Purpose

The purpose is to lift “educational achievement in low decile areas and disadvantaged communities where educational underperformance has become the norm”. The aim is that greater flexibility will lead to improvements. The system will be trialled “in areas such as South Auckland and central/eastern areas of Christchurch” Once successfully established and, as funds permit, other areas will be included. The approach is modelled on the KIPP schools in the US and, to a lesser extent, “free schools” in the UK.

The goals are pretty apple pie, but the issue is whether the approach will achieve it. I’ll check out overseas models in future posts. There are also network effects to consider in developing new schools.

Legislative Basis

The system will be enabled under the Education Act 1989 using sections 155 (Kura Kaupapa Māori and 156 (designated character schools).

I’ll run through how these sections are currently used in a future post. It may surprise you.

Missions

Missions “would typically be some or all of the following: a rigorous academic focus; a traditional curriculum; faith based; to serve a target population of students; based on specific governance principles (eg Te Aho Matua); or to focus on a particular language, vocational training or other area of specialisation”

This set of missions is quite limited and quite, shall we say, conservative. I’ll explore a wider range of missions in a future post, but no-one should worry about this list too much. It smacks of a list put together in a hurry that will inevitably broaden as it is discussed.

Operation, Governance and Accountability

Charter school groups may be not-for-profit, but it is unclear whether they can be for-profit – charter school groups can, however, certainly contract out management to for-profit groups.

Charter school groups will be responsible for all aspects of school operations. They will be free to:

• set the length of the school day and year;
• set their own teaching practices;
• raise their own revenues;
• make their own staffing arrangements; and
• use any approved curriculum/qualification.

Schools could be standalone or operate as part of a network.

Students must be accepted irrespective of academic ability and geographic intake boundaries may only be set if they don’t restrict the chances of disadvantaged students. Where demand exceeds supply, a ballot may be used.

Schools could utilise “public designation powers to facilitate Resource Management Act consents”.

Schools will be accountable to their sponsors and to ERO – a contractual relationship with sponsors will be required to cover student achievement, financial and operational goals.

I will explore the public/private debate, as well as how freedom from some regulations might be used. Selection of students is a vexed issue in all schooling, and that will be explored, but I should note that a ballot approach is the same as for other schools (S11F(2), Education Act 1989). The involvement of sponsors is underdone in the agreement.

Funding

Schools will get normal operational grant funding and may get targeted funding for disadvantaged groups. They may be eligible for capital funding or equivalent operating funding if they choose to rent, but some or all capital may come from private sources. No tuition fees may be charged.

The funding description is a bit underdone, as it could be taken to exclude salaries funding – presumably it is intended that charter schools get all normal school operating funding. Any charter school operator would be mad to build facilities, rather than rent, given the negative reaction from the left to this policy and the high risk it would be reversed under a left-wing government.

This is the second in a series of posts to explore the issues around charter schools in New Zealand in an informative manner. You can find out about my relevant interests, purpose for the series and other posts here.

The charter schools policy was released about 24 hours ago and we have had a deluge of stories on it, but most people have cherry-picked a few facts that support their initial position. Blog posts have been written by The Dim Post (and again), Kiwiblog, Offsetting Behaviour, Just Left, Teaching the Teacher, Keeping Stock, Not PC, Gordon Campbell (the most thoughtful) and Homepaddock. Media releases have been put out by NZEI, PPTA, the NZCTU, the NZ Teachers Council and the Maxim Institute. And there a few news stories but most of them simply connect up quotes from politicians and unionists – here’s one example.

In this first post, I want to explain what a charter school is, what ACT’s election policy did and didn’t contain, and start discussing the importance of context. In future posts, I’ll review the new policy and look at what we can pick up from international experiences, including relevant research. The series will continue over an extended period.

What is a Charter School?

A charter school can be whatever you like and people will inevitably point out that all schools in New Zealand have a charter. That said, there is reasonable agreement about what a charter school is in educational policy circles. The following para condenses a Wikipedia definition, according to my view of international usage of the term.

