Home » Information and services » Research Reports » Career Futures for Pacific Peoples » Section 3: Conclusion and policy options
Education statistics clearly show that the biggest barrier for young Pacific people entering higher education is the poor performance of the education system in primary and secondary schooling. With only 22.8 percent of Pacific school leavers able to enter university compared with 48.3 percent of Pākehā students, the biggest challenge to success for Pacific students lies in the school sector.
In addition, more Pacific school leavers than other groups are choosing to go straight into the labour market rather than tertiary education.
For those Pacific students who do enter tertiary education, the data from both the labour market and education suggest that many of them understand the labour market and are choosing their areas of study accordingly. The increase in numbers of Pacific students studying engineering, architecture and building is promising considering the high future demand. Similarly, the increase in Pacific students enrolled in agriculture and medical studies is positive. However, there is still a large proportion studying in areas with low future returns, such as general humanities and social sciences. Retention and completion rates are also an issue for Pacific students.
There is a need for a stronger shift towards Pacific students enrolling in higher-level qualifications in engineering, related engineering technologies, building, architecture, and (higher-level) medical studies to benefit from the higher incomes and potential growth of these areas in the future.
The strong growth in Pacific peoples studying in food, hospitality and personal services will be useful to meet increasing demand in these areas. However, these areas of work tend to have rapid turnover and are not usually highly paid. It will be important that lower-level qualifications in these areas can be built upon to gain higher-level qualifications that will open up more profitable employment opportunities.
The increases in Pacific peoples’ participation in health, management and commerce are more likely to bring them significant benefits if they undertake higher-level qualifications and seek careers in high-growth areas such as business services, arts and recreation, and health care.
While teaching is not forecast to be a high growth area, there is likely to be high demand for Pacific teachers and principals due to the increasing proportion of Pacific children in the New Zealand population, particularly in Auckland. The presence of more Pacific teachers and principals may also help to raise the performance of schools for Pacific students.
The current Pacific workforce has made different choices from the current and recent graduates. Bigger shifts are required here if current Pacific employees are to benefit from high-growth areas in the labour market. Overall, it will be necessary to lift the levels of qualifications of Pacific employees and shift from low-demand industry areas to higher-demand areas. This will require a mix of education opportunities and careers information and guidance.
There seem to be three key challenges for Pacific peoples’participation in areas of employment which have high future demand and high benefits. These are:
Education agencies are well aware of the need to increase education system performance for Pacific students in school, and retention and progression for Pacific tertiary education students.
The Ministry of Education has developed the Pasifika Education Plan 2009–2012 (PEP) to focus activity on what will make the most difference for improving education outcomes for Pacific students. The vision expressed in the revised PEP is that:
The education system must work for Pasifika so they gain the knowledge and skills necessary to do well for themselves, their communities, New Zealand, the Pacific region and the world.
The Plan seeks to achieve this vision by focusing actions on areas with high Pacific populations as well as identifying what will make the most difference for Pacific students, namely:
The PEP also sets aspirational but realistic targets to monitor government’s success. These are monitored through an annual report, the Pasifika Education Plan Monitoring Report.60
Key priorities of the Tertiary Education Strategy include:
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is working to give effect to its strategic direction and priorities, which include improving the performance of Pasifika learners to achieve in greater number and at higher levels in tertiary education.
The Career Services provides career education and planning assistance services and products to Pacific young people (approximately 1300 young people annually, seeking to increase the numbers in 2009/10), their families and communities. Career Services aims to see more Pacific young people using a range of career-planning services including the tools we have online and by phone.
Policy options for improving the labour market prospects of Pacific peoples include:
60 Go to http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/PasifikaEducation/PolicyAndStrategy/PasifikaEducationPlan.aspx
61 http://www.greatpotentials.org.nz http://www.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/ss-mentoring-opportunities-and-projects. Key agencies: MPIA with TEC and MOE.
