$14.5m boost for literacy skills at work

Education Minister Chris Hipkins said more needed to be done to lift adult literacy and numeracy, particularly in lowerskilled occupations.

The announcement comes as the Government’s overhaul of the NCEA system moves ahead, with plans to focus on literacy and numeracy to ensure students reach a certain standard in basic skills.

Hipkins said the changes would also help to give employers a clearer understanding of a person’s skill level.

‘‘The majority of kids who start school today will go into jobs that do not yet currently exist when they leave school,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re going to have to provide regular and ongoing on-the-job upskilling opportunities for everybody in the future because the education system cannot future-proof everybody with skills [if] we don’t yet know what they are.’’

He said it aligned with the Government’s reform of vocational education as more people accessed learning away from the classroom.

National Party employment spokesman Shane Reti said he supported the initiative. However, he believed the programme took from industry training organisations that would be overhauled through the reforms.

The latest Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey estimated 12 per cent of adult New Zealanders had a level 1 or below literacy understanding – 61 per cent of whom were in work. Representatives for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern have received a petition that was carried through rain, thunder and hail.

A hikoi delivered the petition, which called on Ardern to Ihuma¯ tao, to her electorate office yesterday afternoon.

The 20 kilometre route took them from Auckland’s Ma¯ ngere to Mt Albert, with buses stationed along the way for those not intending to walk for the duration.

At 8am, about 200 people left the whenua, singing and waving flags.

SOUL leader Pania Newton was at the head of the march with a megaphone.