Charter schools receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school’s charter. Charter schools are opened and attended by choice. Where enrolment in a charter school is oversubscribed, admission is frequently allocated by lottery-based admissions systems. Some charter schools provide a curriculum that specializes in a certain field — e.g., arts, mathematics, or vocational training. Others attempt to provide a better and more efficient general education than nearby public schools. Some charter schools are founded by teachers, parents, or activists who feel restricted by traditional public schools – others are established by non-profit groups, universities, and some government entities or companies.

This wasn’t in ACT’s policy!

If you go to ACT’s website, you’ll find no direct mention of charter schools in the education policy (although they did mention school boards setting teacher pay directly and other deregulation), but it is in Don Brash’s campaign speech on education (alas, I read all the parties’ election policies and statements for my ED Insider site). I’ve excerpted some key sections below.

The third priority is to allow successful and established state schools such as Auckland Grammar, Epsom Girls, Rangitoto, McLeans, and Christchurch Boys’ to become Trust Schools. Such schools would be exempt from the usual constraints of Ministry management and given control over their own affairs.

…In addition, there should be no reason why educational entrepreneurs such as David Selfe, let’s call them edupreneurs, should not be able to set up completely new schools to attract government funding. These proposals may seem radical, but in fact the danger is not that New Zealand might stray too far from orthodoxy by adopting choice, competition and entrepreneurship in education. The real danger is that we will be left behind.

…Ladies and gentlemen, the ACT Party presents a clear choice on education this election. We can choose to continue with the status quo. We can choose to ensure that there is limited choice, limited innovation, and that only the few can access it. If that’s what you want, then any other party will deliver it.…It is a choice to be able to see your child’s share of the education funding go to the school that you choose… You needn’t pay twice, and those who can’t afford to pay once would have choice too.…It’s a choice to let successful schools manage themselves as trust schools. It’s a choice to let groups of innovative teachers set up new schools like Corelli and Tū Toa.

Now I’m sure some people will say that “charter schools” is not mentioned in the text above, but anyone familiar with schools policy issues would recognise that what Don Brash talked about could be characterised as charter schools according to the definition above. To be fair to those surprised by the policy, not many people paid much attention to Don Brash’s speeches J

Context Is Everything

Any educational initiative should be judged by the context in which it operates and that’s even more important when we start looking at international comparisons (the Teachers Council’s Peter Lind makes this point). When I talk about context in this series, I’ll refer a lot to the “regulatory framework”, which is shorthand for all of the policies around curriculum, staffing, facilities, student welfare and the many other areas where schools face regulation of some sort. It is crucial that we consider what will and won’t change in any charter school initiative, as it will impact upon results.

In the US, charter schools have often been a reaction to local education systems that can be maddeningly bureaucratic. In NZ, we wouldn’t put up with the “rubber rooms” of New York City, where teachers alleged to have done a bad job were required to turn up and…do nothing. The rubber rooms have since been removed but there are plenty of other stories of bureaucracy in the US – in such an environment, freeing up the regulatory framework to allow new charter schools to operate has been appealing to many people.

In New Zealand, we don’t have quite the same bureaucracy as in the US. We have quite a bit of devolution to local boards of trustees and our curriculum is quite open – there are no prescribed textbooks as in the US. We do have considerable central control over property and staffing, and those are areas where charter schools are likely to have greater freedom – more on that later.

Differences in the regulatory framework (both for general and for charter schools) lead to quite different charter schools. Over the coming months we’ll hear more about the systems in different US states, Sweden, the UK and elsewhere. We’ll also probably hear about existing legislation that allows for different types of schools to develop in New Zealand, like designated character schools or kura kaupapa Maori. In all those cases, we should be alert to the context, rather than just lauding or denigrating the results.

