Meeting Tomorrow's Skill Needs through Pre-Employment Teaching Programmes for New Zealand Schools

Abstract

This paper will review work in progress on a teaching programme for students whose formal education tends to terminate at the secondary school level. The perception of need is based initially on the structural shifts taking place in industrial demographics that postulate a decline in the new entrant replacement rate in western style development economies, and a rising dependence on indigenous labour supply. These trends suggest it is time to reconsider the case of New Zealand, using Torsten Husen’s seminal concept of the reserve of talent. It proposes a triadic model as a possible strategic tool, in which a given school and its local community, together with a designated employing firm in a specific category of skilled work, collaborate in a combination of teaching-learning and practical exercises. The intention is to raise the level of information available to job seekers, employing firms and the socio-economic perception of employment opportunities, within the community. While the course intended to have a general application across industries it will utilize as an example, a working model of the civil engineering industry, which has been the focus of some preliminary testing.