Waihanga Ara Rau is keen on post-election stability even if ‘the Te Pūkenga disaster’ gets reversed
With vocational training a hot-button issue this election, the construction industry’s workforce council is keen on stability and support to help meet a $282 billion pipeline no matter the outcome.
The National Party has committed to reversing changes made to New Zealand’s vocational training landscape in 2020 by the then Education Minister Chris Hipkins, with National deputy leader Nicola Willis committed to reversing “the Te Pūkenga disaster” at the party's conference in June.
READ MORE: * National lays out plans to cut construction red tape * Online tech students in tears over funding cancellation * Defining issues: Infrastructure’s bottomless well
The party has made constant digs since the passing of the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill.
More recent criticisms have focused on substantial deficits and job cuts at Te Pūkenga, but the mega-merger wasn’t the only change introduced by the amendment bill.
Hipkins established workforce development councils, giving industry a greater hand in developing and endorsing vocational education programmes.
It’s an element of the vocational reform National is less likely to reverse; supporting access to skilled construction workers through apprenticeships was a pillar of National’s Better Building and Construction plan released last month.
Workforce development councils were established for industries such as health, foods and engineering, as well as construction and infrastructure workplace development council Waihanga Ara Rau.
Waihanga Ara Rau chief executive Philip Aldridge said the organisation was politically neutral and would support whatever choice the government of the day makes regarding vocational training. “But we don't want disruption because obviously that means your teachers, your learners or your employers get less engaged," he said.
“Our focus is on delivering for industry and getting people trained up essentially and making sure that people can still build the skills, so yes, ideally we don't want disruption, but governments decide that.”
If not done smoothly, reversing the Te Pūkenga amalgamation could be disruptive. Continuation of the organisation’s current state, with a substantial deficit and massive restructures incoming, could of course also create a disruptive environment.
Having engaged with industry at Waihanga Ara Rau’s first summit earlier this month, Aldridge said though building consents were off-peak, it wasn’t anything like a crisis point and the supply of skilled tradespeople was still essential.
He said there was still a major need for housing, as well as work on the cyclone rebuild and the growing national demand for new water infrastructure.
Despite the slight slowdown, the group’s pipeline estimate has had an upward trend over the last six months, with $282b of work currently in its five-year rolling forecast.
If all the projects in that pipeline went ahead, New Zealand would need to double its skilled workforce.
Waihanga Ara Rau general manager of engagement and partnerships Erica Cumming said filling some of those roles required considerable education and advocacy. “I don’t think people normally finish school and go, ‘I’m going to go into the water industry’.”
Regardless of the political outcome on October 14, it expected water would require 6,000-9,000 extra people in the industry over the next 30 years.