Let’s Not be Too Serious

The NZ Herald highlighted a reader comment that brings some light relief to a rather political topic: “It can’t hurt to try it out a little first. As long as we don’t end up with the ‘Woodstock Bourbon School For Boys’.”

1. National’s Policies National released their tertiary education and skills training policies yesterday (APNZ, NZN, Dom Post, ) and a schools policy too. TV1′s Breakfast show had me on to chat about it. NZUSA said the policy was visionless (NewstalkZB) but Business NZ said it was practical and positive. Massey extramural student president criticises performance-based tuition funding.
2. Protest Here’s one side of an argument about the aftermath of a protest last month at Victoria.
3. Extras: Prof Theodore (Tertiary education) Zorn from Waikato will be Massey’s new head of the College of Business.

Research & Innovation

1. Extras: Otago Uni’s Peter Saxton studying HIV; the Dom Post profiles some top scientists; AUT’s pine bark remedy.

Public Issues

1. Election AUT’s Prof Chris Ohms and Karin Olesen ask voters to look at the big picture on tax policies, but make the release a bit hard to follow for the average voter; how Hone and Hilda Harawira met at Auckland; Victoria’s Prof Paul Morris on religion in NZ politics and Prof Margaret Clark on independent candidates; Massey Claire Robinson on the debate worm (really, basing too much comment on a sample of 65 is lazy comment – it has a margin of error of about 12%); Canterbury’s Ursula Cheer on the tea recording;
2. Birds Go Home Massey is starting to release rescued birds this week; Waikato doctorial student to look at post-Rena wildlife recovery.
3. Extras: Massey’s Chris Wilkins on a big drug bust; Otago Uni research used against GE organisms; Victoria’s Jim McAloon on Wellington’s Town Belt.

Students

1. Voter Help Massey students have designed an online tool to help guide you to the party that is bets for you (Homepaddock). I took the test and received a 91% match with United Future, 55% with Labour and 38% with Mana – regular readers may well debate that match-up. Give the game a go and feed the sheep yourself.
2. Top Film An AUT student has made the finals of a film competition.
3. Weta EIT film student picks up Weta internship.
4. Extras: Auckland’s Elam Graduate Show looks pretty big; Victoria student standing for election; blogger and Victoria student on Rotorua politics; Waikato music student gets good review; Massey student’s Warriors’ trial; UCOL students are celebrating the end of their nursing exams.

Stakeholders

1. Extras: Massey’s Paul Kearney giving aviation safety speech in Australia; Victoria hosts sociology conference; Otago Uni/Poly incubator needs entrepreneurs.

Teaching & Learning

1. Xmas Gifts Otago Poly design students have yet again created new products to sell through Port Chalmers Design Store.
2. Extras: Competenz’s welding game.

1. Bar Fight The fight over the student bar at Canterbury continues – the Uni is playing a very straight bat but you could hardly be aggressive over putting a bar next to a primary school…
2. New Film School Head Sashi Meanger will be the new head of the NZ Film and Television School in Wellington. I’m happy for Sashi who I first met in the mid 1990s when he was heading up PIERC Education. He’s replacing Tommy Honey who I had a nice chat with recently – Tommy is heading off to Whitecliffe.
3. Cool Summer Course Victoria has come up with a cool online science course utilising top scientists that should appeal to lots of people and help the uni fill its EFTS quota.
4. Extras: National MP Allan Peachey died on Sunday; art places being snapped up at EIT; business school recognition for AUT; Canterbury’s Eric Crampton on biology PhDs’ prospects.

Research & Innovation

1. Building Warning Auckland’s Jason Ingham has calculated that the February quake would have killed another 300 people if weak unreinforced masonry building had not been evacuated after the September 2010 quake (RNZ). We have known about the problems of such building in quakes for 150 years but still haven’t fixed the problem. I’d suggest that most of Cuba St in Wellington will be at risk of demolition after this Quake Royal Commission.
2. Autism A toy for autistic students was promoted by Victoria’s Helen Andreae at a start-up event held at my office in Wellington at the weekend (well, my office and the 20-odd other people who work there).
3. Extras: artists in residence win a Tui for Victoria; Bernard Beckett to be writer in residence at Victoria; pasture measuring device co-developed with Massey wins award; AUT had a top inventor on campus.

