Labour puts focus on imparting “life-skills” such as driving and budgeting lessons for school leaving youths.
The Party leader Jacinda Ardern made the policy announcement on Monday morning at Kelston Girl’s College, amidst loud cheers and warm reception from enthusiastic school students to clearly suggest that she was a hit among them.
Labour will give school leavers the practical skills and knowledge they need for adult life with a new School Leavers’ Toolkit, Jacinda Ardern said.
“Labour’s School Leavers’ Toolkit will help students learn to drive, understand practical budgeting, be equipped with workplace skills, and learn how our political system operates through civics education at school. Every secondary school will be resourced to provide these courses.
“Some schools, iwi, and community groups provide this kind of education alongside the core curriculum with great results, but the approach is ad hoc and varies across the country. Labour will ensure the toolkit is available for all students,” Ms Ardern said.
The school Leavers' Toolkit will complement the core curriculum and is envisaged to costing up to $50 million a year.
In addition to this Labour is also seeking to professionalise careers advice and integrating it into learning, which means that every high school will have a trained, skilled career advice teaching staff. This will be an additional $30 million a year.
Funding for these programmes will come from the $4 billion in additional funding that Labour has committed to the education sector.
Ms Ardern, demonstrating her ability to relate to many with a marked ease, a quality that has been singly identified as responsible for Labour’s turnaround in the latest polls, answered few questions from students on issues of homelessness and pay equity to speak more about Labour’s vision for the New Zealand.