Youth unemployment has reached 17.3 percent, its highest level in 30 years, while around 100,000 young New Zealanders are not in employment, education or training. For rangatahi Māori, the challenges are even greater.
Behind these statistics are young people with talent, ambition and potential who deserve a fair chance to succeed.
Labour believes urgent action is needed to reconnect our rangatahi with education, training and meaningful employment.
Our vision for tertiary education is built on three principles: accessibility, affordability and equity.
That means ensuring Māori learners can access quality education and training that reflects their aspirations, wherever they live and whatever their whānau circumstances.
Labour will expand Apprenticeship Boost and Māori Trades Training to help 30,000 New Zealanders into training and work. We’ll extend employer support to two years, broaden eligible trades and provide a $1,000 toolbox grant to help apprentices get started.
We’ll strengthen pathways through Youth Guarantee, wānanga, polytechnics and private training providers. No young person should be written off because traditional education hasn’t worked for them.
We will protect the unique role of wānanga in Māori education and research, strengthen student representation and advocacy, and refocus our Tertiary Education Strategy on stability and sustainability.
After years of restructuring, the sector needs certainty. Labour will complete a comprehensive tertiary funding review by the end of 2027.
Labour will cut 10% off eligible student loan balances, so graduates who study, work and stay here can pay off their loans sooner, keep more of their pay, and get ahead at home.
Our $4.3 billion Start Work Now plan will also create jobs and apprenticeships by building homes, improving schools and repairing hospitals.
**We cannot afford another three years of missed opportunities. We need to support the sector to get on and do what they do well in their communities. **
