Education, training and employment

Just over $1b of new operating funding is committed to education along with just under $730m of capital funding over 10 years.

$44m for a digital skills training programme over two years will help provide core digital skills training to up to 60,000 small businesses, with supporting advisory services to help 30,000 businesses create digital business action plans.

The Training Incentive Allowance will be extended, enabling more people to access financial support for employment-related training.  A 13.4% increase in Vocational Education and Training (VET) funding allocates $279.5m to implement a unified funding system to better support work-integrated provision and learner needs and to help sustain a regional network of VET provision.

A ‘Social Unemployment Insurance Scheme’ is proposed, like the ACC system in some ways, but for unemployment.  The proposal provides a worker who loses their job with 80% of their income for a fixed period, with minimum and maximum caps.  The scheme will be jointly designed by a Social Insurance Tripartite Working Group comprising the Government, Business NZ and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, with stakeholder and public consultation this year.