Trade package ‘incredible’
TRAINING Apprenticeships and courses in ‘critical industries’ free for next 2 years
Aleading trade training agency says the $1.6 billion Budget package to boost apprenticeships and industry training is “incredible”. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my career,” Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation chief executive Warwick Quinn said.
Apprenticeships and vocational courses in “critical industries” will be made free over the next two years for everyone — not just those eligible for fees-free tertiary study.
Which industries are critical are yet to be defined, but Education Minister Chris Hipkins said: “It will include courses linked to industry skills needs, in building and construction, agriculture, and manufacturing, and also vocational courses like community health, counselling and care work.” The fund is available from July 1. Quinn said only a third of new apprentices in his industry qualify for free fees because they’ve done no previous tertiary study.
The other two-thirds, who now pay about $1750 in the first year and $750 to $800 in later years because they have done previous tertiary courses, will pay nothing. from July 1.
Trades courses in polytechnics, which are being merged into a national NZ Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST), will also be free for all students. The free training scheme has been allocated $320 million over four years, $80m a year.
A further $412m over four years — $103m a year — has been allocated to “support for employers to retain and keep training their apprentices”.
Quinn has not yet seen any details on that but Australia has brought in a wage subsidy that covers 50 per cent of wages paid to apprentices and trainees from January to September, plus $7000 for each apprentice every quarter for employers.
Quinn said the initiatives would help keep apprenticeships going when the house-building industry took an expected hit from people losing jobs because of Covid-19.
“Seventy to 80 per cent of apprentices are in residential.
“Because existing house prices are predicted to fall, construction will be similarly affected. It happens in every recession. The next 12 to 18 months or so will be quite tough.”
New housing consents were running at 38,000 a year just before the lockdown, the highest for 40 years, but Quinn said that might drop by 20 to 30 per cent in the recession.
He said another Budget initiative, building 8000 new social housing units over the next few years, would help to offset this decline.
The Budget also includes $276m over four years to set up Workplace Development Councils, taking over the job of setting qualifications.
Quinn said reports indicated these would now be set up this year, two years sooner than had been planned.