Will Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) arrange training?

No, the responsibility for arranging and providing training will shift to providers (ITPs, PTEs and wānanga).

While WDCs won’t arrange training, they will have a number key functions including:

• being the vocational education voice for industry
• identifying current and future industry needs
• overseeing the supply of on- and off-job learning
• helping TEC achieve the right mix of training
• providing TEC with investment advice
• setting assessments that test learner skillsets
• developing qualifications and setting standards
• endorsing provider programmes and moderating assessments.

Find out more about WDCs.

Where are we in the RoVE process?

This year we will see significant milestones met across the RoVE programme, but it’s also important to remember how we got to where we are. Let’s take a look to see how far we’ve come…

August to December 2019: RoVE announcements

The seven key changes of RoVE were announced in August 2019, and between August and December there was more information available about the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, Centres of Vocational Excellence, Regional Skills Leadership Groups, Te Taumata Aronui, and Workforce Development Councils. 

February 2019: RoVE consultation

Public consultation on the proposed reform ran from February to April 2019.

The team received 2,904 submissions, and met with more than 5,000 people in approximately 190 events, meetings and forums, listening to feedback and thoughts on the proposals and getting a clearer picture of what is important in relation to the vocational education system.

Thirty-five meetings and events were held specifically for staff and management at the 11 industry training organisations, while 99 meetings and events were organised with the 16 Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics.

The consultation documents and a summary of the process and findings are available on the Kōrero Mātauranga Conversations website.

December 2018: The launch of RoVE

The Minister indicated his intention to “combine the two different projects that officials and TEC staff have been running during 2018 … [and] communicate the combined programme of work from now on under the title of Reform of Vocational Education.”

2017/2018: The beginning

In late 2017 and early 2018, two separate reviews identified opportunities to substantially reform the vocational education and training system.

One investigated how the ITP sector could operate more as a system and gain efficiencies through scale (the ITP Roadmap 2020 project) and the second was a review of the vocational education and training system to clarify how the skills system could best support New Zealand’s current and future skills needs across the system as a whole.

How is the RoVE bill tracking?

August 2019: The Vocational Education and Training Reform Bill was introduced to Parliament on 26 August 2019.

November 2019: Select committee hearings on the Education (Vocational Education and Training Reform) Amendment Bill concluded on 6 November 2019.

Members of the public were able to provide submissions on the proposed Bill to the select committee and many submitters also took the opportunity to give an oral presentation to the committee. You can find these submissions on the Parliament website.

December 2019: The Bill was reported back to the House on 23 December 2019.

Next steps:

• The next stage is the second reading debate, which debates the principles of the Bill.
• At the end of the debate any select committee amendments that did not have the unanimous support of the select committee are voted on in the House.
• Should the Bill pass this stage then it will be considered by the Committee of the Whole House.
• Further changes to the Bill can be made at this stage.  Once the final form of the Bill has been agreed it is returned to the House for its third reading.
• The Bill needs to pass it second and third reading before it comes into effect.

If you’d like to find out more about the process, the New Zealand Parliament website has a useful overview of how a Bill becomes law.