Career Edge 17 (February 2007)
A multitude of choices - Editorial
This issue of Career Edge takes a look at the world of tertiary and trade decision-making. An interview with the Minister for Tertiary Education, Dr Michael Cullen, outlines the Government’s thinking behind the latest tertiary reforms and also highlights the role that Career Services is set to play in furthering the Tertiary Education Strategy 2007-2012.
Career Services holds a unique position within the Strategy. Our primary focus is with individual decision-makers rather than tertiary institutions. While other agencies focus on the quality, relevance and value for money of the programmes offered by tertiary education providers, Career Services looks at those factors from the point of view of the potential student. How can we help individual learners to enter the system well? How can we ensure that these people make informed study decisions that are likely to lead to success and the furthering of their career goals?
Over the next year, we will be preparing the groundwork for the new Better Tertiary and Trade Training Decision Making initiative. This four-year programme will build on the services we currently offer and extend their reach and impact to many more New Zealanders by web, phone and our regional network of offices.
There is plenty at stake for the nation and its citizens. The costs of tertiary education are high. Government spending on tertiary education, including capital and operating expenditure, was $4,046 million in 2006 or 2.6 percent of gross domestic product. Families and individuals also invest heavily with student fees for a year of full-time study starting at around $4,500. In addition, all students forego considerable short-term earnings potential by opting to study rather than enter the paid workforce. The cost of tertiary failure is higher still – not just in time and money, but in hidden costs, such as the unwillingness of individuals who’ve failed to keep learning. How much tertiary failure is down to the quality of the person’s decision-making, rather than their ability to succeed?
It’s not simply a matter of providing more information. There is already a plethora of tertiary information and marketing materials of varying quality and persuasion. What is required is independent, consumer information and advice that is easily accessible and understandable for learners. Our aim is to become the automatic ‘go-to’ place for learners wanting to make an informed tertiary or trade decision.
We also need to make sure learners are fully aware of all their tertiary options. As Industry Training Federation Executive Director Jeremy Baker and industry leaders point out in this issue, industry training is flourishing and it is important young people are aware of these opportunities.
Our work with individuals and those who support them contributes to New Zealand’s social and economic well-being. After all, it is only through a multitude of unique, individual decisions that we can achieve macro goals such as increasing economic growth, workplace productivity, lifelong learning and improved staff retention rates. These types of gains are based on people making well-informed decisions about investing in their own tertiary development.
The profile of career education is also being raised in schools. An article in this issue about Dr Karen Vaughan’s Pathways and Prospects research underlines the pressures that many young people face in making choices about their future. We need to do more to help them and the Creating Pathways and Building Lives (CPaBL) project will help this happen. The main aim of the project is to integrate career education across the whole school system in 100 schools. Career education in schools is simply too important to remain the responsibility of just one person. There are many teachers within a school that influence students’ decision-making and can help make the links between subject areas and the world beyond school. It is vital that teachers acknowledge that this is a legitimate and important part of their role.
Finally, this issue highlights Career Services’ commitment to leading discussion and debate around work in life balance. Last year, our efforts in this area were recognized by an EEO Trust Award. It is crucial that we ‘walk the talk’ in this area. Now our challenge is to expand the debate so that work in life decision-making is not just seen as tinkering with existing employment practices, but becomes a much richer exploration of the place of work in the context of our lives at large. I look forward to following up this theme in future issues.
Lester Oakes
Chief Executive
