Speeches 

Tēnā koutou.

I'd like to welcome you all here tonight. I'm delighted to be here.

In March 2006 Cabinet agreed to develop a strategy to upskill New Zealand's workforce focussing on literacy, language and numeracy skills. One of the initiatives resulting from this strategy was the Upskilling Partnership Programme. 

Briefly, it was agreed:

•  that 15 upskilling partnerships with employers and other stakeholders would be created by June 2009; 
• that these partnerships would focus on particular industries and regions in New Zealand identified as having a high need for literacy, language and numeracy;
• that the learning programmes to be delivered from these partnerships would be researched and evaluated to find out more about the benefits of this type of training

We are here tonight to celebrate the achievement of these 15 upskilling partnerships.  In fact, to date we have a total of 22 partnerships, with 15 of them being fully researched and evaluated.  This achievement - indeed over achievement - of the original goal couldn't have happened without the enthusiasm, dedication and support of everyone here today.  So this event is also our way of thanking you - all the partners of the Upskilling Partnership Programme - for the commitment you've demonstrated to date.

Looking around tonight I am struck by the diversity represented in the audience.  Employers are here from an impressive variety of industries - meat processing, seafood, roading, construction, manufacturing, commercial laundry services, aged care, hospitality and tourism to name but a few. 

Providers here tonight include Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics, a variety of Private Training Establishments, Adult and Community Education Providers and others.

While many of these partnerships are with a specific employer, others have been established with Industry Training Organisations and other industry bodies to deliver learning programmes across clusters of small to medium sized employers.  Some of the partnerships have rolled out their programmes nationwide while others have started in a specific location.  Some programmes are being delivered to a number of workplaces across a specific region and others are designed to support local communities.

In all, the total numbers of employees that have taken, are in the process of taking, or will soon begin literacy, language and numeracy training in the workplace as a part of these partnerships is over 2500.

This is great news from government's point of view!  Both the variety of these partnerships, and the total number of learners on programmes, provides for more thorough research and evaluation results.  

It is also great news for employers and employees.  Everyone has clearly been working hard together to develop learning programmes suited to the particular needs of a workplace.  This customisation makes the learning particularly relevant to employees.  It is recognised that relevance to the learner is one of the keys to successful adult education. 

This partnership approach has, I'm sure, not been without its challenges along the way.  But I think we can all agree in saying it is the best way to approach complex problems like how to raise the literacy, language and numeracy skills of our workforce. 

I am confident that the success we are celebrating today - the creation of these 22 upskilling partnerships - could only have been achieved this way.  I congratulate you for working on this together.  I know it has taken a huge amount of work, coordination and patience.

While we are here tonight to congratulate ourselves on what we've accomplished we also need to keep in mind that we still have a lot of work ahead.  Increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of the workforce requires long term solutions and long term investment.

The Upskilling Partnership Programme is only the start, and only one element, to our overall plan to create a demand for this type of training in the workplace.  But it is an important element.  You are all at the leading edge of this work in New Zealand.

May I finish by urging everyone in this room to reflect on the work you have accomplished to date. Take some time to discuss ways that the partnership approach has impacted on your progress.  And think of ways you could do it even better in the future. 

Take the successes from these initial learning programmes and build on them.  And, most importantly, let others know about the benefits of literacy, language and numeracy training in the workplace. 

You are in a great position to lead from experience in growing the number of learning opportunities for our workforce.  An effort that is very important to the future of New Zealand.  

Thank you.  Kia ora.

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