A report from the New Zealand Institute More Ladders, Fewer Snakes argues that New Zealand youth are disadvantaged compared to their OECD counterparts and that a more job-focused approach to education is needed to tackle high youth unemployment.

The institute says that New Zealand youth perform well on average relative to OECD norms in education. However, for each of the other four measures of wellbeing [unemployment, crime, health and safety, and teenage births] New Zealand’s average is materially worse than the OECD average. The disadvantage is strongly concentrated in Māori and Pacific ethnic groups and there is no convincing sign of improvement trends.

Despite saying the education system is doing well the report then calls for a more jobs-focused approach.

“There are many educational institutions that compete for students and the funding they bring,” the report authors state. “Success depends on being able to offer courses that students find appealing, but there is no robust test to ensure that the courses offered will lead to work for the graduates. Most educational institutions do not track what happens to their students when they graduate and there are weak connections between the institutions and employers.”

The report proposes a central agency, such as Careers NZ, that be mandated to provide oversight of the overall careers system and make changes that will promote life-long career self-management. It estimates the annual bill for all its proposals at $200 million, but it also estimates that the annual cost from youth unemployment, youth incarceration, youth on the sole parent benefit, including taxes forgone, is around $900 million.

TEU Deputy Secretary Nanette Cormack said that anyone acting on the New Zealand Institute report needed to be aware that creating a sucessful secondary-tertiary transition was about more than just more than just giving school leavers skills that employers demanded.