Public Issues

1. Christchurch CBD  Canterbury VC Rod Carr had a fabulous interview with two architects about the future of the Christchurch CBD. The architects obviously want to rebuild in the CBD but Rod gave a very thoughtful response about a likely distributed model in Christchurch.
2. It’s Not OK Unitec has put a lot of effort into an It’s Not Ok campaign to raise awareness of family violence.
3. Election Labour’s Phil Goff and Jacinda Ardern visited Media Design School. Otago Uni’s Bryce Edwards on National-ACT issues in Epsom. Unitec student voting for Mana.
4. Drugs Massey’s Chris Wilkins comment on P use, as do the Police – one should generally take Police comments on drugs with a pinch of P…
5. Rena Canterbury’s Prof David Schiel on the BOP cleanup; praise for Massey team.
6. Extras: Massey’s David Tripe on bank profits.

Students

1. Orientation Unitec students are promoting their Orientation with “its hottest line up to date” – weren’t Orientations supposed to disappear under VSM?
2. New Engineers Waikato is having its engineering students’ design show.
3. Dunedin Fires Students probably lit fires in Dunedin at the weekend (I could almost make that a weekly line…) but anyway 30/31 callouts in Dunedin were for rubbish fires and only 1 for fireworks.
4. Extras: Lincoln shepherd wins competition (RNZ); Auckland student off to global entrepreneur event in NY; two Massey students in Junior Black Sticks; Rotorua link to Victoria solar bach; Wintec student injured after deck collapse at flat.

Stakeholders

1. Maori Book Awards Massey’s Maori Book Awards are in their third year and there is now a fiction award.
2. China Links Taratahi had a Chinese agricultural tutor (and vet) on exchange for 9 weeks
3. Extras: Victoria’s Prof Lew Evans is back as a lay member of the High Court; Otago Uni involved in peace forum; Victoria supporting StarJam show; Lincoln farmer of the year winners (Ashburton Guardian).

Policy & Management

1. Aoraki Changes The ODT has a story about how Aoraki should develop a replacement media course with a bit of everything to replace its specialist media courses in Dunedin – it’s a TEU suggestion. Dunno about you, but keeping one wide-ranging course when the individual specialist courses don’t make money doesn’t seem to make sense to me. The Timaru Herald has more detail on the TEU submission.
   
2. ACE Labour’s David Shearer reflects on Bill English’s nice words about ACE (from 2005).
3. Massey Promotions/Changes Massey has promoted lots of people and highlighted a dairy chair for Danny Donaghy. They have also reported back on feedback on teaching qualification changes.
4. Xmas Completions The Retail Institute has a cool 8 weeks of Christmas competition to encourage completions.

Research & Innovation

1. Waking Up…on the operating table doesn’t sound like much fun but Waikato’s Moira Steyn-Ross reckons it happens to 1 in 1,000 of us.
2. Extras: EIT-WITT East West exhibition; nice story from an Erskine fellow/visitor at Canterbury; Lincoln’s Future Farming Centre; Otago Uni’s Chris Jackson involved in bowel cancer study.

Public Issues

1. Quake Canterbury’s Ursula Cheer has criticised the publication of a photo of two teenagers grieving their mother’s death after the Christchurch quake. A poll by Canterbury’s Kris Vavasour commenting on a poll of Canterbury residents, who are unhappy about slow quake recovery work.
2. Extras: Victoria’s Gaynor Parkin on Graham Henry’s happiness; Otago Uni’s Bryce Edwards on Occupy Dunedin.

Students

1. Student Exhibition
   Massey Albany this time, with some cool looking items, like Jason Domancie’s Safe Surfing Board below.
2. Extras: FITEC’s successful Straight to Work course in Northland; Otago Uni student/staff member couple making Tongan raw fish; Otago Uni student in Southern Steel.

