New leaders pick up the tools to help fix skills shortages

The six new groups tasked with bringing together industry and vocational education providers now have both the tools and the leadership to get cracking, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says.
The Minister joined the 54 newly-appointed Workforce Development Council (WDC) members at a launch event in Wellington this evening.
“The job of these councils will be to set skill standards, help industry achieve greater influence over what and how training is delivered and play a leadership role for their industries.
“Future planning will be a critical part of their role. Ensuring our training providers are offering the right courses, to get the right people graduating with the right skills to address our country’s skill shortages.
“This includes meeting the needs of IT, engineering, primary industries, building and construction and many other industries where industry currently finds recruitment difficult.”
The WDCs will moderate assessments against industry standards and, where appropriate, set and moderate assessments at the end of a qualification.
“The backing and support of industry is a foundation of the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) programme,” Chris Hipkins said.
“I am delighted by the enthusiasm of industry leaders and innovators across the country who have put their hand up to be a part of this important piece of work to transform our vocational education system for the future.”
Every industry is covered by one of the six Workforce Development Councils:
Hanga-Aro-Rau Manufacturing, Engineering and Logistics
Waihanga Ara Rau Construction and Infrastructure
Muka Tangata – People, Food and Fibre
Toi Mai
Community, Health, Education and Social Services, and
Services.
“I’d like to also thank the interim Establishment Board members who helped make the WDCs a reality and have ensured they’ll be up and running as quickly as possible from October this year.”
Full bios of each WDC Council member can be found here.
Note: The second tranche of appointments to the Services WDC are yet to be formally announced.