Waffle and words won't increase skills and knowledge

The Government’s announcement of a target to modestly increase the number of graduates from degrees and high level trade programmes fails on two counts - a lack of ambition and the absence of any concrete actions to get there, says Labour’s Tertiary Education, Skills and Training Spokesperson Grant Robertson.

"The Government's own figures show that the number of graduates has flattened off over the last three years under its watch. It has now set a target simply to raise them back to the rate they were increasing at under Labour. The fact that the numbers have flat-lined is a reflection of the Government's failure to invest in tertiary education and skills.

“Given the importance of a highly skilled population to our economic development, the Government should have considered a more ambitious goal than just making up for their own lost ground.

“What is worse is that the Minister has provided no concrete actions that will even achieve this modest increase in graduates.  All they have offered is some waffle about working more with providers.

"In fact, recent action taken by the Government, including abolishing allowances for post graduate study, reducing access to allowances and increasing the repayment threshold for student loan repayments, will only make it harder to achieve this target.

"Until National stops seeing tertiary education and skills development as a cost to be cut, and start seeing it as an investment in our future, it won’t have a hope of meeting any targets, even a modest one such as this, said Grant Robertson.