Recently, the Minister of Education Hon Chris Hipkins released wide-ranging proposals for vocational education in New Zealand, announcing three proposals for public consultation. The proposed reforms will:
- Create one institution combining the 16 polytechnics, the “NZ Institute of Skills and Technology”
- Replace Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) with “Industry Skills Bodies”
- Centralise the funding system.
The Motor Industry Association supports the need to reform parts of the vocational training settings as they currently exist, but not all parts are broken.
David Crawford, Chief Executive Officer of the Motor Industry Association says, “While there is clearly a need to reform the way in which training is provided through polytechnics as this part of the system has been broken for some time, our view is that the current ITO model works well and serves industry much better than the proposals released by the Minister will”.
“MITO, the ITO for the automotive sector, is working well for vehicle distributors and their franchised dealer networks. It does not need changing” said Mr Crawford.
