Source: Radio New Zealand
The government has announced that it will scrap the third-year fees-free tertiary scheme. RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The government’s proposal to scrap the third-year fees-free tertiary scheme and redirect some of the funds towards trades training is being welcomed by business leaders.
However, the Council of Trade Unions argues the move is the wrong thing to do and will only exacerbate skill shortages in sectors like nursing, that need graduates with three years of training.
The government forecast in last year’s budget that spending on the scheme, while low to begin with, would rise to around by $170 million a year by 2029.
It argues the scheme hasn’t worked to boost tertiary study uptake by lower-income New Zealanders as planned.
The Employers and Manufacturers Association head of advocacy Alan McDonald said his organisation had always felt there was an imbalance between academic and trades funding.
“It looks fairly clear-cut the academic side of it hasn’t worked and there is no spare money, so reallocating it is a good thing,” he said.
He said he hoped some of the money reallocated could go to help fund industries and trades that are not currently covered by existing apprenticeship funding, such as refridgeration and heating engineers.
However, the Council of Trade Unions president Sandra Grey said cutting the scheme was not the right thing to do, as it would make skill shortages in areas like nursing and education worse.
“When you are looking at three years of debt to say become a nurse or teacher, you might think again and you might go actually I’m going to do a lower qualification so I can get into the workforce, so I can start earning and not have that really big student debt,” Grey said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand