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The expected change – 2002 to 2007

New Zealand’s continued prosperity and social well-being will rely on the skills and knowledge of its people and how successfully their skills and knowledge are applied to generate economic growth and improve social outcomes.

There is a wide range of skills and knowledge required for individuals to participate in a knowledge society. Some skills and knowledge are specific to employment contexts while others are generic and underpin effective participation in a range of life contexts. Tertiary education has a key role to play in helping develop both generic and specialist skills and knowledge.

Achieving this strategy requires greater engagement between the tertiary education system and employers, regional development organisations and communities to identify the current and future skills and knowledge graduates will require in employment and wider society. This is more than just trying to match graduate supply with labour market demand. It is ensuring that graduates have the skills and knowledge needed to participate effectively in a changing labour market and society, and to contribute to higher levels of innovation and productivity, thereby contributing to New Zealand’s development.

There needs to be a greater ownership by employers, communities and individuals of the need to foster and develop skills. It cannot be seen solely as the responsibility of the education system.

ITOs are now expected to take a much stronger leadership role in this area, connecting their industries with the tertiary education system. Their role will be to develop strategic training plans to assist industries to meet current and future skill needs and promote training for employers and employees.

It is vital that all groups in society have equity of access and opportunity to participate and succeed in education at all levels. In particular, there is a need to improve access for Pasifika peoples, people from low socio-economic backgrounds, people with disabilities and those living in remote areas. Access for Māori to degree-level tertiary education also needs to be improved.

The tertiary education system needs to provide opportunities for people to continue to engage in learning throughout their lives. This needs to include a range of options that meet the needs of adult learners, such as on-the-job learning, courses focused on updating skills and knowledge and community-based learning.

A critical part of developoing the skills New Zealanders need for our knowledge society is improving the information and support for learners to make well-informed decisions about education and career options. This involves development of good decision-making skills, as well as wider access to accurate and impartial advice on learning and careers.

This strategy includes an emphasis on the development of generic skills, which complement the development of specialist skills. As with foundation skills, there has been a shift in thinking towards a broader framework of ‘key competencies’. Competencies cover the knowledge, skills and dispositions that are needed by people to participate in a knowledge society. Key competencies are those that are important across a range of areas of life and contribute to overall success in life and a well functioning society. Key competencies are acquired and further developed at all levels of learning.

It is expected that there will be greater explicit recognition of key competencies in programmes and qualifications throughout the tertiary education system. A shared language for talking about and understanding key competencies will be critical if they are to be systematically improved throughout tertiary education programmes.

In addition to better communication about key competencies, effective teaching and assessment will include:

• the systematic articulation of key competency learning outcomes already implicit in programmes and qualifications
• teaching and assessing key competencies in partnership with specialist skills which provide a meaningful learning context
• inference of proficiency based on professional judgement through observation of performance in authentic contexts.

There needs to be a sharper focus on the development of specialist skills through postgraduate education. Specialist skills include technical, research, entrepreneurial and managerial skills. These skills add value to the economy through enhancing innovation, speeding up the adoption of new technologies and improving productive capacity. These skills add value to society by focusing innovation and attention on matters key to cultural and social development and enhanced well-being.

It is expected that postgraduate students will engage in a wide range of fields of study, including the areas government has identified as critical to continued economic development, such as biotechnology, information and communications technologies (ICT) and the creative disciplines. There needs to be more attention to the quality of provision at this level and the match to social and economic development requirements. Opportunities for postgraduate students to gain international experience through their studies also need to be enhanced.

The baseline picture in 2002

There has been good progress in implementing the recommendations of the 2001 Industry Training Review. This will enable ITOs to take a greater leadership role in their industries and develop a more strategic view of training needs.

ITOs have achieved increased coverage of employers and employees. However, some gaps in coverage persist, which TEC is working with ITOs to fill. Women remain significantly under-represented in industry training, including Modern Apprenticeships.

Differences in participation of various groups provides an indicator of relative access to tertiary education. In 2002, there were significant differences in participation by ethnic group, disability status and socio-economic background. Some of these are easier to quantify than others. This shows up a need to have greater focus on improving access:

• for Māori to higher-level qualifications
• overall for Pasifika peoples and students with disabilities
• from school to tertiary study for students in low decile schools.

New Zealand had good engagement of people over 25 in tertiary education. This has been an area of growing participation from 1999 to 2002. Industry training has been effective in engaging trainees aged over 40. Adult and community education provides learning opportunities to a significant proportion of the adult population.

Research and policy work is proceeding on developing a better understanding of generic skills within tertiary education. This is leading up to publication of a discussion document in 2004 to stimulate debate about key competencies, a possible shared framework and best practice in teaching and assessment.

There has been sustained growth in postgraduate enrolments and completions, including growth in PhD completions. However, in 2002, completions of qualifications which are specialised in the areas of particular attention for the government’s growth and innovation strategy, namely ICT, biotechnology and the creative arts, made up five percent of postgraduate qualification completions.

Further development of monitoring

Future monitoring of this strategy will have a greater focus on the engagement of TEOs with business, industry and their communities to ensure that the education they are delivering is relevant to the future needs of their students and stakeholders. Key source information for this area will come from TEO profiles and charters. This will be supplemented with information from stakeholder groups.

The development and implementation of ITO strategic plans will also have greater focus in future monitoring – particularly in terms of the value being added for learners and industries through industry training and the improved connections facilitated between the tertiary education system and industry. This will include analysis of completion rates for both on-the-job and off-the-job training, to the extent that this is possible.

The monitoring will also need to look at measures of employer investment in workforce training and skill development. This needs to include shifts in employer attitudes towards the value of training and returns for employers on their investment in training, as well as the amount of money invested.

The availability and quality of careers information and advice and decision-making support to learners will also be covered in future monitoring. This will be underpinned by research on student decision-making.

Analysis of the above areas on a regional basis will be an important aspect of future monitoring.

Moves to recognise and assess key competencies more explicitly in tertiary qualifications will also be included. TEO profiles will provide information on the focus of TEOs on key competency provision within planning. Analysis of qualification specifications will provide information on how well key competencies are being explicitly structured into learning outcomes.

Broader information on people with high-level specialist qualifications within the population and workforce will also be included within future monitoring. There will also be a focus on the improvements being made by TEOs to the quality and relevance of postgraduate education, including enhanced opportunities for postgraduate students to gain international experience.

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• Table of Contents

• The Baseline Picture

• Cross Strategy Indicators

• Raise foundation skills

• Skills for our knowledge society

• Strengthen research and knowledge creation

• Te rautaki mātauranga Māori

• Pacific people’s development and success

• Capability and quality

• Technical and Data Definitions