﻿Mr SPEAKER: Question No 12, Jenny Salesa.
JENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East) to the Minister for Tertiary Education,
Skills and Employment: Is he concerned about skills shortages
in professions that require knowledge in STEM subjects; if not, why not?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment):
I thank the member for her question,
which is an area of great passion of mine in this portfolio.
To answer her question, yes, which is why the Government
has a comprehensive programme to attract and train more skilled people
in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics areas.
This includes building the pipeline of students wanting to study science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects,
through A Nation of Curious Minds and the Engineering -
Education to Employment initiatives, and working to lift Māori
and Pasifika participation in these subjects.
The good news is there are more graduates in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics areas than ever before,
with Bachelor’s level or higher graduates in engineering
up 36% in 2014, over 2008; ICT graduates up 43%;
and graduates in natural and physical sciences up 24% over the same period.
Jenny Salesa: How many teachers with science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics qualifications have been trained over the past 5 years;
if his policies are so successful, why are maths and science teachers
being pulled out of retirement because of critical shortages?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: It is interesting the member raises that,
because I had a discussion with the Ministry of Education
in the last week on whether there were any areas of shortages,
as the member has described.
I am reliably informed that actually no, there are not
widespread shortages in that area. That is not to say they are not looking
to train more teachers in maths and sciences, but if you look
at the advertising of those positions in the last few months,
since the start of the year, my understanding is there are not
unusual numbers of ads being placed for vacancies in those areas.
Jenny Salesa: How will young Kiwis become proficient
in maths and science, when only 39 maths teachers
and four physics teachers graduated from one institution
and none from another?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: In terms of the teaching workforce,
again it is a matter of demand and supply.
So I take a close look at what the Ministry of Education is saying.
The Tertiary Education Commission talks with the ministry on an ongoing basis.
If any shortages appear, they do look to recruit people
and encourage the universities to recruit people accordingly.
All I can do is repeat for the member what I said.
I checked in the last week on this matter,
and my understanding is there are not levels of unusual shortage.
Jenny Salesa: After 7 years as the responsible Minister,
what is his response to a school principal who is concerned about
“a huge drop or just lack of applicants” in maths
and science teachers and has no idea where the replacements are coming from?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: An individual principal may or may not have that view.
All I can tell the member is across the overall teaching sector
that is not the case, and I can tell her that the numbers of graduates
in areas such as sciences is up significantly—
24% over the last 6 years for natural and physical sciences,
for engineering subjects it is up 36%, and for ICT, up 43%.
These are big increases. They may or may not be proceeding
into the teaching profession, but actually, again,
from the information supplied by the Ministry of Education,
there are not widespread shortages.
Joanne Hayes: What reports has he seen of skills shortages in other areas?
Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I am aware of reports that there may be
skills shortages in other parts of tertiary education,
which I am looking into. Of course, the one that is perhaps most prominent
in recent days has been the area of culinary arts,
where I understand we are possibly importing Chinese chefs
to work in Chinese restaurants, and we are also possibly importing
Viet Namese chefs to work in Viet Namese restaurants,
Thai chefs to work in Thai restaurants, and possibly even
Japanese chefs to work in teppan-yaki restaurants.
This is outrageous—it is, frankly, appalling!
We need to stop this immediately, and I think the answer is actually
to pass a law in this House renaming those restaurants.
I think the Little India restaurants should be renamed
“Little Invercargill”, and we will close this problem down immediately.
Mr SPEAKER: That concludes Questions for Oral Answer.
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