New Zealand Apprenticeships right approach

More funding and focus on apprenticeships is the right approach, says BusinessNZ.

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly says the revamped New Zealand Apprenticeships scheme announced today will help get more people into needed skill areas.

“More overall funding, higher requirements for educational content and financial incentives to enter into apprenticeships are useful changes,” Mr O’Reilly said. “Higher incentive payments for priority construction trades will particularly help get the skills needed for the Christchurch rebuild.

“It will be important for these changes in apprenticeships to be executed well.  Employers want quality apprenticeship training.

“Allowing employers to get direct access to industry training funding to organise their apprenticeships if desired will bring competitive pressures on ITOs and help build on their higher performance in recent months.

“Past problems in the system that resulted in waste and large numbers of ‘phantom trainees’ have been robustly addressed by recent work in this area and by the changes announced today.  BusinessNZ strongly recommended that savings from fixing the problem should be reinvested in industry training and it is pleasing to see this happening.

“Under the new scheme the increased focus on higher educational content will need to complement - not replace - practical elements of the training.

““The training will need to be fit for purpose, with the ability to hold ITOs, training providers, employers and trainees to account.

“It will be important that government agencies and ITOs work together with industry to ensure that these changes do enhance the value of training for employers and employees.”