David

CUNLIFFE

Tertiary Education spokesperson

16 July 2015 MEDIA STATEMENT
ICT graduates a drop in the sector’s empty bucket

The Government’s ICT graduate schools announced today will only train a tiny fraction of the workers the sector is crying out for, Labour’s Tertiary Education spokesperson David Cunliffe says.

“The industry estimates it has a shortage of 10,000 skilled workers, with some putting the shortfall as high as 15,000. The Auckland and Christchurch graduate schools announced by Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce today will only train 350 a year at most.

“Some of this shortfall is currently being made up by low-level private training courses which are targeted at mainly migrant students.

“There are also concerns a traditional degree programme is too slow and unwieldly to adapt to the fast changing needs of the high tech market.

“What our tech sector needs is a proper skills strategy rather than this token effort that will producing a few hundred rather than the thousands of ICT professionals New Zealand needs,” David Cunliffe says.

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