Industry Will Hold Minister To Account On Te Pūkenga Promises - MTA

Government has listened to the automotive industry and promised that work-based training will return to industry hands, the Motor Trade Association (MTA) says.

MTA has been assured by Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds that MITO (the training organisation for automotive) will emerge from the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga as an industry-owned, industry-lead organisation, Chief Executive Lee Marshall says.

“While the Minister’s announcement this morning was short on detail, we are cautiously optimistic that she has listened to industry and landed on the best outcome for learners, employers and industry,” he says.

“We have spoken directly with the Minister, and she has assured us that initially MITO will sit temporarily within a specific Motor Industry Skills Board (ISB), with minimal Government influence, then be carved out as a privately-owned training organisation.

“This is what industry advocated strongly for, and if confirmed in the detail we congratulate Penny Simmonds for listening to industry and coming to the best decision.”

MTA lead a taskforce of 30 automotive sector organisations to give feedback to Government on the plans.

The group unanimously rejected Government leadership of work-based training and argued that only the sector could develop a framework that supported learners and ensured they were equipped and ready for the industry.

Keeping training in automotive industry hands will also better enable employers to shape vocational training, ensuring it remains current and directly aligned with business needs – benefitting not only the sector and learners but the wider public.

“The proposed alternative would have been a giant leap backwards, that placed learners in the hands of polytechnics that would inevitably prioritise classroom-based tuition instead of learning in a hands-on, real world environment that we know works best,” Mr Marshall says.

“If Government had taken that route, it would have been transparently obvious it was simply to make money and prop up failing institutions, with no concern for learners.”

MTA is now looking forward to working with Government and agencies on developing the new structure.

“The devil will be in the detail and the first task is to learn a lot more about what’s intended,” Mr Marshall says.

“But we’re pleased Minister Simmonds has assured us an independent MITO lead and owned by industry is ahead.

‘We will take the Minister at her word, and look forward to working with her on the delivery.”

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