Stakeholders

1. 4000 Year Donation The 4,000 relates to the age of a likely baby feeding cup donated to Auckland – Canterbury missed out because of the quake (Manawatu Standard).
2. Melbourne Cup Otago Poly’s Margo Barton was judging a Melbourne Cup-related fashion in the field event yesterday.
3. Extras: Auckland Maori economic development symposium.

Teaching & Learning

1. Community Learning Awards Tariana Turia gave out Dynamic Community Learning Awards for Adult Learners’ Week.
2. Islamic Studies…are now on offer from Auckland via a B.Theology course.

Policy & Management

1. Big ITO News The NZ Herald had two big stories at the weekend on ITOs: one on issues over the assessment of plumbing apprentices and another with more details on clawbacks from ITOs for 2009-10 and ongoing monitoring of some ITOs. I’m doing some work for the ITF right now so will refrain from comment.
2. UCOL Design Review UCOL’s Council has decided on 3 focus areas and is reviewing one of them (arts and design) across its Whanganui, Manawatu and Wairarapa areas (releases are essentially the same). The Wanganui Chronicle has covered it (and a summer school story). I have to say that this review looks like a superb idea at first glance.
3. Agricultural Deal NorthTec and Taratahi have done a deal to deliver agricultural courses in Northland – “real training on real farms”.
4. Youth Wage National proposed a new start-out wage, which included coverage for those in industry training (TV3). Canterbury’s Eric Crampton commented (NewstalkZB)
5. Extras The NZ Herald reviews the latest annual student loan scheme report; NZ First announced some tertiary-related policies; Wintec House won two regional NZIA awards (Idealog); Roger Kerr died on Friday night (Stuff) – I intend to write more about his work in education later.

Research & Innovation

1. Rugby Fairfax’s Adam Dudding reviews how rugby made us a bit smarter, covering a few academic stories of the last few weeks. AUT’s Kelly Sheerin is doing a study for the IRB on RWC injuries. You can check out the seismic impact of the RWC final crowd, thanks to Auckland’s Liam Wotherspoon.
2. Entrepreneurs Otago Poly students win NBR award. Auckland entrepreneur competition winners plus extra funding (and a related piece on Auckland/Otago Uni entrepreneurship courses).
3. New Colonial Resources Waikato’s Kathryn Parsons has announced a digitised version of colonial papers relating to NZ from 1830-70. Incidentally, my wife’s employer, NZ Micrographic Services, did the scanning and related work.
4. The Hagfish …got coverage by APNZ, TV3, One News, Stuff and NZN for Massey’s Prof Marti Anderson.
5. Extras Angie Farrow’s new play and Prof Bernhard Breier on omega-3 levels (Massey); Victoria Metcalf’s interesting work on Antarctic shellfish (Lincoln); map exhibition by Auckland’s Kathy Waghorn and Unitec’s Cris de Groot; Otago Uni’s Cameron Lacey on quake-related heart conditions.

Public Issues

1. Election Auckland’s Prof Jack Vowles on list MPs’ accountability. Otago Uni’s Bryce Edwards will speak (or has spoken) to John Minto (ODT), Holly Walker, Bill English – he also commented on Phil Goff’s unpopularity. Victoria’s Peter Thompson on RWC and politics. Auckland’s Campbell Jones on the need for a Robin Hood tax. Waikato’s Prof Natalie Jackson on super age changes (NZN). Massey’s Prof Chris Cunningham on the super age impact on Maori.
2. Maui Gas Line Unitec’s Jonathan Leaver on detecting gas leaks and doing preventive work.
3. Links: four academics on green growth; Victoria’s James Liu on forbidden love(ish) and Venezia Kingi on murder victims’ families; Otago Uni’s Prof Mark Henaghen on victims of crime; Massey’s Prof Ravi Ravindran on eggs; Auckland’s Prof Jane Kelsey on Pharmac ad Prof John Craig on nature sanctuaries (audio); Canterbury’s Greg Newbold on parole breaches, Jon Harding on Christchurch river silting and Prof Lucy Johnston on post-RWC afterglow; Waikato’s Prof Natalie Jackson on world population growth.

