The TEC and Ministry of Education recently held a series of public workshops to generate discussion around Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) which will play a key role under the NZ Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST) in connecting the sector with industries, identifying skills needs, and advising TEC on investment priorities.
The TEC has released outcome documents from the workshops which can be found in the RoVE section of its website. These include links to a presentation given by the TEC and summaries of each of the five workshops. Unitec’s own David Glover, Executive Director Partnerships and Student Recruitment, and Heather Stonyer, Director Industry Partnerships, attended the first of two Auckland sessions.
What are WDCs?
- Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) would have a key skills leadership function, setting standards and qualifications nationally and making sure these standards are being met by learners
- They will be industry-led, and provide direction and advice to the TEC on the type of skills investment needed to support their industries
- This means the TEC would invest in education providers that are able to deliver the skills that employees and trainees need
- ITOs will be disestablished and all on-job training will shift to providers under the NZIST
What was discussed?
There is still a lot of detail to work through before it’s clear what the WDCs will look like and nothing is yet set in stone.
The TEC presenters highlighted several key issues with the current ITO/Polytechnic system which included the significant divergence between the two groups, a system which is overly complicated and penalises learners when they get a job, funding shortfalls, and limited coverage of ITOs (about 2/3 of the workforce).
Workshop attendees, who were a mix of industry, education sector, and government, were asked to give feedback on models shown in the presentation slides and broadly supported one which would have seven WDCs, each advising on a specific vocational pathway.
There were a number of concerns raised, including how to ensure smaller players would have a voice in the WDCs, that employers may face a number of contact points within the NZIST, that education providers would require input to WDCs to ensure the view extends to the future of work beyond employers’ immediate needs, and the risk of increased bureacracy and cost to adminster WDCs.
From the meetings it was also clear that there is a great deal of work and detail still to go and the transition away from ITOs may take some time.
We will continue to provide updates as we learn more.
If you would like to share your views or thoughts on WDCs, you can send them to WDCs@tec.govt.nz