withers, Fairfax Media's CEO, is co-chair of the working group looking at retaining and retraining employees.
Peter Conway, union: We have put up this option of a Stabilisation Fund or what the Training Industry Federation calls an Industry Skills Recovery Fund, so investing in people is like investing in rail or motorways. If we're investing in people to stimulate the economy and keep people in work, could that be funded as a capital item?
Peter Conway, the Council of Trade Unions' economist, will look at how to get people back into employment.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Claire Trevett