Students

1. End of Year Shows Massey has its big Blow creative arts festival at Albany and Wellington coming up. BOPP fashion and graphic design show.
2. Top Carpenter On Saturday the ODT was writing about the top southern building apprentice, but by Sunday he had been named national winner (NewstalkZB, Stuff).
3. Maori Otago tertiary education awards for Maori school students (ODT).
4. Sport: Waikato’s Tania Law becoming top netball umpire; Otago Uni’s Storm Purvis playing netball (My Netball). Canterbury’s Nick Ross in NZ junior rugby squad. Diesel apprentice’s karting. Otago Uni’s Campbell Makea in NZ softball team.
5. Links Otago Uni rubbish cleanup; Lincoln and Massey students in World Shepherds’ Challenge; EXITO blaster coating graduation; Unitec student wins furniture award.

Community/Industry Links

1. Heat Wintec’s heat chamber used to prepare athletes.
2. Kiwi Op Otago Uni @ Wgtn has helped operate on a white kiwi.
3. Links Auckland’s Rod Wills involved in disability arts festival; DairyNZ CE notes link with Massey; Aoraki hosted a multicultural festival.

Teaching & Learning

1. Literacy Workplace literacy by Sadler & Associates.
2. Links Quad bike training by Ag ITO and Taratahi; simulation game for Retail Institute won award; community ed by Occupy Wgtn; Otago Uni’s top medical school teachers; NZ Herald on Waikato-Tainui MBA in a quasi-advertorial.

1. Otago EFTS Down Otago Uni’s EFTS will be down about 330 for 2011, but that’s mainly due to them limiting entrants after above plan growth in recent years.
2. R J Scott Medal AUT’s Prof Stephen Henry has won the Royal Society’s R J Scott Medal for his glyoscience work.
3. Quake Stuff Misko Cubrinovski of Canterbury told the Royal Commission about a geotechnical report on CBD soils (The Press). Visiting Canterbury Fellow Prof Richard Gough on how the arts can help the rebuild. A King’s Education student who survived because he went out to lunch. Canterbury demolition.
4. NZBS on Demand The CPIT NZ School of Broadcasting has a cool new site and they have a video of yesterday’s RWC parade in Christchurch (HT Kiwiblog).
5. Student Winemaker…Jonathan Musther of EIT sounds like he’s pretty good.
6. Student Filmmaker…Kyan Krumdieck’s film is off to the Cannes Film Festival. He’s a Victoria student who has been on exchange at Berkeley (and his mum does research for NASA at Canterbury).
7. Op-Ed AUT’s Prof Paul Moon responded in the NZ Herald to an earlier op-ed by Auckland’s Prof Anne Salmond on the NZ economy. Both pieces are opinion, rather than research pieces, and are somewhat outside their specialities, but it’s election period when everyone has a say on politics and economics.
8. TEC IT Get an insight into TEC’s IT group.
9. Smooth Segue Yesterday I noted that Te Whare Wananga o Te Pihopatanga o Aotearoa had a bad NZQA report – then the Anglican PTE claimed that Catholic women should be made priests! Nice way to distract attention!
10. Fulbright Scholars 10 Fulbright Scholars have been announced – Otago Uni and the ODT celebrated the locals, including Andrew Geddis, who often appears in this roundup.
11. Rhodes Scholars Releases from Waikato and Canterbury, and the Dom Post on how one winner was a former Wellington schoolboy and the NBR on the same guy.
12. Politics The Greens’ Russel Norman visited Canterbury to check out their freshwater research. Victoria’s iPredict website is spawning a TV show. Labour might set up a defence college at Massey’s Hokowhitu campus (Palmie). Otago Uni’s Bryce Edwards reckons the RWC win will help the government win the election – I think it will have bugger all difference. An unattributed National Party release about all sorts of education stuff (not worth reading).
13. Short Bits Massey: hosting a big Fonterra party. Waikato: oil spill analysis. Otago Uni: free breakfasts for students; Prof Doug Sellman on MMP. AUT: SPARC on the new AUT-based National Training Centre (NZ Herald). BOPP: international student in critical condition after car crash. Auckland: Jane Kelsey on Pharmac. Canterbury: Prof Philip Joseph off to Oxford conference; winds don’t cause damage; Eric Crampton on RWC economics. Unitec: 3 minute thesis competition. Lincoln: congrats to ABs.

