More investment needed in tertiary education

Peter Conway, CTU Secretary says more investment is needed in tertiary education to lift the opportunities for people to gain relevant skills.

Peter Conway said in response to the Government announcement of the draft tertiary education strategy for the next 5 years. “There are thousands and thousands of workers who want more support to gain qualifications but the system is failing them”.

Peter Conway said that although the Government has addressed some issues of cost-effectiveness in industry training now there is a need to lift the scale of investment.

“The Government is always talking about what business needs but the reality is that for many workers the opportunities are not there. This is even worse for the huge number of workers in insecure work arrangements and for those looking for second-chance options to develop skills and qualifications”.

Peter Conway said that in the main the six priorities set out by the Government are commendable but there will need to be real resources to meet those objectives and the Government also needs to recognise that workers are also part of ‘industry’ and the system needs to be responsive to their needs.

“Steven Joyce also announced proposed changes to governance arrangements for Universities and Wananga today and there is a risk those changes will squeeze out a community voice on their Boards”.
 

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