ELECTION 17 – APPRENTICESHIPS

Apprenticeships – All businesses would prefer to hire skilled Kiwis than need to look overseas for staff – it is just that much harder, slower and riskier to hire non-Kiwis. Industry should therefore take the lead on vocational training including apprenticeships – there should be no need for politicians or the taxpayer to get involved. We will help business by getting the state out of the way – slashing red tape and cutting the company tax rate to 25%. And we will raise the student allowance rates to keep pace with accommodation costs.

from Nathaniel Blomfield, Labour Candidate for Coromandel

Apprenticeships –
The days when someone could walk out the school gate and into a job for life are long gone.
In the modern economy and society most people can expect to dip in and out of the education system throughout their working lives. For most young New Zealanders, a school education is no longer enough. A major priority for Labour will be ensuring all New Zealanders have the opportunity to retrain and re-educate themselves throughout their lives.
Labour will progressively introduce an entitlement to 3 years of free-post school education or training for New Zealanders to use throughout their lives, as they see fit, for in-job training, apprenticeships, polytech, or university education.
Labour’s Dole for Apprenticeship scheme offers employers who are willing to train an apprentice the equivalent of the unemployment benefit to help them afford the cost of taking on an apprentice.
I am very pleased that Labour will designate funding for night classes and other adult learning opportunities, and that Labour will review the current inequities between the financial support offered to those who seek to retrain or re-educate after they find themselves unable to find work and those receiving a Job Seeker benefit
Labour will change funding systems to encourage the development of ‘hop-on, hop-off’ training to equalise the focus that is placed on completing a qualification and gaining work experience

BY J Tinetti- Tauranga Candidate for Labour Party

APPRENTICESHIPS –Labour will progressively introduce 3 years of free post-school education, allowing access to university, polytechnic or on-job training for young New Zealanders and those who have not studied before.
Labour is boosting its “Dole for Apprenticeships” scheme. We will expand our previous commitment to pay the equivalent of the unemployment benefit to employers who take on an apprentice. This will be available for all 18 to 24-year olds not earning or learning.
We will also give unemployed young people a job for six months doing work of public value, so they can gain work experience and avoid long-term unemployment.

Apprenticeships – The National Party are huge advocates for apprenticeships, and by no means think that university is the only pathway for our young people. It’s not for everyone.
New Zealand is amid its biggest ever building boom. We’re investing over $180m this year to support work-based training and ensure we have the skilled workers to meet this demand and future growth.
Across the country, we’ve surpassed 11,000 building and construction apprentices actively in training and a total of 43,000 New Zealanders are involved in apprenticeships across all sectors. That’s up by nearly 19 per cent since 2012, and we are on our way to achieving our target of 50,000 apprentices by 2020. That’s providing more jobs and opportunities for young people in the Bay of Plenty.
We believe all our young people should be in some form of employment or training.

APPRENTICESHIPS
NZ First will:
• promote apprenticeships and internships as a concrete means of addressing youth unemployment, with particular focus in industries where there is a skills shortage.
• Encourage the use of temporary special measures, such as targeted scholarships, to encourage young women and young men into non-traditional industries.
• The apprenticeship scheme will be broadened to include areas where we have skill shortages e.g. truck drivers.
• Maximize employment prospects so that fewer New Zealanders travel abroad in search of work.
• Provide real opportunities for young people to gain quality education and skills that will enable greater involvement in the economy.
• Work to remove barriers for internships inside willing businesses that provide opportunities for young people to gain industry standard qualifications without incurring debt and with no cost to business.
• New Zealand First has a Business Linked Internship Scheme matching young people wanting work experience in a particular field with a business needing a certain set of skills that is willing to train and support the young person.
• Workforce Planning and forecasting will be amended with industry placements capped and ensuring greater fit between students and fields of study.

BACK TO QUESTIONS