Training: Shortages still a problem

By IRENE CHAPPLE

Click Clack's John Heng isn't impressed with this year's Budget, despite its support for training initiatives.

The Palmerston North-based company's chief executive was worried the focus on getting young adults into tertiary education would create an industry of training organisations not necessarily focused on New Zealand's skill shortages. While it would make the unemployment figures look good, it wasn't a panacea to the desperate shortages New Zealand has in some areas of work.

Heng should know. The New Zealand company, which each year manufactures $30 million worth of plastics for export and which employs 300 staff, imports the majority of its designers and specialist IT workers.

Heng says he'd prefer to be employing locally but qualified staff just are not available. Factory workers aren't so hard to find but, says Heng, they need continuous on-the-job training which comes at a huge cost to the company.

"I see [Government's plans] as a push system. People are just going to be shoved into a polytech and given training. But it is not necessarily the training they want, it is the training the industry wants."

Heng said there were massive shortages particularly in the trades. Many of the tradespeople working now were older, and they were not being replaced by younger workers.

He was unimpressed with the Immigration Services new funding to search out desirable migrants, calling it a waste of time. Finding appropriate workers from overseas was as easy as advertising on a website, said Heng.

Click Clack attracts staff through such advertising.

While it can be difficult to convince single people, Heng says many people with families are attracted New Zealand's lifestyle.

Heng believes the Government's priority should be identifying the shortfalls: "It is the outcome that is the most important thing. The Government needs to identify the needs so we can customise the training."