CTU Media Release

25 January 2013

A start made on apprenticeships, but more is needed

Peter Conway, CTU Secretary says "supporting 14,000 people into apprenticeships over five years, for all ages is a good start, but is a drop in the bucket and won't solve our jobs crisis."

"In its last term the Government cut $55 million from industry training and it is now vital they reinvest significantly to up-skill the workforce and support workers getting training opportunities."

"We currently have 175,000 people unemployed, 294,900 jobless and over 113,000 people looking for more hours at work. This means that we have 400,000 people out of work or looking for more work, this is a national crisis and 14,000 apprenticeships over 5 years is not enough."

"We do need more training, but need to make sure there are decent jobs there for people or else they will continue move to Australia. The Government needs to focus on job creation - they could review procurement policies so that New Zealand firms get a fair chance to bid for major manufacturing projects to create jobs here for example."

"CTU has actively participated in the process of review of industry training and we are broadly supportive of the improvements being made, but have a number of concerns, in particular, the suggestion of direct payment to employers which could cut out the role of industry training organisations," said Peter Conway.

ENDS

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