Employer-led Vocational Education and Training Systems

In both the UK and New Zealand, we have witnessed the adoption of employer-led national training systems in recent times. The rationale underpinning these systems is that industry training ought to be relevant to the needs of industry and should attract a high level of employers’ investment in training that is relevant to their sector. This has led to the establishment of a series of national and sector-based training bodies in both the UK and New Zealand – i.e. the Sector Skills Councils and the Industry Training Organisations – which form the basis of an employer-led national training strategy. Although both systems claim to be ‘employer-led’ as well as driven by a national qualifications framework and ‘sector-based’ training supported by sectoral bodies, the results so far are fairly different in the two countries. This paper therefore argues that simply inviting ‘employers’ to be a part of a system of national sector-based training bodies is insufficient in stimulating desirable national training outcomes. A series of mutually reinforcing institutional and policy elements have to be in place in order to create an effective sectoral approach to national skills development.