Classroom experience poor trade for on the job learning

A member of the board of Skills Active Industry Training Organisation says the Taumata Aronui which will be set up to provide Māori input into the reform of vocational training is tokenistic.

Des Ratima says Education Minister Chris Hipkins is not interested in continuing with the bicultural model that has developed in the sector, and his main focus is rescuing failing polytechnics.

While some parts of the plan show the minister is responding to pressure from the Waitangi Tribunal claim and judicial review brought by Skills Active, there is little in it for Māori who respond best to on the job training.

"I'm a tradesman. I know how this stufff works, he's not a tradesman. I don't know if he has had a real job in his time. I have real fears that the trades and Māori in those trades will be confined to learning in classrooms. It's like when you go to university, when you get your degree, you don't get guaranteed no job," Mr Ratima says.

Meanwhile, The Tertiary Education Union and its Te Toi Ahurangi national rūnanga have welcomed the creation of a Māori-Crown tertiary education advisory group.

Māori vice-president Huhana Watene says Te Taumata Aronui means Māori will be included as key partners in the next stages of the reform of vocational education.

The union also welcomed the announcement funding rates for te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori will be reviewed, and wānanga will be included in designing the new single national polytechnic.

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