Earn while you learn

By MARK STORY

Pat Keane, national training manager with Telecom contractor Cabletalk, never used to have problems hiring qualified technicians.

Up until the late 1980s the industry's sole training provider, Telecom, supplied enough qualified workers for the entire industry. But like many industries, deregulation brought with it an end to the primary source of new blood from government-run apprenticeships.

Faced with an ever-ageing workforce, Keane was forced to solve the company's new talent shortage by providing on-the-job training to carefully selected trainees.

Cabletalk is just one of many employers across the country that is embracing Skill New Zealand's call for industry-based training.

Previously the name of a government training body, Skill New Zealand has been reinvented as a joint campaign to promote workplace learning. And it's targeting employers with little or no connection to the industry training system.

The $800,000 earmarked for Skill New Zealand initiatives over the next four years is expected to help 150,000 employees into workplace training agreements.

It's only through campaigns like these, says Education Minister Steve Maharey, that skills development will start to receive the promotion it needs.

"It's not good enough for people to default to university study when they leave school because they don't know the options in front of them," he says.

"The fact is that industry training can provide excellent tertiary education and you earn while you learn - no student loan."

For Mark Sheehan, the Cabletalk traineeship opened doors to a career and qualifications otherwise closed to him.

One of 10 Cabletalk trainees, he is working towards level four of a national certificate in telecommunications.

Ironically, Keane says high-school dropouts such as Sheehan can be a year ahead of graduates the company might recruit direct from polytechnic. What polytechnic graduates typically lack, adds Keane, is either practical hands-on experience or a willingness to fit in with the company.

"On-the-job training is the ultimate trade-off between employers growing their own talent and school leavers being paid to qualify in a trade," he says. "It also helps retrain people re-entering the workforce."

How did Cabletalk establish its own trainee programme? The Electrotechnology Industry Training Organisation (ETITO) helps to set up such programmes, and recently helped call centre provider SalesForce NZ run a NZQA certified national certificate in call centre operations for staff.

"Establishing trainee programmes from scratch can be scary," says SalesForce NZ's team development manager, Ric Marie. "But once you get the necessary buy-in from skilled staff, its relatively easy."

Having assessed Cabletalk's training needs (with the ETITO), what resources it would need and met NZQA criteria, Keane proceeded to find trainees.

"Instead of focusing on high-school qualifications, we screened for trainees based on good work ethics, the ability to work in all weathers, and strong people skills," says Keane.

New trainees spend two days a week in company-run classes. The rest of the time, says Sheehan, is spent learning on the job with a qualified technician. He says on-the-job training is a great way to combine practical experience with the theory he learns through an Open Polytechnic correspondence course.

Keane believes the company's on-job training proves that young people who've been written off because they didn't finish high school can achieve if given a go.

"Having picked things up pretty quickly, Sheehan was out in the van on his own within two years," says Keane. "Being paid to learn is a big bonus for these kids.

"Instead of graduating with hefty loans to pay, trainees earn basic pay. We even nudge that rate up every time they pass another 30 credits."

The first of Skill New Zealand's promotional campaigns starts next month with presentations to unions, industry associations, companies and schools. The main goal is to get employees and their bosses to consider workplace learning, says Darel Hall, executive director of the Industry Training Federation.

If employees want better on-the-job training, he says they must be prepared to actively help employers identify their training needs.

"If people make only three inquiries on what work-based training is available, they should be to the federation, industry training organisation (ITO) or their union," says Hall, who represents ITOs. "Between them, they'll know what work-based training is available throughout industry."

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