What is the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE)?

Vocational education engages approximately 223,000 apprentices, trainees or learners around New Zealand (1). They are spread across thousands of employers, 400+ private training enterprises, 3 Wānanga and 16 subsidiaries of institutes of technology or polytechnics. The Government invests around $ 630M into vocational education (2).  

In 2018, the Tertiary Education Commission alongside the Ministry of Education worked around the country to understand what challenges the current Vocational Education system was facing (3). This revealed a serious skills shortage across key industries and employers throughout New Zealand (4). Many employers questioned the consistency across graduates within the current system. This may be a result of the split system New Zealand uses where in-classroom and on-the-job learning are largely separate (4). This doesn’t always meet the needs of learners or employers. Many industries stated they didn’t feel they had adequate input into the designing of the learning and highlighted a lack of flexibility for the changing needs of the market (2). 

This has resulted in the Reform of Vocational Education or RoVE (1). The Ministry of Education (MoE) and Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) are in the throes of fundamentally redesigning vocational education, with Minister Chris Hipkins calling it a ‘once in a generation change.’. The goal here is to create a unified system that links the learners and employers as well as the industry and providers. A national integrated network of provision is the aim with consistency across New Zealand being the key (4).  

SAARA, in it’s work with a number of ITOs and PTEs across New Zealand, has supported and will continue to support the sector to ensure that educational products are fit-for-purpose, that learners benefit the most from learning design and that we can continue to develop our skills right here in Aotearoa. Get in touch with us if there’s some way we can support your organisation do what you do best in this thriving sector. 

Source: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/employment-and-skills/regional-skills-leadership-groups/

Next:  

How RoVE will effect different industries… There are eight key changes that the Government is seeking to make in order to redesign the system and rebuild it in a way that meets the outcomes