Hughes Darren: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Hughes Darren: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:670;Page:17389] 
9. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister for Tertiary Education 
: What specific policy changes has the Government made to increase the number of apprenticeships and other building skills training programmes since the September Canterbury earthquake? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister for Tertiary Education 
: Following the September earthquake the Government first ensured that there were sufficient funded places to meet immediate demand for trades training. Government agencies commenced work with the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce to develop skills requirements for the rebuild. Following the obviously much more damaging February earthquake the Tertiary Education Commission and other agencies both Government and non-Government are revising workforce planning and are in the process of mapping available provision and capacity from tertiary education institutions private training establishments and industry training organisations. We will see a move from other disciplines into trades that will now be in higher demand and we will increase places for trades training as required. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Does that mean that he has taken papers to Cabinet specifically suggesting an increase in the number of apprenticeships and other building skills training programmes since the September earthquake? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: No. As far as I am aware there is still capacity there. In fact the reason that the Minister is not here is that he is at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology today where they are already saying there is capacity for trades training and they could take people as of today. They ask people to get in touch with them about that. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Does the increase in demand for tradespeople in Christchurch following the two devastating earthquakes which the Minister referred to mean that the Government will restore the $55 million it cut from industry training last year or does it still believe that funding for training will be underutilised? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: It is important that we go through this step by step. At the moment a consortium of businesses in Christchurch is getting together to analyse what skills will be needed. I know that the Minister has also been talking to the Minister for Social Development and Employment and through Vote Employment they have been doing a skills analysis of what will be needed. As those analyses are done—without getting ahead of ourselves as to what the need will be—there should be a true assessment of that need. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: When will the House know whether there will be an increase in the numbers of actual apprenticeships and of people involved in other building skills training programmes given that the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation was saying before the two Christchurch earthquakes that demand for building and construction workers was likely to increase dramatically if the country came out of recession? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: No one is under any illusion that there will not be a demand for those skills; there will obviously be a demand for them. We are analysing the capacity and what will be needed. We are doing that through a step-by-step planning process.