Jobs Summit dilemma: what kind of education will create real jobs?
At this stage it is uncertain which, if any, of the Jobs Summit proposals the government is likely to support and to what extent it will support each proposal. However, the renewed focus on education, skills, and training means representatives in the tertiary-education sector are now assessing how to meet the demand.
The New Zealand Herald editorialised on Saturday that “the Government should listen more favourably to on-site training proposals than those involving tertiary education. One of the unspoken trends of the past 20 years has been the institutionalisation of training. Every course takes several years and, in many cases, the knowledge could be acquired in a fraction of the time.”
However TEU national secretary, Sharn Riggs, believes it is essential that any skills and training package is integrated into a formalised public-education system that ensures that workers learn and earn real qualifications.
“Education is the right tool to combat the recession. But if investing in education for workers is the tool we choose we can’t then take shortcuts. We need to make sure we invest in high-quality public education that gives workers recognised skills and qualifications.”
NZVCC chair, Professor Roger Field, argues that universities have a role educating the vast majority of the professional workforce through research-led teaching. “Public investment in key areas of the university system will help to address skill shortages in the professional workforce,” he has said.
Chairperson for the lobby group Quality Pubic Education Coalition (QPEC), John Minto, says that the crisis in availability of skilled workers for the New Zealand economy can be traced directly to a government drive in the 1990s for worksite based training:
“On job training generally trains a person for a specific job in a specific industry rather than up-skilling the person with portable, wide ranging skills which empowers them and gives them real choices in employment. On -job training too often is cheap, low-quality with the focus on the needs of industry rather than the needs of the person.”
