The Industry Training Federation of New Zealand (ITF) welcomes the Prime Minister’s agenda for the next three years and will work hard to ensure that industry training outcomes are improved.

“We are very pleased that the value of industry training is acknowledged by the Prime Minister and the new Government,” said Martin Eadie, Chairperson of the ITF.

“We’ve achieved a great deal in the last seven years and we welcome the opportunity to work with government and government agencies to create new training opportunities and enhance the existing programmes,” said Mr. Eadie.

In the Speech from the Throne, the Government outlined plans to establish a new agency, Industry New Zealand, introduce new Apprenticeship legislation, and to establish a new Tertiary Education Advisory Commission. These new initiatives are fully supported by the ITF.

“The ITF is very open to the change indicated in the Speech from the Throne. We will be writing to Ministers in the new year outlining ways in which the ITF can assist the Government to implement these new policies,” said Mr. Eadie

“There are some risks that will need to be managed, and we advised both Labour and Alliance of these risks while they were still in Opposition. These are not impediments to the Governments plans,” he said.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>