Calder Cam: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCalder Cam: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 27 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18309. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]9.Dr CAM CALDER (National) to theMinister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment: How is the Government lifting the skill levels of New Zealanders to lift productivity and deliver higher economic growth?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Tertiary Education Skills and Employment): Improving skills is a key part of National’s agenda to get more people into work to help businesses grow to improve productivity and to build a stronger economy with higher-paying jobs. Today I released the Ministry of Education report on tertiary education enrolments for 2013. It shows that 56 percent of study by New Zealanders at tertiary level in 2013 was at degree or post-graduate levels which is a big increase compared with 48 percent 10 years ago. Domestic enrolments by younger people—those aged 18 to 24 years—in Bachelor’s degrees and higher qualifications continue to increase by 1 percent from 2012 to 2013. Demand for tertiary education remains high. Around 418000 students were enrolled in formal tertiary programmes last year. In part that is due to the improved performance of students in NationalCertificate of Educational Achievement and that flows through into the tertiary figures. That of course is also a key focus of this Government.Dr Cam Calder: How is the Government delivering more apprentices?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I am pleased to announce that new enrolments in apprenticeships training have grown by 24 percent since 2012 following the introduction of the apprenticeship reboot. That programme has been very successful and in the Budget a couple of weeks ago we announced a further $20 million for 6000 new apprentices through the apprenticeship reboot. That will bring the total funding for that programme to nearly $70 million. The average number of people signing up to apprenticeships in New Zealand has risen from 827 a month in 2012 to 1028 now. Last year there were 33000 people in apprenticeship training and so far this year there are 27000. A big part of vocational training has always been apprenticeships but under Labour the importance of that slipped in favour of more generic industry training.Dr Cam Calder: What are the outcomes for individuals from having higher skill levels?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well the income premium for people with higher skills is quite substantial. A further Ministry of Education report shows that people with a Bachelor’s degree or higher earn on average 62 percent more than those without a qualification. There is a very large jump in earnings between those who hold a degree and those who hold a lower-level qualification which is why the Government has put a lot of emphasis on getting young people to study at higher levels. In some fields there is a larger income premium from higher-level study—in science technology engineering and maths for example—and it is for that reason that the Government has boosted investment in many of those areas most recently in the Budget 2 weeks ago.