7. SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga) Link to this
to the Minister for Tertiary Education
What recent announcements has the Government made about the Youth Guarantee?
Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Tertiary Education) Link to this
Recently I announced the allocation of the first Youth Guarantee places for next year. They have been split amongst 28 providers across the country and will see 2,000 sixteen and seventeen-year-olds who are not currently in education, training, or work participate in a range of vocational programmes free of charge at private training establishments, institutes of technology, and polytechs.
A decision was made at the Prime Minister’s Job Summit earlier this year to jump-start the Youth Guarantee in order to meet the needs of young people, who are some of the most vulnerable people during an economic downturn. The places have been allocated to regions with the highest need, based on the number of young, unemployed people in the population and the high-quality proposals. This has seen, for example, 810 places go to Auckland, 244 places go to Canterbury, 175 places go to the Waikato, and 164 places go to Otago-Southland.
Jacinda ArdernHow does she reconcile her statement that “the decision to speed up the Youth Guarantee is reflective of the Government’s commitment to providing education and training opportunities to younger New Zealanders who may find it difficult to find employment in these tough times,” with her decision to cap the number of places available in tertiary education, which means that around 6,000 young people are being turned away from training at polytechs and institutes of technology alone?