“Transforming vocational education and training”

By way of context…

•New Zealand is roughly the same size as Great Britain

• It has only 4 million people

• In general, the population is ageing; but Maori and Pacific populations are youthful and growing, as are Asian peoples through migration

Economically…

•New Zealand depends heavily on overseas trade, especially on markets for primary products

• There has been strong growth for several years

•Unemployment is very low

•Most firms are very small

• Skill shortages and deficits are endemic

•Distance from the rest of the world is a reality

And some context about tertiary education…

• “Tertiary education” covers all learning that takes place after people have left school

• There is an extensive network of provision across the country

Some numbers to complete the picture…

•NZ$4 billion – the Government’s total expenditure on tertiary education

• 504,000 – the number of students enrolled in tertiary education in 2005

• 14.2% - the participation rate of people aged 15 to 64

• 5000 – the total number of qualifications on the NZ Register of Quality Assured Qualifications, of which about 1000 are “national qualifications” and the balance are “local”

With tertiary education offered by…

• 8 universities

• 20 polytechnics and institutes of technology

• 3 wananga

•more than 800 registered private training establishments

• 41 industry training organisations

There has been “a major reform every 2 years”, but there are three main phases…

• the 1980s – characterised by dependence

• the 1990s – characterised by independence

• the period since 2000 – characterised by interdependence

Much has been achieved. What we need now is to …

• retain the gains in participation at the lower levels of the qualifications ladder, especially for those with limited foundation skills

• increase the proportion of learners participating and achieving at higher levels

• further improve equity of access and achievement

• enhance links with business and industry, and

• demonstrate tertiary education’s contribution to economic transformation

Getting there will mean…

• gaining agreement about the specific responsibility of tertiary education to support economic transformation

• achieving political consensus about what this means in practice

• shifting the focus of providers from competition to collaboration, seeing themselves as part of a wider network

• building capability - within providers, within government agencies, and within stakeholder groups

So the current reform agenda looks for an integrated approach that includes…

• more articulate and capable “stakeholders” or users of tertiary education, able to say what they need in a way that leads to

• a clearer expression of government expectations and priorities, in turn leading to

• a partnership approach to provider planning, with each provider focused on their contribution to an overall network of provision, and then

• funding that facilitates delivery of each provider’s agreed plan, followed by

• transparent performance measurement to inform stakeholders, and through them, the next planning cycle

Challenges will include…

• improving data quality

• building an evidence base for decision-making

•making quality assurance transparent

• building capability

So why will it work?

•New Zealand’s size, which provides scope for negotiated approaches to work

• The diversity of provision that now exists, which supports current levels of participation across widely varying needs

• A culture of consultation and engagement, which offers the chance for prior “buy-in” from all of the key players

• A sense that “the time is right” to move to a system that reconciles student demand with wider regional and national goals