Minister hits out at critics of new training schemes

Press, 20 February 1986, Page 24

Minister hits out at critics of new training schemes

PA Wellington Criticism of new training and employment schemes. had been emotionally misguided, without substance and occasionally irresponsible, said the Minister of Employment, Mr Burke. He said he deplored some critics putting selfinterest and/or investment in the old scheme such as project employment programmes before the needs of New Zealand’s unemployed. The new schemes, designed to give a “new

deal” to the unemployed, were unveiled before Christmas, he told a Salvation Army employment programmes conference. Training will be offered in job skills while the Young People’s Training Programme, STEPS, and the Adult Retraining Programme, the stand down period and the inflexible length of courses, will all be scrapped. The Job Opportunities Scheme will be extended to help those with special employment difficulties. A total of $l5 million will go to the Maori Enterprise Development Scheme and the Pacific Island Affairs Employment Scheme and the Voluntary Organisations Training Programme will be replaced with a new funding arrangement. The Budget had announced the phase-out of the project employment programmes and the new training schemes had been timed to coincide with that.

Mr Burke said those who expressed dismay at the proposed wind down of existing work programmes, particularly PEP, had chosen to ignore their past failures. They had done little to help individuals into permanent jobs.

“I have heard it said that people learnt more driving to and from work on a PEP scheme than they did while on the project," he said. Far to many of the PEPs had involved demeaning and low prior-

ity tasks which had done nothing to raise the selfesteem of workers to advance them in any way. It was also a misrepresentation of the package to warn of widescale dumpings of PEP workers, Mr Burke said. The new policy changes contained a built-in and gradual phase-out period. Projects would end when they were planned to. The Minister also said he had the power to consider exemptions to the proposed wind-down timetable for PEP and other existing schemes or even to reinstate them. An extended timetable had been set for Northland, East Cape, and Patea.

Mr Burke said he was also concerned about criticism from some local authority staff and representatives who seemed “hell bent” on retaining essential work and maintenance done by PEP and paid for by the taxpayers. Local bodies were giving the impression of wanting a captive, unskilled workforce for pet projects paid for by the taxpayer, said Mr Burke.

But that scheme had built up a ’’devastating” record of waste of human and financial resources, locking people into a lifetime of low wages. “I could suggest that local authorities put back the thousands of permanent jobs lost between 1980-1985 while they increased their involvement with PEP,” he said.