Source: Radio New Zealand
“A tradie can earn as much as a policy analyst,” says Michael Johnston. Supplied/ Unsplash – Josh Olalde
There’s increasing support to lift the cultural status of vocational training to equal that of a university education.
A report by The New Zealand Initiative largely supports a Ministry of Education proposal to replace NCEA exams with a qualification system that includes trade-related skills.
“A feature of the proposed new qualifications system is industry-led subjects to strengthen vocational education,” report author Michael Johnston said, which should be a catalyst for change.
“A tradie can earn as much as a policy analyst, so why does New Zealand still treat university as the gold standard,”
Johnston said there was a degree of snobbery associated with having a university degree, which was holding New Zealand back from realising the economic benefits seen in other advanced economies, such as Germany and Switzerland that placed a high value on trades qualifications.
“If we can start to attract students who, perhaps, traditionally, haven’t gone into the trades, then we can start to change the narrative about the status of them.
“But the other thing is resourcing and most schools are not set up to run these kinds of vocational programs at scale.”
He said some funding for universities could be diverted to assist with the transition.
“Let’s repurpose that money and give schools a bit of top-up funding for every enrolment they get in an industry-led subject that they can then use either to hire new teachers or to perhaps partner with a tertiary institution or some employers to give high quality work, integrated learning opportunities, so that they can really do a good job of adopting these subjects and making them really something.”
He said traditional trades, such as building and plumbing would be supported, along with other more technical trades in the field of the emerging fields of robotics and other applied technologies.
The report indicates vocational training could be aligned with eight industry skill boards, established 1 January 2026. Their areas of responsibility included developing skills criteria for the following trades:
- Transport
- Electrotechnology and Information Technology
- Education, Health and Community
- Energy and Infrastructure
- Manufacturing and Engineering
- Services
- Food and Fibre
- Construction and Specialist Trades
“Historically, New Zealand’s school qualifications have been much more strongly geared towards university-track education than vocational education. This has entrenched the lower status of vocational education,” Johnston said.
He said subjects like mathematics, history, science, and geography equip students with broad knowledge of the natural and human worlds.
“For the first ten years of schooling, that skew is justified,” Johnston said.
“But from Year 11 on, students are preparing for life and work beyond school. The continued dominance of academic subjects in that phase of schooling becomes narrowing for young people. Too often, they don’t see or think of options other than university.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
