We are lucky in Hawke's Bay - and Gisborne - to have the Eastern Institute of Technology. It is one of the few polytechs in New Zealand that is in sound shape.
EIT is well established and well run. It literally has an "A to V" of courses, from agriculture to viticulture, to help meet the needs of the local labour market.
Not all polytechs and training establishments are so fortunate. Governments have had to bail out some tertiary education and training providers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The vocational education system has not adapted well to the needs of the modern economy.
There is a significant mismatch between workers' qualifications and the requirements of their jobs. Qualifications are not consistent, universally recognised or transferable across the country.
One-third of all jobs in New Zealand are likely to be affected by automation in the workplace. Some estimates suggest that by as early as 2022 more than half of all employees will require significant retraining.
There are some really exciting opportunities created by automation and Artificial Intelligence. But as lower-skilled jobs disappear we need people to learn new skills, often while on-the-job, so that they can earn while they learn.
And too many Māori, Pacific and disabled learners are being left behind. New Zealand needs to lift productivity. For that to happen, we need more businesses to be involved in training their staff and taking on more apprentices.
Currently however, nearly nine out of 10 of our businesses are not training through industry training establishments. Yet at the same time, almost three quarters of employers complain that they have skills shortages in their areas or expect to soon encounter this problem.
There are a lot of moving parts in the polytech and training sector. We are trying to make sure they are better aligned. We want them to work as one system.
We want employers to have more confidence that their training needs – both on and off the job – can be met by our vocational education system. And we want more students and apprentices to be able to develop skills that are in demand, portable and transferable.
These are long-term challenges that this Government is committed to fixing. To rise to meet them we have agreed to a set of comprehensive reforms.
The 16 polytechnics and institutes of technology will become part of one institute from next April.
Stuart Nash
They will form a national network of campuses throughout the country. In recognition of the strong role of the regions, we have decided that the head office of the new national institute will not be in either Auckland or Wellington.
The heads of the regional polytechs like EIT will have financial authority to make decisions on behalf of their communities.
The centralised government funding system will be simplified and fairer. We will work with everyone with an interest in vocational education over the next two to three years to develop and implement the new system.
We know the need for tradies and other skilled workers is great, and we know they are well paying jobs. But our vocational education sector as a whole needs to do a much better job too.
- Stuart Nash is the MP for Napier and the Minister of Police
