Posts by Paul Williams
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My psychic abilities are rather crap, but I think John Key's answer would be 'no'. But if the policy is so badly designed that there would be no proper auditing or oversight, then we do have a problem.
That's the inherent risk with vouchers, they tend to be gobbled up by trendy courses cleverly marketed by polytechnics to obscure the fact that there are few jobs out the other end. However the alternative is damn tricky and involves government being more active than simply making funding available - given that Key and co have so severely slagged off the current approach to steering the system towards delivering training aligned to labour market demand, he's got a problem!
Incidentally, my experience is that outside of the compulsory sector, unions exert very limited undue influence in the tertiary sector.
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I wouldn't be surprised -- ditto for the Maori Party with the wananga. We'll know when SIT sets up an Otara branch I guess.
But what about all that gnashing of teeth and wailing about low quality courses? They've simply gone from one rhetorical theme to another and hoped no one would notice. We already commit millions to poorly designed courses that churn learners around with very limited labour market outcomes, do we really need more?
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But its the vouchers things that gets up my nose:
“I’m only on this course because I want to get the money…..” Lets fill HE and FE with more people who are only there for the money. Local Polytechs will end up running mickey mouse/dump courses that can’t be failed and don’t really do much educating either. Oh wait a minute whats this at AUT….
Quite. I'm sure there's more detail but flicking kids of to any old course is a complete waste of time. Some research I was involved in in Australia estimated that the cost of appropriate training for early school leavers was around three times that of other training and that it required specialised delivery etc. I'm not averse to entitlements, but simply allowing them to be cashed in for low-quality courses will not improve workforce participation. In case what I'm saying seems unfairly critical, I actually do support policies that improve senior secondary retention rates, or the equivalent, so long as they also improve qualifications completions too!
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Russell's description of Key's education announcement as a tidbit is about right. Elsewhere I see the numbers have been crunched to reveal the impact is one third of bugger-all. My recollection is that Labour's Gateway does much the same thing without the penalty of exclusion from benefits. The problem is that if the goal is to increase labour market participation, presumably to reduce skill shortages and improve productivity, then the focus should be on existing workers. The majority of NZ's future workforce is already in it, they're not new entrants and therefore this policy will have limited effect. Compare Key's focus with the achievements made through the Industry Training Strategy, a policy that National once owned, which trains the existing workforce and has increased five-fold since 1999.
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Great point, David. So on one end of the spectrum, you have paid political advertising, on the other, you have personal political communications via the internet, and the question is where you draw the line.
This about sums up the issue for me. I've not had the time to follow the discussions as closely as others but I can't help but think that the likes of Slater do their side enormous disservice by their utterly outlandish claims. Shadbolt and Moore are risking what little reputations they retain by their association with this mob.
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Least I didn't misspell with an Australian accent, that'd be McGleshen
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Oh bugger, it's McGlash**a**n...
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Ok, well I wasn't in Wellington and would have struggled with more of the questions than I should have... however might I contribute a little story about Mr Don McGlashin...
I was a young aspiring muso learning trumpet in fourth form (someone can do the conversion if needed) and we used to get out of class to have lessons. Lessons were in a small room, probably originally a teacher's office when they had such things, out the back of the building where you lined up for your weekly hour of tuition. Tutors were pretty dynamic characters - dynamic in at least two senses - the changed a lot and they were entirely unlike teachers - and for a while my tutor was Don McGlashin.
I. Shit. You. Not.
So, I'm a little younger than the Blams usual crowd but I've got an older brother who's frequently told me my musical tastes are shit and insisted that I listen to his stuff which includes the Blams...
Queue the moment when I come home and tell big brother than not only can I play a musical instrument, something that at that point in life he'd not bothered with, but my tutor's, with whom I'm on first name terms (for all of a month), the very same the bloke he pays to go see...
For all those people who've got older brothers, this might work for sisters but I don't know, it was a triumph.
Thanks Don.
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Craig, look I'm sorry but how has someone not said that this
*sigh* And when was the last time you tried dancing to The Intenationale, cherub? If you'll excuse me, I've got to go lay down the groundsheets for tonight's National Party branch meeting-slash-Black Mass. Otherwise it's impossible to get the baby blood and sulfur out of the carpet...
Is just outrageously damn funny - I'm pulling an all nighter... goddam new government and all that... and just can't stop chuckling ....
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Ahhhhhhhh. I think it was the slightly twangy-country tone, with no disrespect intended to Mr Henley, that set me off course although how I landed at Dukes of Hazzard is impossible to comprehend.
Thanks, it's a great song but I didn't know it was used in the West Wing. Will have to consult the DVD collection.