ITF Welcomes Commitment to Skills Strategy

ITF Welcomes Commitment to Skills Strategy

The Industry Training Federation has welcomed commitment from across Parliament to the New Zealand Skills Strategy.

The Federation questioned seven political parties contesting this year’s general election about commitment to support the Strategy’s priorities for action and received a resounding response in favour of the strategy.

“This is a great response,” Federation Executive Director Jeremy Baker said.

“The New Zealand Skills Strategy involved the ITF, Business New Zealand and the Council of Trade Unions working with government on a skills strategy that signals and important shift in industry skills policy. Rather than focus almost solely on the ‘front end’ of skills – education and training – it looks more at how skills are applied and how to get value out of training.

“As we approach uncertain economic times, good quality industry training becomes more essential and a cost effective way of ensuring that our country develops a highly skilled workforce.

“In particular, several of the parties noted the focus in the New Zealand Skills Strategy on literacy and numeracy skills and how critical they are to New Zealand workplaces.

“Improving workplace literacy and numeracy is seen as a key priority for New Zealand employers and I am confident that the New Zealand Skills Strategy is the vehicle by which we can make significant progress in this area.”

Mr Baker also welcomed political parties commitment to giving ITOs a greater voice in how funding for vocational education and training is spent.

“ITOs are the interface between the industries they represent and tertiary education and training and their expertise should be better utilised to ensure that the government tertiary education funding is used effectively,” he said.

ENDS

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