Hidden Links, New Opportunities
- Emma Anderson
FOREWORD
The New Zealand education and employment landscapes are changing.
Historically we have focused on an education output to realise an employment outcome. As times are changing, the skills required by our labour market are challenging to identify and often develop or diminish faster than the market can keep pace.
We often talk about skills; the ones that are currently in demand, or that will be in the future. Generally these skills are at a high level, or are so technically specific that they are quickly obsolete as technologies, business processes or other factors shift. Understanding skills and skill requirements to meet the actual needs of industry is difficult and complex. However, we do recognise that there is a baseline of transferability that is not always obvious.
You often hear that businesses struggle to find staff with the right skills; they just want people who can ‘hit the ground running’. For prospective employees to do this, they need the ability to communicate to the employer the right mix of skills, attitudes and capabilities. The employer also needs to be able to recognise, and have confidence in, the skills being offered. In the absence of reliable, trustworthy information and support this becomes more difficult for
everyone involved. The cost for an employer of a ‘bad hire’ can be significant. Being unable to market their skills effectively will potentially cost a prospective employee.
As the government agency responsible for careers, the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is tasked with supporting all New Zealanders with information, tools and investment to have the skills, capabilities and the right training opportunities to have a sustainable income for as long as they choose.
To achieve this, we need to shift the conversation away from focusing solely on jobs. Using aggregated ‘big data’ from what employers are specifically asking for in their job advertisements, this clusters approach does just that. It provides new linkages and reflects the skills that are actually valued by employers, and where those skills can be developed. This discussion paper has been developed through the TEC led Careers System Strategy. We can’t
predict the scale, impact or breadth of the changes to the education and employment landscape but we can start the conversation on change.
Tim Fowler
Chief Executive,
Tertiary Education Commission