In December 2024, the Government released the outcome of its consultation on the future of the Vocational Education and Training System. You can find the media release here: Vocational education and training decisions support return to regions | Beehive.govt.nz
This outcome reaffirms the Government’s commitment to return decision making around vocational education and training to regions, and states its commitment to enabling greater industry input into work-based learning.
Te Pūkenga will be disestablished by the end of 2026 and ITPs will be allowed to be established as autonomous entities, either standalone or as part of a federation. Further decisions on the arrangements for each polytechnic will be made in the first half of 2025.
With regards to work-based learning, it is likely that Industry Skills Boards will be established as described under option B in the consultation document. However, a third option has emerged where these Industry Skills Boards would be responsible for the same functions as in option B, with the addition of national training co-ordination functions and the pastoral care of learners. The educative functions, such as provision and assessment, would be separate and providers would be responsible for these. The Minister will be leading further targeted consultation on these options early in 2025.
Many thanks once again to those of you who joined us in providing feedback on the proposal that has led to this announcement. You can find the MITO submission on that proposal here. We will share details of the January consultation on this page and we hope you will take the opportunity to engage once again.
If you have any comments or questions, please email us at info@mito.org.nz