$800,000 of the funding package is to be spent to promote the benefits of workplace training to employers and employees. It will also support a project to develop the ability of small and medium sized businesses to engage in workplace learning. The project is expected to focus on adult literacy issues and promote unit standards that focus on key skills needed for the workplace.

Minister of Tertiary Education Steve Maharey says that work-based training is a cornerstone of the government's Tertiary Education Strategy. Maharey: "All New Zealand work places also need to become learning places if we are to become a more innovative and prosperous nation".

But Steve Maharey says that while adult literacy and numeracy will be part of this package, work-based training is much more than this. He says training builds a wide range of industry specific skills and should not be characterised as second-chance education. Maharey describes industry training as a "prestige training path" that makes an equal contribution to the knowledge economy as any university or polytechnic.

Source _ Press release NZ Government 1 May 2003, "Budget 2003: $85m industry training package unveiled"; Press release NZ Government 1 May 2003, "Budget 2003: Vocational education and training research centre proposed"; Press release NZ Government 1 May 2003, "Budget 2003: Campaign to boost numbers in industry training" contact Michael Gibbs; Press release National Party 1 May 2003 "Business picks up tab for failing education system"; Press release NZ Government 1 May 2003 "National confused on industry training"

MEN AND WORK

This trend is obviously effecting the lives of many men who would traditionally be in their prime career-setting, money-generating, and family-raising years. This level of income is not considered enough to buy a house, and perhaps not even be a realistic income upon which to start a family.

An equally worrying statistic from the 2001 Census is the fact that as men get older the proportion earning low incomes increases. For the 55-64 age group, 42% were on less than $25,000 in 2001. Unless they already have substantial assets or savings, these men will probably not be able to save for retirement ... leaving most of them dependent on state assistance for their income and healthcare as they get older.

Source — Statistics NZ Census 2001 "Total Personal Income and Sex by Age Group" (Table 23), Average Wage figures from Statistics NZ.

Birrell believes that besides having huge impacts on the abilities of these men to start families and buy a house ... this level of income may also not be enough to attract a partner. His research also shows that one-third of Australian men in their early 30s have no partner.

Birrell: " In the past we figured that men in this age group were preparing to take on marriage and early fatherhood responsibilities. But they are not financially set up to take on those obligations, and because of the close correlation between low income and low levels of partnering, they are alone. It is a pattern that is utterly remorseless. There is no doubt that having a partner is one of the keys to life satisfaction, and here in Australia, these guys are heading towards significant unhappiness..."

Birrell also believes that the poverty of so many Australian men is a significant factor in explaining Australia's below-replacement fertility rate. His research shows that slightly fewer than one in three men aged 30-34 yrs have had a child by the age of 30. For their fathers' generation it was the reverse: two thirds had had a child by the age of 30.

Birrell: "It could be argued that this decline reflects the unwillingness of low-income men to take on family responsibilities. Young men considering marriage could hardly be unaware of the risks of marital breakdown or the long-term costs, especially when children are involved ..."

Historically, policy-makers have believed that as the economy grew, unskilled male workers would be pulled along with the system ... and the benefits of economic growth would trickle down. But Gregory points out that the `80s boom mostly benefited women, many of whom already had a working partner ... which, in turn, led to the trend towards two-income families. The `90s boom has led to increases in real wages, but mostly for skilled workers at the top end of the market.

Gregory: " In the end, unskilled men missed out on both of the most significant economic booms of the last 20 years. The traditional belief is that the benefits of economic growth will trickle down, but that trickle down to this unskilled-worker group has been very weak."

Sources — Australian Financial Review 15 April 2003 "Unskilled, Unloved and Underemployed" by Michael Cave; The Age 17 January 2003 "Fertility Crisis: why you can't blame the blokes" by Bob Birrell

DECLINING READING SKILLS OF NZ BOYS

Bill Turner of Massey University says that New Zealand boys simply don't read as much as girls. He says that when children start school at five years old they acquire basic language skills at similar rates, but boys soon fall behind. After a certain point, vocabulary development is driven much more by free reading than tuition, and boys just don't put the time into reading. Contributing to this is a far greater cultural acceptance of girls spending time in passive activities, such as reading, while boys are encouraged into sports and other outdoor activities.

Tom Nicholson of Auckland University says that social attitudes would have to change if we are to improve the reading performance of boys. These changes would have to include the expectations parents have of their boys and he cautions that the attitude that "boys will be boys" is affecting the country's performance. Nicholson says that if the reading skills gap between boys and girls continues to widen there will be little chance of New Zealand riding any "knowledge wave". Nicholson: "If we have 25% of the population struggling with literacy skills, then that is 25% less capacity for this country to one of the leaders of the world."

Source — New Zealand Herald 16 April 2003 "Boys' reading skills decline further" by Alan Perrott

NEW ZEALAND AT 4 MILLION

The problem is that since the mid-1960s, New Zealand's birth rates have been dropping below the level needed to replace the population without immigration. The figures: New Zealand's fertility rate is now 1.9 — down from 4.2 in 1962. The replacement level is 2.1 births per woman (one for each parent, plus a number to compensate for children who die before reproduction). This drop in fertility is happening across most developed nations: Italy and Spain's fertility rates have fallen to the low level of 1.3.

The Herald reports that efforts by overseas countries to pursue more family-friendly policies have met with mixed success. Sweden's policies of extended paid parental leave and free pre-school lessons boosted birth rates in the late 1980s, but Sweden's fertility rate in now 1.6. France, however, has halted its fertility rate decline at around 1.9 with a package of family support measures.

