The survey asks the following questions
- Do you support the proposal to establish seven Industry Skills Boards?
- Please rate your level of support, what aspects do you support and why?
- What aspects do you have concerns about and why?
- Do you have feedback relating to a specific industry?
- You indicated that your sector is proposed to be shifted to NZQA. How much do you support this proposal?
- If your sector was to be assigned to an ISB which one would it be?
- Do you have any feedback on the proposal?
We have developed the following points for creative and IT industry submissions. Please feel free to adapt to your own industry circumstances and needs and add other points.
Q: Do you support the proposal to establish seven Industry Skills Boards?
A: No, we think there should be an eighth ISB for New Zealand’s Future Industries by combining business, creative and IT together, which would align well with the Government’s economic growth agenda.
Q: Please rate your level of support, what aspects do you support and why?
A: Low. We are disappointed that the creative and IT industries are excluded from the current ISB proposal.
Q: What aspects do you have concerns about and why?
A:
- The proposal signals the high value the Government places on supporting skills development for New Zealand’s old ‘legacy industries’, like construction, agriculture and manufacturing. Our newer industries, including creative tech, screen, game development, cybersecurity, ngā Toi Māori, digital entrepreneurship and business skills, software development and AI, aren’t being offered the same support. This is despite them being our most highly productive industries and leading the charge on economic growth.
- Sidelining creative and IT/digital industries from the ISBs is short-sighted. Traditional apprenticeship schemes can’t exist in the new-economy sectors – not because businesses aren’t interested in workers earning while they learn, but because there are structural differences in these industries such as gig-based work and independent earners lacking the resources to take on apprentices that make it hard to offer traditional apprenticeships.
- Traditional apprenticeship schemes can’t exist in the new economy sectors, but it doesn’t mean different ways of work-based training can’t be devised. The successful screen sector pilot programme is a great example of this in action.
- The new ISBs should be tasked with developing and embedding different work-based learning approaches that works for each industry, rather than assuming the apprenticeship model that works for electricians and plumbers will work for computer programmers and camera operators.
- The current proposal excludes the creative and IT industries from ISB coverage, meaning qualifications and other formal training will be less responsive to industry needs than in traditional, lower-growth industries such as the automotive industry.
Q: You indicated that your sector is proposed to be shifted to NZQA. How much do you support this proposal?
A: We don’t. Organising all the ISBs by the single criteria of industries that currently offer apprenticeships leads to a two-tier qualification development system. The Government has provided no empirical evidence to justify the creative and IT industries being excluded from the industry leadership, programme endorsement, strategic workforce planning and investment advice functions the other parts of the economy are being funded for.
Q: If your sector was to be assigned to an ISB which one would it be?
A: As above, we would prefer an eighth ISB as explained above. But if the Government only wishes to fund seven ISBs, we would prefer being assigned to [take your pick].
Q: Do you have any feedback on the proposal?
A: Our creative and IT/digital industries are likely to underpin New Zealand’s economic growth over the next few decades. Our economic success relies on these industries having access to the skills they need to realise their economic potential. Equally, our economic success relies on our system’s ability to develop these skills through our education and training system. What the economy needs, including the regions, is greater (not lesser) investment in the creative, screen, game development and IT/digital technology industries and businesses that are growing employment, wages, productivity, export earnings and GDP at a faster rate than the rest of the economy.
