Who gets their hands ‘dirty’ in the Knowledge Society? Training for the skilled trades in New Zealand PhD Thesis, Lincoln University Nicky Murray Canterbury Development Corporation

Outline Introduction Skill shortages Understanding skill shortages:  Case study: The engineering industry  Case study: The electrical industry Connecting the research with our work at the Canterbury Development Corporation

Skill shortages l The extent of skill shortages in New Zealand l Why might skill shortages persist – the inadequacy of Human capital theory?

The engineering industry: The impact of recession on training l Structural problems in the engineering industry l Removal of protection after 1984 l Decimation of the engineering industry and manufacturing in general l Loss of manufacturing jobs the main contributor to New Zealand’ burgeoning unemployment rate in the mid-1980s

A lot of companies went out of business, a lot of companies that fed apprentices or trainees into the industry no longer exist…those big organisations that would pump lots of trained people into general industry, they no longer exist in the way they used to, so…yeah, the last decade, or 15 years really, there’s been a shortfall in training. So we went from having, probably 15 years ago, an apprentice training section in the company - we’d employ a full-time apprentice instructor, and we had an apprentice bay, where for the first two years of your apprenticeship, you’d work in that area, so you were well looked after and well trained...we were typical of big companies in Christchurch…all those big companies had apprentice training sections, and now when you look at them, we all haven’t got them… (Interview with manager, engineering firm).

New engineering apprenticeship contracts (private sector),

The electrical industry: The impact of the loss of public sector training l Economic deregulation l Public sector reform l The impact on training

It was a huge department, a huge depot, where we worked. There would have been, I wouldn’t like to think...a couple of hundred anyway...the store, for instance, was a huge building, and the mechanical workshop would have employed 20 fitters and turners and three or four welders…and of course the training centre, there would have been half a dozen people running that, so it was a huge place... I’ve been back, to what was this huge depot, it’s been turned into a store, the whole thing, every building is a store…there isn’t a trade left, not a trade, not a one, the place is empty...except for three storemen...so there would have been, easy, 200, say 250 staff, and now there’s three…very, very sad (Interview with electrician)

The electrical industry: The impact on training of changes in work organisation Flow-on effect of redundancies Increased competition Deregulation of the electrical industry Changing nature of the electrical workforce

The industry training strategy Pressure for reform of the apprenticeship system The restructuring of the youth labour market The Industry Training Act 1992 Industry training organisations (ITOs)

…and then this Industry Training Act, and the revamp of the whole system, and of course, in those days…politicians were going around saying, ‘We have repealed the Apprenticeship Act, we’ve got rid of the whole system’ and people saw that headline and didn’t read below it. So all of a sudden there was this massive confusion in NZ about, ‘Well, who do we contact for apprenticeship training, how is it done now? – nobody knows!’ And ITOs weren’t established, ITOs didn’t have representation, ‘Who do we phone?’ Nobody knew, so a lot of them said, ‘Well, stuff it!’ (Interview with ITO official).

It is difficult to get good trainees…I think part of the problem currently is that young people are being offered an awful lot of different vocations, there’s a lot of what we call the ‘sexy’ industries, like tourism and hospitality, you know, years ago, those didn’t exist, and most boys, they’d become a mechanic or an engineer or a builder or something like that, but there seems to be a lot more offering, so that dilutes the number that you’re actually going to be able to attract into engineering. Engineering’s still seen as a dirty, sort of low-paid, second rate job, in actual fact it isn’t, um, we’ve got guys, I mean, we’ve got guys on the shop floor here earning $60,000 a year… (Interview with manager, engineering company, 2002).

But we just don’t get the applicants. One of the drawbacks that we have in industry today is the schools…is the schools. They’re not taught technical stuff, they’re taught to go to university, to be educated… Yeah, ‘Don’t get your hands dirty’ (Interview with engineering group training company official). The biggest influence on kids’ career choices is still the family and the family who’s got a 16 year old kid has known that ever since their kid was born, there’s been no apprenticeships. So what’s the family saying? When you leave school, if you can’t go to university, you’ll struggle to get a job, because there’s nothing else to do, and so you’ll have to go and work in Kentucky Fried or McDonalds… (Interview with careers counsellor). Well, I suspect from the kids’ point of view, it’s a bit misted over by parents, who still sort of see factories, oil, smoke pouring out of a chimney- ‘Trades! Phew, we’ll go to university!’ (Interview with careers counsellor).

Connection to my role at the Canterbury Development Corporation