John Key MP
National Party Leader

18 June 2007

Key flies the flag for trades in schools

National’s Leader John Key has announced his Party’s commitment to putting trades and industry training back into the heart of New Zealand’s school system, during a speech to the Employers and Manufacturers Association.

“Two of New Zealand’s biggest challenges are a lack of adequately skilled workers to meet employer demands, and the wasted potential of thousands of young New Zealanders who are alienated from education.

“We can get more Kiwi kids interested in school, and achieving more while they’re there, if we offer them something practical and something which might lead to a job they can be passionate about.

“Trades and industry training has been sidelined in too many schools and cut off from too many students.

“National is committed to helping schools overcome the funding and bureaucratic barriers that prevent so many students from accessing trades and industry-based education at school.

“We want all students, in all secondary schools, in all areas, to be able to take part in hands-on learning in a range of industries.

Mr Key announced a number of steps National will take to promote trades and industry training in schools:

- Fix the technology curriculum by ensuring it contains references to the need for students to make things, build things, and produce things.

- Tackle the technology teacher crisis by working with teachers and industry to increase the pool of people able to take trades and technology classes.

- Encourage business and industry to help provide schools with resources for trades training.

- Give schools more flexibility to offer their students trades and industry training outside their school gates, whether at other schools, local training providers or at Industry Training Organisation (ITO) approved workplaces.

- Promote innovation in school-based delivery of trades and industry training by funding select schools to run “Trades Academies”.

- Piloting a school-based apprenticeships scheme similar to the one run successfully in Australia.

Mr Key called on industry to work with National to achieve this goal and said he was open to their ideas and confident of their support.

ENDS

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