Suchergebnisse

This article is an analysis of recent reform of vocational education and training in New Zealand. I argue that the 1999 election of a 'third way' government led by the New Zealand Labour Party raised the possibility of the previous administrations' neo-liberal or market-led vocational education and training strategy being overturned. Evidence suggests little progress has been made towards realising this goal, and the basic thrust of the previous administrations' vocational education and training policies have been retained. Moreover, the Labour Government has introduced new policies which are likely to increase competition within the vocational education and training sector. The implications for policy that emerge from this are discussed.

This article reviews recent developments in tertiary educational policy in New Zealand. It considers the implications of these on skill development and innovation and identifies network creation as a key aim of the Labour-led coalition. The article assesses its impact on the competition for advancement through education, and concludes by arguing that in some respects, Labour has been more conservative than previous New Right governments in New Zealand.

This article draws on data generated in semi-structured interviews to describe changes in social capital in the form of social networks across two generations of male school leavers. The article achieves this by comparing and contrasting the school-to-work transitions of eleven poorly qualified males, who left school in the late 1990s, to the transitions made by their fathers in the years between 1955 and 1980. The data show that the value of the social networks available to today's school leavers has declined in comparison to the value of the networks that were available to their fathers. It is argued that the decline in the value of social networks has contributed to risk and uncertainty in school-to-work transitions.

Recent developments in the provision and funding of industry training in New Zealand have provided substantial challenges for Industry Training Organisations. This article focuses upon the role that they are expected to play in supporting the Labour-led Coalition's Economic Transformation (ET) agenda, and explores some of the challenges created. A major aim of the ET agenda is to produce globally competitive firms by better directing the government investment in education and training and in research, science and technology. In this context, Industry Training Organisations are expected to play an increasingly active role in driving the government's investment in industry training. This article considers some of the barriers and challenges they face in meeting these new government expectations.