Developing of a careers strategy that is inclusive of all from 3 years to life.
A co-ordinated, easy to navigate approach to careers education across agencies that removes barriers to access.
Adequate resource dedicated to a pro-active ‘top of the cliff’ approach to careers and pathways advice and support.
Enable greater integration between secondary schooling and tertiary and vocational learning needs to be promoted at a much earlier age, for example, Kia ora Hauora model.
Funding for a dedicated team to build connections between local employers, educators (secondary and tertiary) and students and support careers pathways in schools. Connections need to be facilitated by a neutral entity that is resourced to operate at regional scale and can operate across multiple programmes.
A collaborative approach to careers involving whanau, business, industry, and community. This includes educating and influencing the influencers, for example, industry assistance for students with subject selection at school – enabling students to plan their progression into post-secondary school education and training.
Facilitating an awareness of career opportunities in pre-school, primary and secondary schools. This includes aligning opportunities available in the region. In rural areas, pupils may not have experiential awareness of the types of careers available to them. Exposure to career pathways is different to urban areas.
Inspire and inform rangatahi through relevant and experiential curriculum. This includes developing a career pathway programme with milestones from pre-school.
Careers to be integrated into subject areas in curriculum.
Resource to develop bespoke regional curriculum content for local schools to use.
Free access for schools to a ‘Bank of Resources’ which includes a mix of online and hands-on, for example, SSEP, EndorseMe, School Kit and MyMahi.
Provision of 1:1 face to face dedicated career advice (non-teaching) from secondary school and beyond.
Increased funding for the West Coast Trades Academy as this is a successful pathway programme into further study and employment. In 2023, the West Coast Trades Academy (WCTA) received 310 expressions of interests from students in years 11 to 15 across the West Coast region. It interviewed 289 students, allocating a final 242 places. Funding from the Ministry of Education (MoE) covers 212 of these places, the remaining 30 places were funded in 2023 by alternative means. Of those interviewed, 47 students missed out. In 2024, the MoE has strongly signalled to WCTA that there will be no more funding for WCTA, so WCTA expects to fund 212 places again. In a time of economic growth and continued severe skill shortages, particularly in vocational pathway sectors, we know this to be a hugely underfunded sector of our education system for our region.
Funding on outcomes for Gateway provision over credit attainment.
Resource to embed life skills and career education into general learning, for example, drivers’ licence in schools.
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) to develop a contestable fund to enable regions to apply for funding to meet regional needs. The fund provide scope to enable regions to test, develop and implement initiatives that work for their region, for example:
West Coast Pre-school Prototype - a co-created protype project to support the development and testing of resources to support careers in pre and primary school
Programmes that develop transferrable/soft skills, for example, BCITO WorkStart programme that covers transferrable and soft skills while gaining a taste of the range of opportunities available in the construction sector.
Funding to support students start apprenticeships at school, blurring the lines between school and tertiary.
A clear line of site of relevance of learnings or transferrable skills to careers. Support by mapping and promoting careers pathways and entry points of these, timings/durations of pathways and the cross over through sectors. This could be integrated as an interactive feature of Tahatū. Several industries have started this work, for example, The World of Tourism|Go with Tourism. However, it needs to be across industries.
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/employment-and-skills/regional-skills-leadership-groups/west-coast/advice-to-the-tertiary-education-commission/careers-system-specific-advice/ Please note: This content will change over time and can go out of date.
