Waikato Business News June/July 2018

38 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS June/July 2018
BAY NEWS
The evolving
employment
environment
We examine the challenges faced by
educationalists and employers in meeting
the demands of the fast-growing BOP job
market.
By DAVID PORTER
Much has been made
of the contribution the
University of Waikato
(UoW) campus will make in
revitalising Tauranga’s CBD
when it opens, ahead of schedule,
early next year.
But it will above all play a
crucial role in helping the Bay
educate and retain the young
talent needed to support and
build on the economic growth
that has been a feature of the
region in recent years.
The downtown campus
expects to open with at least
700 students enrolled, says
vice chancellor Alister Jones.
As he points out, there are
already close to 600 UoW students
being educated in the
city.
However, the campus is just
the most visible recent example
of what has been a multifaceted
effort by the region’s unique
Tertiary Education Partnership
(TEP) to collaborate closely
on meeting the Bay’s tertiary
needs. The three key partners
- the UoW, Te Whare
Wananga o Awanuiarangi, and
the Toi Ohomai Institute of
Technology - recently signed
a renewed agreement to continue
what has been several
years of productive cooperation
aimed at responding to a
changing job market.
“The current generation is
really going to be looking at
multiple jobs over their careers,
so the notion that there’s now a
straight line career path, as
with their parents, is no longer
going to apply,” said Jones.
Wiremu Doherty, chief
executive of Te Whare
Wananga o Awanuiarangi, said
in a recent statement that it
was exciting and unique to
have a university, a polytechnic
and a whare wananga
working together to provide a
broad-spectrum approach for
students seeking tertiary education.
“Greater flexibility and
seamless movement for students
between organisations is
key,” he said.
Grappling with change
The tertiary partners, along
with private training organisations
and groups, recruiters
and employers across the
Bay’s wide range of companies,
have all been grappling
with how they will meet the
increasing need for enough
flexible and skilled workers to
service current growth projections
in the region.
Priority One chief operating
officer Greg Simmonds,
the long time TEP lead for
the Bay of Connections, says
accessing talent is probably the
area’s biggest challenge and
biggest constraint on productivity
growth.
“Just in the Western Bay
of Plenty, Smart Growth’s
projections show the region
will generate 40,000 new jobs
over the next 30 years,” said
Simmonds.
“We are producing more
jobs than we have people to fill
them. Broadly speaking, for
every 10 people that leave the
local workforce, there are only
eight people to replace them.”
The Bay has had high population
growth, he said, but also
high job growth.
“The total net migration of
working age is less than the
increase in jobs.”
Bernadette Ryan-Hopkins,
director of Ryan and
Alexander, which focuses on
management-level recruitment,
said the firm had seen
a big shift.
“When we first launched
two years ago, we had a very
heavy flow of high quality
candidates and a huge amount
of enquiries, particularly from
Auckland, but also other parts,
looking to move here, “ she
said. “That flow has really
ebbed and we believe the core
reason is rising housing costs.”
That said, Tauranga and the
Bay were still more attractive
than many areas of New
Zealand, especially for people
with young families, she
added.
There are mixed views on
how well the region’s educators
and trainers are doing at
providing employers with a
flow of the right kind of staff.
Traditional models
under threat
The University of Waikato campus: On schedule for 2019 opening. Photo/UoW.
Leon Fourie. Photo/Toi Ohomai. Alister Jones. Photo/UoW. Greg Simmonds
Tauranga Chamber of
Commerce chief executive
Stan Gregec says the traditional
model of tertiary education
is under huge pressure.
“The whole qualifications-based
approach that
universities and polytechs are
wedded to, is no longer fit for
purpose to cater for the needs
of a rapidly moving labour
market in the digital age,”
he said.
“Businesses want workready
employees, which
doesn’t just mean they have
the right skills on paper to do
the job. It also means having
the right attitudes and aptitudes.
And not all of this can
be easily taught in a university
or polytech environment.
“Our local institutions are
well aware of these pressures.
I think they are moving as fast
as they can to respond, but it
is not easy turning a very long
ship around.”
Mark Wynne, chief executive
of major regional employer
Ballance Agri-Nutrients,
says it can still be a challenge
to attract middle and senior
management talent as there
are limited career options in
the Bay outside the handful of
large corporates. However, it
was relatively easy to recruit
junior professional management
with a few years experience.
“We also have roles that
may benefit from [new] graduates,
but we are focused on
ability, competencies, critical
thinking skills and potential
leadership. We will teach the
rest.”
