4. Question No. 4—EducationJAN TINETTI (Labour) to the Minister of EducationQuestion No. 4—Education4. JAN TINETTI (Labour) to the Minister of Education: How is the Government investing to give more young New Zealanders the opportunity to take up a trade?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): Yesterday the Prime Minister and I announced 2000 more trades academy places. Trades academies allow secondary school students to take on full-time study that combines school tertiary and/or work-based learning. They've been effective in increasing the number of young people who attain NCEA level 2 or the equivalent and this is the latest step in the Government's comprehensive plan to boost trades training and tackle skill shortages. It sits alongside the Prime Minister's Vocational Excellence Awards the introduction of micro-credentials and the Government's wider work to reform vocational education and training. Our Government sees real value in vocational education and training and we're committed to raising the profile of vocational education in schools and in communities around New Zealand.Jan Tinetti: What other investments if any is the Government making to give more senior secondary students exposure to trades occupations?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: More good news: we'll also be funding up to 2000 more places for the Gateway programme the first increase in Gateway programmes since Labour and New Zealand First were last in Government. An evaluation of Gateway—which is a programme that links students into work experience—shows that employers really enjoy it: 70 percent of employers reported several benefits from their involvement with Gateway and 81 percent of students reported that their involvement with Gateways helps with their future plans. These types of programmes—Gateway and trades academies—have contributed to young people getting higher qualifications and more students getting jobs when they leave school.Jan Tinetti: Why did he consider it important to make these investments?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: One of the things we hear as a Government on a near daily basis from the business community and from employers is that skills shortages are holding them and the country back. They regularly raise this issue with us and they want to see the Government doing more to ensure that we are training our own to fill the skill shortages that we have. We want to see people in careers like building plumbing and agriculture and we want to see them reviewing those jobs as an attractive first option when they leave school so that we can close the persistent skills gaps that we've been facing as a country.Jan Tinetti: How do initiatives like Gateway and trades academies link with the Government's wider work to reform the delivery of vocational education and training?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: One of the things that the wider reform of vocational education and training is designed to do is break down the barriers between off-the-job training delivered by institutions like polytechs and private training establishments and the on-the-job training that is primarily delivered by employers. In an environment where we have a very strong labour market where the pull into work is very strong for young New Zealanders who are leaving school we need to ensure that we're doing more to provide them with earning and learning opportunities so that they can train while they are on the job. Gateway and trades academies open the door to more of that and the reform of vocational education and training is designed to ensure that it's better supported.