Unfair funding switch in tertiary education

new-zealand-council-of-trade-unions

Tue Oct 12 2010 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Unfair funding switch in tertiary education

Tuesday, 12 October 2010, 3:51 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Council of Trade Unions

Unfair funding switch in tertiary education

The CTU is critical of the Government announcement to remove funding equivalent to 55,000 places in industry training.

Peter Conway, CTU Secretary, said: “While we welcome extra university places, the Government is funding this by removing $55 million from industry training.”

Peter Conway said it is important that all tertiary education spending meets the requirement for ‘value for money’. But it beggars belief that while unemployment is rising and the economy is stalling, the Government would pull funding out of apprenticeships and industry training that will underpin our economy and avoid future skill shortages.

Even if numbers of trainees are down in this period, the Government could put additional funding into other forms of vocational education that would lift both skills and job opportunities.

“It is also significant that Polytechnics and Wananga do not benefit from this switch.”

“So far this Government has reduced funding for night classes, early childhood education and industry training. This indicates the low priority they place on supporting education and skill development vital for current and future workers and the overall economy.”

The Government claims there is ‘less demand’ for industry training due to the recession, but in Australia last year their Government committed AUD$3.8 billion over 4 years to apprenticeships and in the June quarter of 2010 noted that apprenticeship commencements were back to levels seen in June 2008 before the global financial crisis.

“Of course they are a much larger economy so the figures are not directly comparable, but the differences in priorities and outcomes are obvious.”

ENDS

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