Building and Construction Training Fund (BCTF) welcomes the Government’s proposed reform of the vocational education and training system in New Zealand, as an opportunity for meaningful changes that set the system up to improve outcomes.

BCTF, an umbrella construction industry association that represents 18 trade association members, has submitted its feedback to Government on its proposal for reform, saying it supports the general direction, but that it doesn’t go far enough to ensure responsiveness to industry needs.

Grant Florence, BCTF Chief Executive, says its key focus is on the work-based learning aspect of the proposed reform and that while it supports the proposal for a statutory body with industry representation to set standards, it believes the statutory body should be accountable to industry.

“Under the Government’s proposal, while industry would be involved in developing standards through representation on the statutory body, final sign-off would continue to sit with NZQA. In our view, final sign-off of standards should sit with respective industry peak bodies rather than continuing to sit with government agencies, so that it is truly industry-led,” says Mr Florence.

Another enhancement BCTF recommends is the introduction of new measures to incentivise more on-job apprenticeship training, better share the cost of this among all employers in the industry, and improve the quality of trainers.

“For example, in the building and construction sector an option would be to add a training levy to the Licensed Building Practitioner Framework, which would ensure that all potential employers of qualified tradespersons are sharing in the cost of their training rather than relying on the goodwill of a small number of employers who do training apprentices as is the case currently.

“Not only would this likely incentivise more employers to take on apprentices, the funding raised by the levy could contribute to new apprenticeship training opportunities, including the development of ‘train the trainer’ programmes to enhance the quality of on-job training and overall learning outcomes,” says Mr Florence.

BCTF’s full submission includes its position on other aspects of the reform proposal, including some reservations around recreating the conditions for unhealthy competition between Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics and for potential lack of consistency in how standards are interpreted and delivered, as has been the case in the past.

“This reform presents an opportunity to get things right, so BCTF is committed to ongoing engagement with Government to ensure the voice of industry, and ultimately learners in our sector, is heard,” says Mr Florence.

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