1. Skills and economic policy – the current
choice and use of different training
methods
12 April 2013
Skills Development in Higher Education Conference
Martyn Sloman & Marius Meyer
@SABPP1
martynsloman@me.com
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2. Higher education challenges
• Role in socio-economic and
political landscape
• Skills shortages – talent
management
• Competition vs collaboration
• Technology
• Youth unemployment
• Retaining academics
• Limited resources
• Link with other skills imperatives,
e.g. QCTO, NSDS111

3. Ederer (2007)

4. Internships – adding practice to
knowledge
 An internship is an intervention
 Employer complaints about the
knowledge of graduates
 Interns learning and applying their
knowledge in practice
 Employer commitment to integrated
skills development
 Reduction in youth unemployment
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6. Training and skills policy objectives
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Economic competition in the global economy
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Social inclusion of all sections of the community

7. Global quiz
Which company?
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Is the largest manufacturer of PCs in the world?
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Processes more internet transactions than Amazon
and eBay combined?
Which country?
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Is home to Embraer – the leading aircraft maker?
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Is home to TUF – owner of the largest tinned tuna brands
in the US, the UK and France?
Which South African company?
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Appears in the BCG 2013 list of 100 global challengers?
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9. The quality-cost revolution
…the breakneck speed at which China and
India…compete for high-value goods and
services.
This is shattering the view that the economic
world would remain divided between head
nations and body nations.
New competition is no longer based on
quality or cost but on quality and cost,
offering companies more strategic choices
about their global distribution of high-skill
and low-skills work

10. BCG Top 100 “Global
Challengers”
Revenues above $1billion, foreign revenues at least 10%
• 2006: firms came from 7 countries. 84
companies from the BRIC countries
including 44 from China alone
• 2013: firms came from 17 countries. Only
13 from China
• Shift from heavy industry to consumerorientation – financial services, ecommerce, health care, food
manufacturing
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12. Competitive advantage through
enhanced workforce skills
“We need employers to become more productive and effective in their field,
capable of competing globally in the high skills, knowledge driven economy, and
optimising the talent and skills of their people”.
“Our people will have the skills, expertise and flair to take on higher quality and
higher level jobs, across the whole range of occupations. It will put us in a virtuous
cycle of better skills, better jobs and higher wages”.
“Changes in technology, international markets, products and consumer demand will
continue to drive the need for higher and different skills, including literacy and
numeracy, technical skills, and managerial and leadership skills”.

15. The productivity problem
“Over the last decade, New Zealand has suffered
from poor productivity growth and a relative
decline in the internationally competitive sectors of
the economy. Export growth has been patchy in
recent years and our current account deficit has
grown unsustainably large”.
Prime Minister John Key , May 2009 Budget Speech
“New Zealanders choose to be poorer than other
nations because we choose to work in low-wage
activities. Our land-based industries are the bedrock of our economy. Dairying is to us what
minerals are to Australia. And yet, as this book will
show, we cannot build a successful modern
economy based on pastoral farming and
horticulture alone” .
Paul Callaghan,‘ Wool to Weta’, 2009

16. The job summit
and the nine-day fortnight
200 participants invited attended a one-day summit in Auckland on 27
February 2009. “The best and brightest ideas from those at the job
market coal-face”.
• voluntary agreement to reduce hours to nine-day
fortnight
• employer receives five hours payment at adult
minimum wage
• workers in scheme would not be made redundant
The Prime Minister stated that he would give priority to taxpayer-paid
training subsidies for workers to develop their skills on the tenth-day. An
idea that he wanted to investigate “without delay”.

18. • 11 March YouTube announcement
• the Prime Minister stated the scheme would go
ahead but the training element would be
‘decoupled’
• investigations had demonstrated the complexity
of training provision
• various indications of training opportunities
forthcoming: financial literacy, c.v. preparation,
health and safety
• obligatory training unenforceable

20. ‘Indentured apprentices’
entered into a formal
agreement and spent time
under a master craftsman to
get what was known as their
‘ticket’.
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21. Apprenticeships must: deliver high quality, nationally-recognised
qualifications relevant to the skill, trade or occupation of the
learner and employer; offer individuals appropriate training to
achieve a good standard of literacy and numeracy and ICT
(information and communications technology), where relevant to
the skill, trade or occupation; involve at least 280 hours of guided
learning per year; deliver training that directly meets the needs of
employers and learners.
‘Apprenticeship’ is now a framework for work-based learning
which is used as the basis for paying training providers – both
Further Education Colleges and private sector training
companies.
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22. Apprenticeships and conversion
……In 2010–11 Elmfield Training received £41 million from the Skills Funding
Agency…. approximately half of that was a result of the Wm Morrison
Supermarkets contract.
Existing employees have been re-labelled as apprentices, usually as a result of
a training provider persuading an employer to become involved in the statefunded scheme. Conversions are the easiest way for government to increase
apprenticeship numbers (particularly for people aged 19 and over) and increase
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the stocks of qualifications in the workforce. Fuller and Unwin

23. Apprenticeships are now regarded as:
• a potential platform for higher
education and certainly for
advanced further education
• an alternative route for young
people who do not choose to
remain in full-time education after
16 or do not achieve the GCSEs
required to study at higher levels
• the means of attaining the skills
and qualifications associated with
a specific occupational role while
in employment.
The demands are therefore considerable and possibly
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contradictory Fuller and Unwin

24. Redefinition of apprenticeships?
We support the significant increase in apprenticeships, but there is
a risk that the rapid expansion may result in the programme
becoming less focused. For that reason the Government needs to
clearly articulate the overarching strategy and purpose of the
apprenticeship programme. The introduction of a definition of
apprenticeships would also ensure greater clarity within that
strategy.
Simply enough, not all instances of training on a job are
apprenticeships. Apprenticeships require a new job role, a role that
is new to the individual and requires them to learn a substantial
amount before they can do that job effectively. An apprenticeship
without a job is a form of vocational training. An apprenticeship in
an old job is on the job training. There must be a job and the job
role must be new.
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25. Thank you