First up, he seems to have taken hook, line and sinker the Labour myth that National destroyed industry training in the 1990s and Labour fixed it – check out the following quote.

“Ideologically, a National-led government could easily shift more training costs to businesses, arguing they benefit from upskilling their staff so they should pay for it. But this was exactly the deeply damaging mistake the Bolger government made with the Industry Training Act of 1992. It radically reformed skills training, leaving only skeletal government support. Quickly, many companies developed a new training culture. Rather than take responsibility themselves, they poached skilled staff from competitors that kept training. As a result, the number of people in formal workplace training plunged and skills shortages became chronic.

Reviving industry training was one of the key planks of Helen Clark’s 1999 election campaign. The Modern Apprenticeship Act of 2002 was one of her government’s first major pieces of legislation. It created Industry Training Organisations, each tasked with developing government-funded programmes for its specific sector.”

Rod’s argument has many errors.

First, ITOs were established by the Industry Training Act 1992, by National, 7 years before Helen Clark gained power.

Second, there was no “skeletal” support for ITOs. They got substantial start-up grants to explore feasibility (which is partly why we ended up with so many ITOs) and then had funding transferred from polytechnics to purchase training. Everyone wants more money, but ITOs were not starved.

Third, workplace training did not plunge due to the Industry Training Act 1992. The table below shows that industry training numbers started falling in the March 1988 year, when Labour was in power. The drop is unsurprising given the huge structural changes being made in the economy, education and in labour markets over that period – an increase would have been surprising. Even though the decline started under Labour, it reached its highest percentage decline in the June 1992 year (the Industry Training Act became law on 22 June 1992, so can’t bear too much blame). The decline continued until the June 1993 year, after which numbers rose the next year.

The rise in workplace training numbers in 1994 was not a one-off. As the table below shows, industry training numbers increased throughout the 1990s, with a 43% (!) increase in the June 1998 year. These tables finish in the December 2002 year, but the numbers continued to increase through the rest of Labour’s 1999-2008 term. If you compare growth in the two nine year terms of National and Labour, trainee numbers went up by around 120% in both periods (NB the tables are sourced from an ITF report, co-authored by now-Labour MP Chris Hipkins). Labour did a great job of branding industry training as their own, but they weren’t unique in their support for the area. Both parties have played an important part in fostering industry training (and in contributing to the long-term focus on participation, rather than achievement, which has recently ended rather badly).

Rod Oram also wrote that ITOs “offer a confusing array of 4600 qualifications at levels one to six”, whereas readers will know that the majority of qualifications are owned by providers, not ITOs.

Rod’s piece has been undermined by some serious errors of fact, but he also makes some boilerplate arguments for better school-work links.

I am supportive of some of Rod’s ending comments. There he points to an important issue: the recently announced industry training review may have a focus that is too narrow.

“Theoretically the review just launched can look beyond industry training to all related areas of vocational training. Two crucial areas are how to better anticipate what new skills need to be taught and how to better co-ordinate the training of ITOs and polytechs. But the review is due to be completed early next year. So it will inevitably be rushed and superficial. It runs the risk of failing to give employees and employers the much-improved systems and resources they urgently need.”