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Develop the skills New Zealanders need for our knowledge society

Refer to Interim Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities for Strategy 4

“Education counts because every element of personal well-being, social progress, and economic development is bound inextricably to knowledge, learning and skills. At the deepest level of the individual and collective lives of all [New Zealanders], education matters.” Education Counts – Report of the Special Study Panel on Education Indicators for the National Centre for Education Statistics, USA, September 1991

Where do we want to be by 2007?

New Zealand’s continued prosperity and social well-being will rely on the skills and knowledge of its people and how successfully those skills and knowledge are applied to generate economic growth and to secure improved social outcomes. This will require, amongst other things, a good match between the skills demanded in the labour market and those delivered via education and training.

By 2007, the tertiary education system will be delivering a range of skills to benefit individuals, communities, employers, ethnic groups, regions and the nation as a whole. This will require greater connection between the tertiary system and industry and business. Building on peoples’ foundation skills, the critical higher level skills delivered by the tertiary system will be:

high level and transferable generic skills being demanded by employers and learners, which are vital to achieving technological progress, economic growth and well-being in society; and
highly-specialised technical skills in appropriate areas, including high priority development areas and in entrepreneurial and management skills.

Industry Training Review 2001–02

Key improvements sought

The reforms in the proposed Tertiary Education Reform Act build on what has been achieved to date in industry training and seek to:

improve the extent to which training responds to current and future skills needs;
extend industry training to more people in a wider range of industries and occupations;
make the system more responsive to the communities of interests it was established to serve; and
better integrated industry training with the wider tertiary system.

Key changes in the Act to achieve these improvements

combining the charter and ITO recognition (and re-recognition) processes to achieve better integration of industry training with the wider sector;
encouraging stronger ITO performance by strengthening the recognition and re-recognition processes;
ITOs will be required to demonstrate evidence of satisfactory performance to be re-recognised
the TEC will be required to work with ITOs which are not adequately performing
the TEC will take into account the need to avoid fragmentation and facilitate joint arrangements when considering recognition or re-recognition of an ITO;
encouraging a more strategic focus by requiring ITOs to provide leadership not only in terms of current skill and training needs but future needs;
increased firm choice of ITOs, Firms will be able to apply to the TEC to have their training managed by a different ITO;
strengthening the role of employees in ITO decision-making; and
the proposed Act also provides for voluntary training levies on an industry.

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