Media Releases
Labour Market Portal
16 May 2002
Budget 2002
$11.6m for skills forecasting action plan
The government is investing $11.614 million
in Budget 2002 to improve the information available on skills needs in the
economy, Social Services and Employment Minister Steve Maharey said today.
With unemployment at a 13-year low skill and labour shortages have been emerging
in some regions and sectors of the economy. Poor information about where skills
shortages are likely to emerge means it is difficult for the Government, employers,
workers and school-leavers to get sufficient training in time to plug the
gaps.
Speaking at the AGM of Competenz, the industry training organisation for engineering
and manufacturing industries, Steve Maharey said the additional funding would
enable the Skills Information Action plan, released last year, to be fully
implemented.
"New Zealand’s future prosperity relies on the capability of our
people. Making the best of this capability requires the matching of the capacity
of the workforce with the job opportunities available – and building
skills where capability gaps are identified.
"The new funding will support (all figures over four years, unless specified):
- an integrated website ("portal") to establish a "shopping
mall" offering everything you want to know about the New Zealand labour
market for job-seekers, employers and others ($2.82 million);
- a six-monthly Skills Report, written in plain English, that summarises
existing information on the supply and demand for skills, including areas
of actual or forecast shortage. These reports will be available, six monthly
from November this year ($1.228 million);
- integrating data on employees and their jobs, to better understand the processes of job creation, job retention and skill development ($4.495 million);
- a new survey on job vacancies that will improve knowledge of the demand
for skills ($2.717 million); and
- designing a survey on the employment and earnings outcomes for tertiary graduates ($354,000 in 2002-03 only).
"This is not a return to the workforce planning approach of the past.
Instead we will be forecasting future workforce needs and making this information
freely available to industry, education institutions and potential employees
so that they can make quality decisions about the needs of tomorrow’s
labour market.
"We hope that these new tools will speed up the matching of people’s
skills to the job opportunities that are currently available, and reduce
skill shortages in the future by helping people make to better decisions
about education and training," Steve Maharey said.
