NorthTec responds to skills shortage by looking to fire

30 March 2011

Tertiary Education Union

NorthTec is looking to make three carpentry and electrical engineering trades tutors redundant. The redundancies are a very possible result of an on-going review of the area, as NorthTec tries to cut budgets and save money.

Tertiary Education Union organiser Chan Dixon says it is saddening that NorthTec is looking to axe teaching staff from construction and engineering at the same time as Immigration New Zealand has revealed there are immediate skills shortages for these trades in Auckland and the upper North Island.

"With the Christchurch earthquakes and the recent disasters in Australia everyone knows we need more skilled trades people. And yet NorthTec is looking to make the very people who teach those new tradespeople redundant and is taking away opportunities for young Northlanders."

Ms Dixon says cutting the number of trades tutors is part of a wider trend among polytechnics to cope with severely constrained budgets.

NorthTec already decided in February not to renew its contract with the Electrical Industry Training Organisation, with the result that all Northland apprentices now have to travel to Auckland for block courses which are integral to their training.

"NorthTec is responding to short-term funding constraints. But, by doing so, it's undermining one of its main purposes - its job is to respond to future regional and national skills shortages."

NorthTec will conclude its review and make a decision late next week.

ENDS

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