Today’s announcement of further consultation around work-based vocational education was met with cautious enthusiasm by the civil construction industry, which will need to ramp up training and qualifications to deliver on the government’s infrastructure work programme.
Civil Contractors New Zealand Chief Executive Alan Pollard said it was good to see acknowledgement that more robust consultation was needed, and the industry welcomed further discussion to establish a sound vocational education model.
However, this was an unstable time for the workforce, and time spent on consultation should be combined with urgency lest uncertainty further undermine learner, educator and employer confidence, Mr Pollard said.
“We welcome the decision to further consult with industry about creating a fit-for-purpose vocational education system and the opportunity to explore the details in the new proposals for work-based learning at the earliest convenience.
“We’re ready, willing and able to work quickly with officials. Certainty is important, first for employers looking to take on new staff, but also for our colleagues working in the education system, who have faced years of disruption and change and will be looking for stability.”
He said it was important any changes enabled the education sector to come to the table in preparing new entrant workers in gaining the skills needed to work in horizontal construction, which involved transport, water and the construction of other core infrastructure such as ports, airports, stopbanks and seawalls.
“This is an industry that has very specific needs. Training is hugely important, in terms of project quality outcomes and in terms of safety outcomes. There is a lot of risk in working underground with heavy machinery, and it’s essential that workers are well prepared.”
He said industry was doing its part through career promotion and development of training opportunities for workers. But there had been concerns in prior consultation that proposed changes risked reducing capability and increasing the cost of construction and maintenance of water and transport infrastructure by placing education cost on industry, making infrastructure construction more expensive and reducing industry’s capacity.
“We are in a lull right now as we wait for the government’s transport and water construction plans to turn into construction-ready projects and hit the market. And when these projects come, we will need the ability to scale up quickly. We should be ramping up training, now.”
Mr Pollard said it took the industry around five years to train a new entrant up to be a multi-skilled civil tradesperson. Infrastructure construction trade skills were in hot demand globally. While infrastructure construction offered great rates of pay and amazing career opportunities, there was next to no government support for domestic intakes of infrastructure workers through the education system.
He said the industry had developed strong relationships with its education partners Waihanga Ara Rau Construction and Infrastructure Workforce Development Council, Connexis and the Construction Centre of Vocational Excellence, but these organisations needed clarity in their roles to deliver successfully.
Apprenticeships and training would be of pivotal importance, and while it was good to see acknowledgement of this in the latest announcement, civil construction had been disappointed to see its Apprenticeship Boost funding set to end.
Question marks also remained around the millions of dollars of industry money that had been reserved for civil construction training, currently held in business divisions and education trusts. Mr Pollard said this was money held specifically for reinvestment in industry training programmes and should not be used to offset current operating deficits.
He looked forward to having significant input into the new model to ensure the best outcomes could be reached for learners and the civil construction industry.
More attention on training models such as trades academies and managed apprenticeships was needed, as New Zealand largely did not deliver civil trades skills in schools, fund fit-for-purpose training programmes, or provide funding support for workplace training delivery by the civil construction industry, outside of providing workbook-based qualifications, meaning companies were effectively schooling new workers from scratch.
Mr Pollard said without real Government-industry partnership to onboard workers through domestic civil infrastructure construction trades intake programmes, the industry would be left to develop skilled civil construction workers from square one, once again.
“For many years now, skilled civil construction workers endeavouring to construct and maintain our infrastructure networks have gone unrecognised and under-served by education, despite delivering some of the most important initiatives for our society.
“We need to recognise the value these people add to our country. It’s a real shame when we see recognition of these people as skilled and valued workers fall by the wayside.”