March 20, 2013

Executive Update Edition 63

Careers New Zealand is assessing a number of local, regional and national initiatives to help build better bridges between business and the education sector.

Speaking to Executive Update, Careers NZ chief operating officer Jay Lamburn says there’s no single silver bullet for helping transition young people into jobs and careers.

She says the solution does not lie in a business model in which each school careers adviser asks every employer, I

AUT vice chancellor Derek McCormack sees the aspirations of today’s students as strong predictors of the future of work.

He suggests tertiary educators, business and government agencies alike remain open to the idea of following the student as much as we follow the job market.

“We need to recognise that graduates want a career not just a job,” he says. 

Universities need to create a new narrative about themselves in the current environment, according to Massey University vice chancellor Steve Maharey.

Speaking at the Higher Education Summit in Auckland recently, Maharey said parts of the tertiary education sector are coming under increasing pressure to reinvent themselves as economic development units and help more directly drive economic growth.

New Zealand must better understand its key strengths if it wants to attract more international students to its shores.

The Ministry of Education’s Anne Jackson says New Zealand needs to focus on how really good practice can be scaled up throughout the education system.

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Tai-Marie Yorston, a senior career education advisor for Careers NZ, describes predicting future requirements for job skills as a guessing game.

Speaking at the Higher Education Summit recently she says that in 1972 economic forecasters predicted New Zealand would need more doctors, accountants, lawyers, carpenters and electricians.

“In 2012 we thought we needed more people to work in IT, telco