Source — New Zealand Herald 26 April 2003 "4 Million" by Warren Gamble";

LESS THAN 100,000 ON THE DOLE

Steve Maharey believes the fall in numbers of people on the dole demonstrates that the benefits of New Zealand's growing economy are being widely shared. Maharey: "Getting people off benefits and into paid work is the best welfare policy any government can pursue. We've known that job growth has been continuing strongly _ what these statistics prove is that the jobs are being shared around. "

Falling welfare rolls also spell good news for the taxpayers: Treasury estimates the decline in overall benefit numbers have saved the taxpayer $937 million.

The government explains that sickness and invalid beneficiary numbers have increased because the population is aging, more mentally ill are people being treated as outpatients, and changes to ACC have forced people off ACC and into the benefit system.

Source _ Press release NZ Government 16 April 2003 "Numbers on unemployment benefit below 100,000'; New Zealand Herald 17 April 2003 "Dole queue at 14-year low" by Kevin Taylor; Press release NZ First 16 April 2003 "Govt fiddles job figures says Peters"

CAPACITY TESTS FOR SICKNESS AND INVALIDS

The Labour Party had campaigned against "work-testing" invalids and sickness beneficiaries in 1999 and overturned the National government's blanket testing of people on these benefits. Since then, over 14,500 people have moved onto the invalids benefit and over 5,000 onto the sickness benefit. National MP Katherine Rich says that scrapping the work-test has not worked and she welcomes the change in policy. However, Rich says that the lack of sanctions makes it a "powder-puff version of work-testing".

Source — The Dominion 19 April 2003 "Beneficiaries to be tested" by Tracy Watkins; Press release 21 April 2003 National Party "Govt admits benefit work-test removal a disaster; New Zealand Herald 30 April 2003 "$400,000 to find why more claiming benefits" by Francesca Mold

JOB PACKAGING

While Central Otago has plenty of seasonal work, much of it finishes as the harvests are completed. Traditionally, seasonal workers have drifted away after their jobs end as the industry takes no responsibility for their on-going employment. This discourages workers from settling in the district and considering orchard and vineyard work as a longer-term option. One result is that employers are often left with the task of finding and training a new workforce each time they need work done.

Boyte says the most difficult part has been to get employers to think longer term: "When the labour demand peaks arrive, all employers want us to assist straight away. The idea of creating careers for people is not to the forefront of their minds at this time because all they want to do is get their crops picked as quickly as possible. This is the nature of the industries we deal with and it is our challenge to change mind-sets to a stage where everyone works on the issues all year round rather than just when the crisis is upon them."

— The Central Employment Trust lists job vacancies and an email contacts for career opportunities on their website at www.workcentral.info/

Source _ The Jobs Letter's Dave Owens' conversation with Dave Boyte of the Central Employment Trust.

NO MEASURABLE CLOSED GAPS

"Closing the Gaps" was established with the aim of building up the capacity of Maori social service and employment organisations. At the time, PM Helen Clark said the government was going back to mainstream departmental budgets to ensure that funding meant for Maori actually delivered for Maori. $360 million (over four years) was allocated to departments to implement programmes with particular reference to Maori and Pacific Islanders.

National MP Murray McCully argues that the TPK audit confirms that the government has gotten little for the money it spent on trying to close the economic and social gaps between Maori and other New Zealanders. He claims the public service has devoured the additional funding but the people for whom it was intended have gained nothing.

Source — New Zealand Herald 22 April 2003 "Gap-closing benefits hard to pin down" by Audrey Young; The Daily News 22 April 2003 "Poor audits for `closing the gaps' by Tracy Watkins

UK RELAXES "BIG OE" VISA CRITERIA

Until now, young people on working holidays visas could live in the UK for up to two years but were only allowed to work for half the time they were there and they were not supposed to work in their area of training or expertise. There was no means of effectively policing these restrictions and young workers and employers have generally ignored them. The new legislation may therefore do little more than legalise current practice.

The UK government has, however, expanded its migrant programme to make it easier for younger, skilled applicants to work in the UK. It is encouraging young foreigners to study and then work in the country after their graduations, and is expanding the use of work permits on a sector-specific basis to ease labour shortages. In the first instance this is being applied to the construction, food processing and hospitality industries.

Source _ Press release UK government 14 April 2003 "UK working holidaymakers scheme announcement"; New Zealand Herald 15 April 2003 "UK to ease work holiday rules but detail still on the way"; The Dominion 25 April 2003 "Clark gets support on EU visa extension" by Kevin Norquay, NZPA

FOLLOWING YOUR ESSENCE

Speaking at a workshop for career counsellors at Auckland University of Technology, Figler says that there is a quantum difference between merely earning a living and having a sense of purpose, dedication, fun, and "being in the flow of one's joyful work". Figler recommends that career counsellors put more emphasis on helping clients fulfil their "inherent purpose" — and career satisfaction — by encouraging them to utilise their strongest talents and follow their core values.

Concentrating on our "essence", or our sense of social purpose, can often be in conflict with the messages and feelings of what constitutes success, approval, respect, and recognition in our regular working environments. Figler believes that striking a balance of the two is important and warns that feelings of job dissatisfaction can often arise when work success is attained at the expense of doing work that our instincts or "inner voice" tell us is our inherent purpose.

Figler: "We find that many clients don't consider their values and personal reward systems with respect to their work and career. Yet this is often where dissatisfaction in career stems from. It is part of the role of career counsellors to help clients understand where their satisfaction is derived..."

The Career Counselor's Handbook by Richard Nelson Bolles and Howard E. Figler (pub Ten Speed Press 1999) ISBN 1580081576 Available from www.amazon.com

Source —New Zealand Herald 7 April 2003 "Love-hate on the job" by Angela McCarthy