Nats pledge to tackle skills shortage

National Party education spokesman Bill English says a shake-up of employment law is needed to address the workforce skills shortage New Zealand businesses now say is their biggest headache.

Last week, a Business New Zealand survey found that difficulty in finding suitably skilled staff was the most pressing issue for its members ahead of concerns about Government spending and the cost and reliability of energy supplies.

Business NZ released the results of the survey at its election conference in Wellington last week, where Progressives leader and Minister of Economic Development Jim Anderton unveiled a plan to identify areas of urgent need and tackle them with "skills shortages scholarships".

But English said yesterday that while plans like Anderton's could make a "small contribution", addressing the skills shortage wasn't about "little schemes where ministers can get their photos taken".

"It's about businesses having the profitability and flexibility to invest in their own workforce and people in the workforce seeing the benefit of putting time into training themselves.

"We would argue that a flexible labour market is the best encouragement because it gives people clear signals about how to get ahead because more skilled people get paid better sooner."

Present employment law was "biased in favour of national collective contracts" which had a "freezing effect" on wages and conditions for skilled workers and prevented clear labour market signals, said English.

English said the Labour-led Gov ernment had lost "the best chance in a generation" to increase young New Zealanders' workforce skills during the relatively benign economic conditions in recent years.

"Labour kept the lid on money for skills training while it was blowing out hundreds of millions on dodgy low-value tertiary courses."

National has said that if elected, it would lift the funding cap for apprenticeships and spend more on trades and skills courses.

Last month Prime Minister Helen Clark said Labour intended creating an additional 5000 apprentice places under the Government's Modern Apprenticeship scheme, which would bring the total to 14,000 in 2008.

But English said Labour had "put a big emphasis on the apprenticeship brand for political purposes and have pretty much ignored the wider issue of raising skills across the board".

National would release further details of its tertiary education and workplace training policy "when we are ready", English said.

Meanwhile, Anderton's proposal would see Government co-operation with business to run regular "skills shortages stocktakes".

"We'd pay the tertiary fees at university and polytech level for those who are in areas of skill shortages and give successful applicants a student allowance as well," he told Business NZ members last week.

Participants in the scheme would be required to stay and work in New Zealand for at least the period for which they received the scholarship and Anderton proposed running a pilot scheme of 1000 scholarships costing between $12 million and $15 million a year.

Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said his organisation was supportive of activity that would see business and tertiary education providers "working closer together to understand gaps and understand future needs". But he was cautious about the scholarships plan.

"It feels a bit tactical to me. It's putting a bandage on the wound rather than healing the patient."

However, he said Business NZ was supportive of Labour's plan to increase modern apprenticeships. "We'd work very closely with the Government on this matter."

But O'Reilly had concerns the Government was struggling to meet its commitment to having 250,000 in industry training by 2007.

"We think one of the best things they could do to help that is by removing the cap from industry training funding.

THE POLICIES

Labour: Plans to offer 5000 more Modern Apprenticeship places and provide opportunities for secondary students to work towards apprenticeships.

National: Wants to liberalise employment law and raise funding cap for industry training.

Progressives: Wants "skills shortage stocktakes" to identify areas of most urgent need. Would offer scholarships in those areas. Wants to double the number of people in apprenticeships and industry training by 2007.

NZ First: Wants to ensure all young people are either in work or training, wants a "community wage" to top up pay for apprentices, wants to review Industry Training Organisations and extend Modern Apprenticeships to older workers.

United Future: Wants to significantly increase the number of Modern Apprenticeships.

Greens: Wants more apprenticeships and wants to encourage women, Maori and Pacific Islanders to train in industries in which they are currently underrepresented.

Act: Lower taxes to lift relative wages.

Maori Party: Wants more opportunities for training with cadetships. Steps to tackle the skills shortage