With businesses and people now settling into the new form of ‘normal’ post the COVID-19 lockdown, I thought it timely for an update on the transformation of vocational education that is occurring. This includes the biggest change in training delivery that our Industry has undergone for many years, along with a wide range of funding programmes that will support our economic recovery.
The Government’s immediate focus has been on increased support for industry training so that employers can retain our country’s current and future workforce. This has been in parallel to the continuing progress of RoVE (Reform of Vocational Education). Together, the support and the strategy are a strong demonstration of the criticality of vocational education to our country.
As the new funding programmes are being developed the Connexis Field team has been actively engaging with our customers to keep them well informed of the financial assistance available. This includes Free Trades Training, Apprenticeship Boost, Mana in Mahi and the Regional Apprenticeship Initiative Fund. Our Key Account Managers are working alongside our larger national employers, and our local Customer Service Account Managers are engaging within their regions, to ensure all our employers are aware of the support available.
Most Civil, Energy and Water programmes are now covered by Free Trades Training, including our introductory programmes Infrastructure Works Level 2 and Electricity Supply Level 2.
While most of us were focused on core business throughout COVID-19, RoVE continued to progress
While most of us were focused on core business throughout COVID-19, RoVE continued to progress. The aim of RoVE is to deliver a new thriving environment of training for learners, employers and communities. To help achieve this, Connexis has been working closely with key stakeholders to take your feedback and channel your input into this process to ensure that the unique needs of our industry are met.
ROVE has lots of moving parts. For Connexis our primary focus is understanding and influencing both standard setting (Workforce Development Councils – WDC) and arranging training (NZIST, Wananga and PTEs).
We also believe in the importance of research and improvement (Centres of Vocational Education). By staying involved in a wide range of industry forums, we’re able to both understand what outcomes officials are seeking, and better reflect industry needs and aspirations.
Infrastructure has some unique attributes, including those areas that are lower volume, more expensive to train in, and technically complex. Through involvement in research and development and governance, we’re aiming to represent the Water, ESI, Telco and Civil training needs as comprehensively as possible.
The input into the ROVE process is very much a team effort from Connexis. It begins by listening to input from people in the vitally important ‘coal face’ of learners and on-site feedback, through to the Connexis management team joining a range of governance and working groups to represent your views.
A key deliverable of the new training system is offering learners more support while they’re training, and vocational education that is more relevant to work. This will enable people to move more easily between regions and between work-based and provider-based training.
Work-integrated learning will become an increasingly important part of the vocational education system, giving people the opportunity and flexibility to earn while they learn, an initiative already well underway in our Industry with great results.
We would love to hear from you if you have any suggestions from the Industry’s perspective that should be considered in the development of the new training system.
Contact us at askus@connexis.org.nz
Ngā mihi,
Toby Beaglehole
Chief Executive
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