Two secondary school programmes that help young New Zealanders take up a trade will be getting a funding boost from the Government.
The programmes, Trades Academies and Gateway, will have 2000 more placements each through the funding, though the Government hasn't said how much it will cost.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement alongside Education Minister Chris Hipkins on Monday at Heretaunga College in Upper Hutt.
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She said the boost will see the largest single increase in Trades Academies places in recent years.
"We are committed to reversing the long-term decline in trades training," Ardern said.
"Trades skills shortages is a key issue business regularly raise with me and this programme is one step in the Government's plan to plug that gap."
She wants more people to see building, plumbing and agriculture as "an attractive and first option" when they leave school to "close the persistent skills gap in our country".
Hipkins said past evaluations of the two initiatives showed how they have been beneficial in helping young people into jobs.
"An evaluation of Gateway in the early 2000s showed that more than 70 percent of employers reported several benefits from their involvement with Gateway, and 81 percent of students reported that their involvement with Gateway helped with their future plans."
He said Trades Academies have been effective in increasing the number of young people who attain NCEA level 2 or equivalent.
But he said despite their success, over recent years funding for Trades Academies and Gateway "has been allowed to lag behind demand".
Hipkins said the funding boost is the latest in the Government's plan to increase the numbers of New Zealanders in trades and work skills training.
He pointed to the Prime Minister's Vocational Excellence Awards launched in August, in which secondary schools and wharekura can apply for a prize of $2000 to be awarded to their top vocational student.
Hipkins also confirmed in August that New Zealand's 16 institutes of technology and polytechnics will be merged as a single entity in April 2020 as the New Zealand Institute of Skills & Technology.
He floated the idea in August last year, telling Newshub Nation polytechnics across the country would likely have to merge or shut down due to low enrolment numbers.
The latest announcement is around getting high school students ready to move into a trade, the Education Minister says.
"We want schools better linked to the world of work, and for students in school to have clearer and more direct pathways into vocational education in the workplace and the tertiary system."
Newshub.
