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TEO approaches to meeting the skill needs of industry

The analysis of 2005/07 and 2006/08 profiles found that meeting the skill needs of industry was a strong area of change-focus for ITOs and ITPs. The decline from 2005/07 to 2006/08, in a number of cases, represents TEOs moving new initiatives into business as usual and focusing on operationalising and consolidating these initiatives.

Percentage of TEOs with change-focused objectives relating to meeting the skill needs of industry in profiles 2005/07–2006/08

ITOs are working in collaboration with industry to assess skill needs as part of their leadership role. In their profiles, most ITOs have objectives to ensure that their qualifications and training programmes reflect the needs of industry. Several also have objectives relating to good practice and quality provision of industry training, in a way that is responsive to industry needs. Many ITOs are also expanding and marketing their provision and coverage across their industries.

The most common approaches in ITPs are to develop partnerships, relationships and joint ventures with industry, and involving industry in the development of qualifications and programmes, with the latter often being achieved through advisory groups.

The research on stakeholder engagement found a similar pattern from the analysis of profiles. ITPs had the most frequent references to active engagement with industry of all tertiary education providers. This was followed by universities, whose engagement with industry is spread across education and research. The providers surveyed in that research were satisfied with their level of engagement with industry and believed they contributed substantially to the economic and moderately to the social goals of business and industry.

Industry views on provider engagement

The research on stakeholder engagement found that people within industry reported wide-ranging amounts of engagement from tertiary education providers, from none at all through to very frequent. The nature of the engagement varied from providers just promoting courses to more considered engagement. In general, engagement from universities was patchy and driven by faculty staff, while engagement from ITPs was somewhat more coordinated and driven by the organisation. Industry representatives were generally critical of the quality of engagement, often seeing it as narrowly based and lacking mutual respect; they tended overall to be dissatisfied with the engagement. Where successful engagement did occur, it was dependent on the people and providers involved and a willingness from both sides to identify and work on areas of mutual interest.

Across industry groups, three key barriers to engagement were identified. Firstly, more often than not, it was the stakeholders who had to initiate engagement, while providers were not proactive. Secondly, they found providers to be bureacratic, inflexible and unable to respond to rapidly changing industry needs. Thirdly, there were the disparate goals of industry and education providers and the difficulty of establishing common goals. These were exacerbated by lack of time and resources, both on the side of industry and from tertiary education providers.

Labour market and employment strategy coordinating a focus on a high-performing labour market

The government’s new labour market and employment strategy, ‘Better Work, Working Better’ aims to achieve a high-performing labour market in New Zealand. The strategy has four inter-related goals:

1. high levels of participation in high-quality, well-paid and diversified employment
2. a diverse, adaptable and highly skilled workforce
3. high-quality and productive workplaces, within an effective regulatory environment
4. high-performing sector and regional labour markets.

Meeting skill needs through tertiary education is critical to the achievement of the second goal. However, tertiary education also has an influence on the other goals.

Partnerships for Excellence increasing the private sector investment in tertiary education

The Partnerships for Excellence framework aims to increase private sector investment in tertiary education and foster better links between tertiary education institutions, industry and business. Partnerships for Excellence enables tertiary institutions to seek matching funding from government for large-scale investment projects (generally those valued at $10 million or more).

In the 2005 funding round, six new proposals were approved with total funding committed of $40.6 million. This adds to the four projects approved from 2002 to 2004. The new projects cover such areas as:

• building capability in agriculture and life sciences, and the equine industry
• plastics, information and communications technology, and health innovation
• a real world learning centre for the trades.

ITP Business Links Fund supporting closer collaboration

The ITP Business Links Fund provides a resource to build the capability of ITPs to establish and maintain effective working relationships with the business sector. Longer term, it is envisaged that ITPs will be able to adapt their provision to reflect more closely the skill requirements of business and industry.

The second allocation round of $5 million was held at the end of 2005. Funding was allocated to a range of projects including:

• research to support business engagement plans, particularly on skill needs analysis
• building human capability to develop staff skills to work with industry more effectively, including staff secondments to industry
• increasing the relevance of provision, including student placements and secondments from industry, also known as ‘experts in residence’
• establishing centres, incubators or clusters for cooperative curriculum development, increasing staff knowledge, provision of work experience for students and opportunities for graduates
• improving advice received through programme advisory committees through improved structures, increased resources and additional activities, such as regular forums with business stakeholders and community representatives.

The focus for investment in 2006 has shifted from activities designed to improve relationships with business stakeholders, to the adaptation of provision to meet the needs of local business/industry.

Growth and Innovation Pilot Initiatives (Growth Pilots) testing new ideas

The Growth Pilots were designed to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and sharing of knowledege and expertise between TEOs and businesses in three target sectors — namely biotechnology, information and communications technology, and design. The pilots are also aimed at improving the quantity and fitness for purpose of graduates in relevant areas of study.

In the three funding rounds from 2004 to 2006, the TEC has approved just over $17 million for 31 projects, ranging from one to four years’ duration. The projects are led by 10 TEOs and involve partners in over 25 TEOs and across a wide range of industries, including: game development, plastics, fashion, textiles, sports apparel, furniture, engineering, biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, agribiotechnology, healthcare, health informatics, tourism, software systems, whiteware manufacturing, timber and animal health industries.

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• Table of Contents

• The State of Play

• 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