Page 8 - HW AUGUST 2019

hard news
ON THE FIRST of this month, following
a shortish period of consultation, the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, revealed the Government’s final decisions on the proposals for the Reform of Vocational Education (ROVE).
Due to be phased in over the next three years, there are seven key changes towards creating the new “unified” vocational education system:
1. Workforce Development Councils
(WDCs) – Up to 7 new industry- governed bodies will “give industry greater leadership across vocational education”.
2. Regional Skills Leadership Groups
– Will advise the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), WDCs and local vocational education providers about their regions’ skills needs.
3. Te Taumata Aronui – A new group to help ensure that ROVE “reflects the Government’s commitment to Māori Crown partnerships”.
4. New Zealand Institute of Skills & Technology (NZIST) – Unifies the existing 16 Institutes of Technology and Polytechs (ITPs). NZIST will
be established in April 2020 but will initially keep the 16 ITPs as subsidiary companies and will only gradually take over industry training.
5. Workplace learning support – To
6 NZHJ | AUGUST 2019
shift from ITOs to the new NZIST and “other providers” and would support workplace-based, on-the- job training as well as delivering education and training in classroom- based settings.
6. Centres of Vocational Excellence (COVEs) – COVEs will bring together the NZIST, other providers, WDCs, industry experts and researchers to “grow excellent vocational education provision and share high-quality curriculum and programme design across the system”.
7. A unified vocational education funding system – A new unified funding system will apply to all provider-based and work-integrated education at Certificate and Diploma qualification Levels 3-7 (excluding degree study) and all industry training.
Of course, with much detail design and implementation still to be ironed out, none of this will happen overnight and Chris Hipkins freely admits that “a transformation of this size will take a number of years to complete”.
Of those ITOs closest to the hardware channel, BCITO and its industry partners will be losing control of on-the-job learning to the new centrally run NZIST.
Although clearly disappointed with the outcome, BCITO Chief Executive,
Warwick Quinn, says the Government has however taken on sector industry views on how to manage the transition in a way that minimises disruption to employers and apprentices.
“We cannot afford to throw the baby out with the bathwater and get this wrong. The last thing anybody wants is to look back in five years and wonder what happened to all the apprentices.”
BCITO’s advice included having fewer Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) to ensure greater capability and wide sector coverage.
Advice also included the creation
of interim agencies relating to on-job learning to allow the new NZIST time to get operational.
In terms of what next for BCITO, Warwick Quinn says: “Our main focus now is on supporting our staff, apprentices and employers through these changes.
“We must ensure employers and apprentices encounter no disruption and the only thing they notice is a change of the branding on the shirt from the person coming to visit them.
“It is essential employers and apprentices understand it is business as usual and they should not hold off entering into an apprenticeship for fear of not completing or what the changes might mean.”
MORE AT www.hardwarejournal.co.nz
ROVE decisions announced, smooth transition the key