As a general rule, all institutions
could focus more on
four areas, said Wynne. These
are: 1) critical thinking / problem-solving
skills, 2) Finance
for non-finance managers, 3)
Communication skills, and 4)
Information Technology skills,
as these are now core in all
roles.
Multiple response needed
Toi Ohomai chief executive
Leon Fourie says providing
relevant tertiary education in a
changing job market requires
responding at multiple different
levels.
But there’s a
disconnect between
what employers want
now and what they
are likely to need in
the future, say in five
or 10 years.
The portfolio of qualifications
has to be continually
reviewed to meet the future
needs of the region and to
reflect the region’s key industries,
vocations and skill set
requirements, and demography,
said Fourie.
“While we have some ability
to alter the specifics of programmes
to meet employers’
changing technical requirements,
what we most often
hear is that employers are able
to manage that kind of training
on the job. It is more important
for us to be providing the fundamentals
of an area and a set
of ‘soft skills’ that the modern
workforce requires.”
Fourie said that where Toi
Ohomai had existing programmes,
it was analysing
enrolment and graduation
trends to determine whether
the pipeline of potential
employees matched forecast
demand.
“A good example of how
this can work is the construction
industry where, as we all
know, employment forecasts
show huge growth in demand,”
he said.
“Of our existing construction
programmes, carpentry
has been consistently full and
seemed to be meeting local
demand. Deeper investigation
revealed that a significant
proportion of the additional
demand will be in allied trades
such as plumbing, which we
did not offer, and electrical,
which was not as well subscribed.
We are now developing
a plumbing programme and
looking at ways to strengthen
the electrical pipeline.”
However, Fourie said
despite working to ensure there
were relevant programmes,
that would not matter if Toi
Ohomai failed to get the enrolments.
“This is perhaps the thing
most overlooked when discussing
the issue of meeting
the demands of the employment
market,” he said.
“When more people enter
the workforce by leap-frogging
tertiary training, the
responsibility for that training
falls on the employer. This
is where close collaboration
between industry and education
is required. Current examples
include the Action Groups
for Freight & Logistics and
Forestry & Wood, which are
making excellent progress on
building the workforce pipeline
and providing new delivery
models.”
Alister Jones emphasised
that while the tertiary partners
collaborate closely, they are
focused on different parts of
the market, with the university
focused on ensuring that
students were well educated
to work in a global system,
with critical thinking, domain
knowledge as a broader cultural
awareness, which was
important given the number
of Bay companies involved in
exporting.
“We’re also seeing is a lot
of students doing a first degree
and then really specialising in
a masters level,” he said. “The
employment outcome for people
with an degree has better
social health and economic
outcomes.”
The chamber’s Stan Gregec
said the stories about the coming
wave of automation were
scary for people hanging their
hopes on traditional education.
“But there’s a disconnect
between what employers want
now and what they are likely to
need in the future, say in five
or 10 years. Tertiary providers
are caught between a rock and
a hard place because of this.
Do they focus on today’s needs
or prepare students for tomorrow
– and beyond?
“We somehow need to find
ways to give people faster,
more responsive training for
current opportunities, as well
as preparing them - maybe
quite differently - for facing
future challenges. It’s all about
laying the foundations for lifelong
learning, not front-loading
people with degrees and
qualifications that will not necessarily
stay the course.”
Alister Jones says the university
looks at its role both
globally and nationally.
“We talk to our stakeholders,
employers, parents
- we take all their interests
into account,” he said. “The
engagement with employers is
very important. But we need to
look at not just what employers
need today, it’s what they
will need tomorrow - a 20-to30
year timeline.”
Priority One’s Greg
Simmonds said the TEP had
been aware of the changes
and challenges for some time,
which was a major component
in why the partners had
been working so constructively
together.
“It’s also a big part of why
the university is developing its
campus here, because we need
to be able to not only retain
people, but also attract them
to the region, including young
people,” he said.
“We also need to be able to
ensure that the largely youthful
Maori population is able
to engage effectively with the
education system at both the
compulsory and tertiary level.
We are really seeing a huge
effort to understand regional
dynamics, industry drivers and
future demand, and at quite
a localised level are seeing
successful programmes being
developed.
“The other key element of
the job market is an increasing
demand from employers
for “stackable” or shorter tertiary
programmes that enabled
workers to remain in their jobs
continuing to upskill. And also
for micro credentials to recognise
specific work experience,”
said Simmonds.
“I think we are seeing the
education system evolve. It is
responding to what a number
of employers have been asking
for. Employers can train for
technical skills - what they
need are job seekers with good
soft skills.”