Follow today’s election developments live here<\/a><\/p>\nThe party also wants to fold STAR, Gateway, Trades Academies and Vocational Pathways into a single uncapped system. Funding would follow student enrolments within existing Education baselines.<\/p>\n
ACT list candidate Paul Henry said the party would \u201cend the university-first mindset\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s education system has been obsessed with pushing young people towards university,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrades are not a second-best option. For a bright, ambitious young person, becoming an electrician, builder, or mechanic can be the most intelligent decision they ever make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schools would receive the per-subject funding for up to two approved industry-led subjects per student each year. They would also keep their base and equity funding when students left the school grounds for approved vocational courses.<\/p>\n
Schools \u2018building programmes alone\u2019<\/p>\n
Henry credited the Government with \u201ca good start\u201d. The NCEA replacement will include industry-led subjects developed with Industry Skills Boards, which were set up earlier this year. The Government has also moved funding from Fees Free to Trades Academies.<\/p>\n
But Henry said Trades Academies places were capped and the programme had traditionally targeted students at risk of disengaging.<\/p>\n
He named Ashburton College and Palmerston North Boys\u2019 High as examples of strong local partnerships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is, schools have largely had to build these programmes alone. ACT will build a proper national pathway so that choosing a trade is just as straightforward and respected as choosing university.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the proposed Industry Awards, senior students would complete two industry-led subjects and a related academic subject, such as primary industries with agricultural science, biology or business. They could gain the award and University Entrance in the same year.<\/p>\n
Henry said the award would show employers and training providers a student was ready for the next step, without becoming a requirement for an apprenticeship.<\/p>\n
ACT said Industry Skills Boards would keep developing new subjects where employers wanted them. The party would also work with NZQA so credits from approved industry-led subjects could count towards apprenticeships after students left school.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand needs skilled tradespeople just as much as university graduates,\u201d Henry said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ACT would fund schools about $2000 for each industry-led subject a student takes and create Industry Awards to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[28921,84,111,43,139,69,270122],"class_list":["post-636347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-act-party","tag-education","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-vote-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}