Yesterday I spoke to the Skilled Migrant class at Victoria University. In the room were a dozen or so people who had come to New Zealand as people with skills that we need- IT engineers, industrial scientists, business managers, HR specialists. They do this programme to help develop their communication skills and knowledge of New Zealand business practice. They get mentored by business people (volunteers through the Rotary Club of Wellington), do work placements and generally get ‘match fit’ for working in New Zealand. The programme is very successful- graduates in recent years have over an 80% employment rate.
But next year will see the end of the Migrant Study Grant that has allowed the course to operate. Along with the Refugee Study Grant which opens tertiary study opportunities to refugees the fund was cut in this years Budget. Also the ESOL Assessment Service that helps place people in these courses has been cut. The cuts have not had the publicity of the similarly pernicious cuts to night classes. They don’t effect as many people, and they dont kick in til next year, but they are just as short-sighted. For the sake of a $2million we are limiting the potential of our newest New Zealanders. They have a great deal of skill that will benefit our society and economy, and but for a small opportunity we will hold them back.
Here is what Prof John Prebble had to say about the Skilled Migrant course in 2007
It is probably true to say that there is no other programme at Victoria University where government funding and voluntary help are so heavily engaged. But there can be no doubt that the effort is worthwhile. Each course lasts only 12 weeks. And yet participants who for at least two years, often much longer, have failed to make any progress in mounting the employment ladder are radically transformed. Many arrive at the course close to giving up hope. Yet within weeks of graduation most are in demanding employment that calls on their skills, experience, and education. Within months the larger part of the remainder are also employed. It is rare for any educational programme to see such dramatic and tangible results in such a short time. The success of the programme is a matter of great satisfaction to both Victoria University and the Rotary Club of Wellington.
This is an easy one for Mrs Tolley. Please, go and visit the programme, talk to the graduates, see the contribution they are making. And do the right thing and give these people a chance to achieve their potential.
This sounds like a great project and a tribute to organizing this with volunteers and engagement with the business community. However, it is also a sad indictment on the quality and integrity of the immigration service, and a sad reminder of the fact that we as a country are continuously swapping local capacity for imported workers. Unfortunately, it also shows an apparent xenophobic attitude of those looking for employees.
Instead of being busy worrying about how we must fund programmes to integrate into society and work those who we import to replace qualified people that leave for greener meadows, we might just have to think about ways to get the economy moving faster, so that incomes increase and the incentive to go overseas reduces.
While that is a long term effort, in the short term we might just try to actually enforce the already existing immigration criteria. As with so many things, this is a management issue, not one of rules or budgets.
As a “skilled migrant” working in a non-English as a first language country, there’s a reason you are “skilled” and that is the exact opposite of what NZ considers to be skilled migrants.
If you are skilled enough to qualify as a skilled migrant, shouldn’t you already come with these required skills so not to need further training? Or be intelligent enough and with means to work it out yourself?
How about making these people learn such skills BEFORE they land in NZ and require the taxpayer to fund their lack of skill?
Can’t see the HK government forking out for any training of its skilled expat migrants. Why is NZ again the sucker country that deems it has to pay for everyone and everything?
Cactus Kate: Loads of migrants come into NZ, often with job offers and fit right in. Some don’t, and it is better for us all in the long run if we support those people. If you read the profiles in the link above, they talk about learning about how NZers do business-in the words of one paricipant, ” how to talk indirectly”. These are skills people will necessarily be able to get before they come. Also many New Zealand employers need a whole lot of convincing to employ migrants . The placements on the course often lead to employers taking the plunge.
I have no doubt CK you have the chutzpah to waltz into most any country and start up work, but not everyone has that. Rather than lose people who have skills we need, a modest taxpayer investment will have a long term benefit. But I guess the philosophy behind that last statement might be where our differences begin.
Grant, yes but then they are not “skilled” are they? “Skilled” denotes that they are more useful than the current crop of New Zealanders, who have to fork out to pay for these apparently “skilled” individuals.
I shall explain:
Of your list above you mention “business managers, HR specialists”. Seriously Grant, if you think being an HR specialist is a “skilled” position of which NZ has a shortage of, ditto for middle management, then you have already been in Wellington too long. The country is full of middle managers and HR “specialists”….as well as underemployed real estate agents.
Even “IT engineers” there is a question mark over as there are plenty of skilled Kiwis who can do the job, even at Telecom. High taxes and low relative wages in NZ are pushing plenty overseas but that’s an issue the last Labour government did not address in the nine years they were in power.
Grant, I have now looked at the links, as you suggest, and must unfortunately conclude that this whole idea is probably more silly than I thought. The examples are of people ’skilled’ in specific areas, indeed having degrees and experience in specific areas, and then moving to NZ to do pretty basic administrative work, at best lower management stuff. One of them could afford to travel the world for two years, but was now apparently dependant on a subsidized course to learn the skills to be employable.
It would be much better to create a criterion that people should actually have work before they arrive, and that this should be work in an area where a real shortage exists. A ‘general’ category of reasonably intelligent people (in China that seems to mean at least a double major degree by the look of it, although I can’t really believe that), could be created, but why not have these people complete a course in such basic work skills BEFORE they arrive, or on arrival, and before receiving final permit. The costs for such to be met by the immigrants of course.
How about jobs for new Zealanders..Why are so many migrants still coming here when so many NZers are out of work?
I agree with Cactus Kate. Foreign immigrants will tell you that the refugee schemes are a have…as usual it is New Zealanders being had.
To TheresaJ and CK – I find your comments so typical of a certain type of Kiwi. I am a “skilled migrant” who moved to New Zealand. Not to steal your jobs but to enjoy a peaceful lifestyle. I have brought my skills which include more than 10 years in a profession and numerous degrees. From day one I have worked and paid enormous taxes. I do not arrange my tax affairs in a way that enables me to rort the system. I claim no social security payments at all.
I have given of my skills and work very long hours, all because I consider New Zealand home. The one thing I have found is that xenophobia is rife here. I have worked in other countries and this is the one aspect of this beautiful land that saddens me.
How about getting off your high horse and realising that the world is a global village now. New Zealand is benefiting from my skills the same way my home country is probably benefiting from Kiwi-trained skills now. It’s all swings and roundabouts.
I think courses that assist in a new migrant gaining employment where their skills can be properly used is wonderful. I did not attend a course such as this but I think the concept is a good one. Maybe they can include a course on how to deal with the xenophobic people you encounter in the workplace. It would have equipped me to deal with the disappointment of failed expectations that people would treat me as an equal and value my experience.