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Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today announced a new university scholarship initiative for Indian students. The announcement was made with the President of the Republic of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in Auckland.

Thirty five top Indian scholars are being offered the opportunity to study graduate and postgraduate programmes at all eight of New Zealand’s world class universities, including in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), fashion, and business related courses through the New Zealand Excellence Awards.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today launched the ‘Make the World’ Engineering to Employment (E2E) campaign to encourage more young people into a career in engineering.

‘Make the World’ will illustrate the wide range of choices available within engineering, with opportunities to design everything from life-saving medical equipment to the latest agricultural and manufacturing technologies.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today announced three new appointments and five re-appointments to five tertiary education institution councils.

“I welcome the valuable knowledge and experience that the new appointees will bring into their new roles. I also welcome the reappointment of a number of council members in recognition of the high-quality leadership they have been providing to these institutions,” Mr Joyce says.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today welcomed the opening of Canterbury University’s QuakeCore: Centre for Earthquake Resilience.

Mr Joyce also opened the University’s new Structural Engineering Laboratory which is the first building to be completed in the “Canterbury Engineering the Future” project funded by the Government in support of the University’s recovery. The laboratory will give researchers access to the latest earthquake technologies and is the largest facility of its type in New Zealand.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today opened the Brain Research New Zealand Dementia Prevention Research Clinic in Auckland.

The clinic is part of the $29.8 million Brain Research Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE.) 

“The Clinic will allow New Zealand researchers to carry out world-leading studies about how to slow the progression of dementia,” Mr Joyce says.

The first clinic will open in Auckland and similar clinics are planned in Christchurch and Dunedin later this year.

The Canterbury Skills and Employment Hub which matches job seekers with employers will stay open until June 2018 to continue helping employers in the region meet their skills needs says Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Social Development Minister Anne Tolley.

The Hub was set up in November 2012 to help with the Christchurch rebuild and Canterbury’s wider economic recovery. It was due to shut in June 2016.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Michael Woodhouse have welcomed a further boost in repayments from overseas-based student loan borrowers.

Over the first two months of this year there was a 31 per cent increase in repayments by overseas based borrowers over the same period in 2015.  In January and February this year $29.7 million was received from overseas-based borrowers, compared with $22.7 million in January and February last year.

New information has been released today which shows what graduates go on to earn once they have studied in different disciplines at universities and other tertiary providers.

Four factsheets on the national employment outcomes for young domestic graduates, released by the Ministry of Education, follow the earnings and employability of students for the first nine years following graduation. The information comes from a dataset administered by Statistics New Zealand using the earnings for each discipline based on actual tax returns.

The official launch of the newly formed Ara Institute of Canterbury, a merger of Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) and Aoraki Polytechnic, took place today with events being held in Christchurch, Timaru, Oamaru and Ashburton to mark the occasion.

Associate Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Louise Upston joined staff and guests on campus for the dawn service where the new name was announced.

The latest employment forecast from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment predicts the number of jobs in New Zealand will grow by another 148,300 over the next three years. 

The Short-Term Employment Forecasts: 2016-19 report, released today, predicts employment will grow an average of 2.1 per cent annually over the next three years.

“It is encouraging to see robust job growth is predicted to continue across the country,” says Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has announced a new code of practice for education providers that will strengthen the care of international students in New Zealand.

“There are more than 100,000 international students who come to New Zealand each year. New Zealand was one of the first countries to adopt a code of practice in 2002. This new code will ensure we remain a world leader in the pastoral care of international students,” Mr Joyce says.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today announced four Ministerial appointments to the Council of the new tertiary education institution that brings together the Waiariki Institute of Technology and the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic.

“I am pleased to welcome Catherine (Cathy) Cooney as Chair of the new Council. I have also appointed Ian Turner as Deputy Chair and Rahera Ohia QSM and Ngaroma Tahana as members,” Mr Joyce said.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today officially opened the Auckland ICT Graduate School at Auckland University.

“The Auckland ICT Graduate School is a collaboration between The University of Auckland and University of Waikato, which will develop post-graduate students who  will have the technical, communication, critical thinking, business, and enterprise skills that employers’ value,” says Mr Joyce.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today announced $162,000 over two years for the implementation of Taranaki’s International Education Strategy, through Education New Zealand’s (ENZ) Regional Partnership Programme.

Mr Joyce was in New Plymouth to launch the strategy, making Taranaki the latest region to benefit from government investment in international education, both at the local and national levels. It formalises the existing cooperation between Taranaki education providers and Venture Taranaki.

The New Zealand Government today received two international awards for the mobile apps ‘Force Fit’ and ‘Occupation Outlook.’

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee and Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce congratulated staff at the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment who developed the apps, which received Best m-Government Service Awards at the annual World Government Summit in Dubai.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today released the 2016 Occupation Outlook report and mobile app which shows job prospects continue to be very good in highly skilled, fast growing industries such as high-tech manufacturing and ICT. 

“Software developers, ICT systems and business analysts, for example, are in high demand reflecting New Zealand’s growing technology software and services sector,” Mr Joyce says.

The latest Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) shows unemployment has fallen to 5.3 per cent, the lowest since March 2009.

There were an additional 21,000 jobs in the December quarter, and 175,000 additional jobs over the past three years.

“It’s positive to see strong falls in unemployment in many regions, including Northland, Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu/Whanganui, Nelson/Tasman/Marlborough/West Coast, Taranaki and the Waikato,” says Mr Joyce.

Figures released today show the Government’s infrastructure programme is a significant contributor to jobs across New Zealand, Finance Minister Bill English and Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce say.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has welcomed a report which shows apprentice numbers and completion rates are both up, following the major industry training reforms of 2012/13. 

The Ministry of Education report on workplace training NZ’s Workplace-Based Learners: 2014, shows a shift to apprenticeships and away from lower level traineeships. At the same time, completion rates have increased.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has welcomed figures released today that show a greater proportion of degree-level domestic graduates are completing qualifications in STEM-related subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths.)

“It’s important that we grow the number of graduates in areas where there is real industry demand,” Mr Joyce says.  “Producing more engineering, ICT and science graduates will help alleviate actual and potential skill shortages in these key areas.”

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Education Minister Hekia Parata have congratulated the twelve New Zealanders who are recipients of New Year’s Honours for their services to education.

“I’d like to congratulate the 2016 recipients for the valuable contribution they’ve made to education in New Zealand and internationally,” Mr Joyce says. “It’s great to see some of the best being honoured for their services.”

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce has today announced the Ministerial appointments to the governing council of the new tertiary institution for Canterbury, which merges Aoraki Polytechnic and Christchurch Institute of Technology (CPIT).

The Ministerial appointees are Jenn Bestwick as Chair of the new institution, Janie Annear as Deputy Chair, and Elizabeth Hopkins and Stephen Collins as council members. 

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today announced two new appointments to the Northland Polytechnic (NorthTec) council.

“I am pleased to welcome Wayne Jackson and Bronwyn Yates into their new roles at NorthTec. They are both high-calibre appointees who bring valuable knowledge and experience to the council,” Mr Joyce says.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Minister for Pacific Peoples Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga have announced $763,000 funding for the Pasifika Education Centre in South Auckland.

“The Pasifika Education Centre (PEC) did not qualify for the full amount of the contestable Adult and Community Education (ACE) funding which it applied for, but I consider the work the centre does around Pacific languages and cultural education boosts Pasifika skills and is in the national interest to be funded,” Mr Joyce says.