Adviser training institutes positive about education shake-up

A shake-up for New Zealand’s vocational training systems could have an impact on the financial advice sector – but it’s expected to be a positive one.

Monday, February 18th 2019, 6:00AM

Rod Severn

The Government has revealed a proposal to replace the country's 16 polytechnics with one new single entity, the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.

It said the intention was to better prepare the education system for an environment in which New Zealanders were likely to retrain throughout their working lives.

"We need to move from a system where educational institutions and on the job training compete with one another, to a system where on the job and provider-based learning is seamlessly integrated," said Education Minister Chris Hipkins.

Many of the polytechs have encountered significant issues. The sector as a whole lost $53 million in 2017.

The Government also wants to reshape industry training organisations - such as Skills, which deals in financial services - into industry skills bodies,

ITOs’ role of supporting workplace learning and assessment for work-based vocational education would transfer to vocational education providers, and ITOs’ current role purchasing provider-based courses for work-based trainees would transfer to the Tertiary Education Commission.

At the moment, the level five certificate in financial services is delivered by Strategi, Professional IQ and Open Polytech.

Anyone who enrolled for the course with Open Polytech could find they completed it under the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.

But Professional IQ College and Strategi are private organisations and not directly affected by the changes.

But the way they interact with those designing the courses and assessing outcomes would be different in the new model.

Some industry sources said it could make it easier for those private organisations to have courses signed off and brought to market.

Gary Young, chief executive of IBANZ, which runs Professional IQ College, welcomed the change.

"In the end, the proposal to focus ITOs on qualifications and industry needs is a positive.

New chief executive of the college, Rod Severn, said they would be insulated from the change. "The amount of money the government has been pumping into these organisations to keep them afloat, it's a good thing."

He said it could lead to more people choosing organisations such as his to do the level five.

Angus-Dale Jones, chairman of the Code Working Group said the change would have no effect on the competence requirements in the draft code to be submitted to the Commence Minister. “If qualifications or education system arrangements change in the future, they would be assessed as part of the Code Committee's ongoing review of the code.”

Tags: qualifications Rod Severn