LAUNCH OF CAREER OPTIONS IN ENGINEERING

I am pleased to be participating in this launch today. The time since I was appointed Minister of Education has been extremely busy. I have been endeavouring to get my head around all sides of what is a very big and complex portfolio.

This function tonight represents my first formal speaking engagement in relation to the Skill New Zealand Strategy.

One of the interesting developments in my appointment to the position of Minister of Education has been the Prime Ministers decision to combine the Employment and Education Portfolios. A decision that in my view, if it is possible, is more than 100% right. The two areas are inextricably linked. We cannot succeed in one without the other.

In fact I have noticed how many in the media have asked me if the departments themselves should be combined as in Australia. For New Zealand this is not necessary. This is because we moved all the skills and training fucntions of the old Labour Department over to Education in the late 1980s. The Labour Department maintains its responsibility for the New Zealand Employment Service, and the Community Employment Group. Both activities have a very strong labour market focus and I think are more appropriately located in the Labour Department. But it is very important to bring the policy orientation of the two departments together.

Skill New Zealand is a key part of our strategy to maintain competitive advantage for the New Zealand economy and nation over the years ahead. I delegated the day-to-day responsibility for the Skill New Zealand programme to my colleague, the Associate Minister of Education, Roger McClay. I have asked Roger to begin with a full stocktake of where the policy is and come back with any recommendations he thinks should be advanced to make sure Skill New Zealand remains on track.

Already one problem has eme ged - not with Skill NZ but with the Qualifications Framework - this is the question of the broadening of the Qualifications Framework to include provider qualifications. I want to make it clear to that as far as the Government advisers were concerned this move was seen as a natural evolution of the qualifications framework concept, not a new departure. I have asked officials to go out and fully explain the decision to all groups involved, including Industry Training Organisations, and to come back to me with any feedback. When that feedback is received, we will look at the result to make sure that this evolutionary track will work for New Zealand. We will aim clearly to maintain the credibility and the durability of our qualifications system.

Let me reiterate once more our commitment to the concept of the Qualifications Framework. We want a qualification system that runs from school through post school training through to workplaces, available in any one or other of those sites so that young people can build on their skills without having to start at different providers at square one with the discrete non creditable qualifications of the past.

Portability and flexibility are the keys.

The Engineering ITO is one of 52 ITOs which are currently setting standards in administering training for the industries they represent. I am advised that if you take the bands of workers covered by ITOs currently operating, over 70% of the workforce is now covered with some form of structured training.

The Engineering ITO was recognised by the Board of the Education Training and Support Agency in April 1993. It covers 4,000 employers and 35,000 employees in its industry zone. Although based in Auckland, it has a well established national network.

The Engineering ITO has developed unit standards and qualifications across the wide range of the engineering sector at various levels on the National Qualifications Framework. More than 2,000 employers across 22 major skill areas have worked with the Engineering ITO to develop the skills and qualifications which industry needs to shape its future. There are currently ten National Certificates registered in areas such as manufacturing processes, refrigeration and airconditioning and engineering machining.

The ITO is currently involved in a whole industry project to develop a unit standard based qualification which will replace New Zealands Certificate in Engineering.

During 1996 the Engineering ITO will be participating in the Governments Skills Pathways programme, which is being designed to promote different pathways to vocational learning for young people aged between 16 and 21.

School pupils at several schools around the country will be assessed against Engineering ITO developed unit standards in manufacturing processes. The number of apprentices increased from 1,004 at the end 1993 to 1,927 at the end 1995. The ITO estimates that it will have 3,500 people in structured training by the end of 1996, as employers register trainers with the new National Certificates.

Our countrys companies will maintain their competitive advantage only if they continually improve through innovation and upgrading of their systems.

Industries capable of supporting a high and rising standard of living in todays global economy - a global economy whose existence we cannot deny or hide away from - those industries will hold their position only by making continual investment in skills and knowledge.

The Skill New Zealand policy is intended to raise the skill levels of all New Zealanders. We need in New Zealand what we might call a training culture throughout our country, to motivate both industry and young people to the needs or skill levels to be raised if we are to build on our living standards.

We clearly see a need for the continual development of a training strategy based on, if I could slightly paraphrase Abraham Lincolns famous dictum training designed by industry, of industry and for industry to meet its needs. The Industry Training Act provides a structure for each industry to take control of the development, implementation and administration of industry training for their industry.

I congratulate the Engineering Industry Training Organisation on the launch of the new Career Options Programme. Its hard for young people now to make decisions about their careers these days. Better information will help them, and it is good to see industries not only leading in their training but leading in their efforts to attract bright, enthusiastic, young people into their industry. The Employment Task Force saw better career information and guidance as a key need to improve job outcomes for young people. The Government will play its bit in this effort. We recently announced an additional $3 million of Government money to go into the development of better careers information for the young people of New Zealand.

The new pattern has been established. As a result of the panel report following the Employment Task Force recommendation to review the careers service, the data base of information will be set up as a separate operation. Careers counselling will become a recognised service in its own right. We intend to use a business unit to provide that service in the first instance, but fully expect that with time, private consultancies - expert in providing career information and counselling - will develop throughout the community.

This ITO initiative launched here today tailors well into this key goal. It will advance the engineering industry in the right direction. I congratulate you on the development.