We currently have a massive skills shortage in most trades and our workers are amongst the least productive in the western world. Why is this?
At Quarter Acre we believe that young people are being lured into courses with few job
opportunities upon completion. In New Zealand students on average borrow about a third of the full cost of the course costs only. In the USA the full cost is loaned and people are thereby encouraged into high productivity areas such as engineering, computing and
trades courses.
The education budget however is very large. We believe it is inequitable to ask low income
earners to pay high taxes to fund personal interest courses for the children of the elite.
The present Labour Government has to some extent realised the problem and is proposing that a centralised body sets course numbers rather than the present “bums on seats” funding model. We believe that this will not work as central planning has never worked in the past and the taxpayer subsidisation should decrease.
We believe that encouraging students to take courses that will offer real jobs at the end will
help them and the country. We also have to encourage merit pay for teachers and voucher models. The latter programme was very helpful for young Maori students until scrapped by Labour.