The role and structure of training in the New Zealand road surfacing industry

Since the early 90s New Zealand has been a leading authority in the development and use of unit standard-based national qualifications for the civil engineering industry, and in particular the road surfacing industry. This paper gives the background on how training in the roading surfacing industry is structured and funded in New Zealand, and in particular how it is administered by the industry for the industry. One of the objectives of this paper is to indicate to other countries who are in the process of developing a similar type of training structure for industry qualifications the amount of work which has already been done and which could be utilised by other countries if they wish to achieve similar objectives. The 'seamless' type of training leading to different levels of qualifications is ideally suited to the road construction industry. The road construction industry is one of the few industries that can take relatively unskilled people (and often completely unskilled people) and put them to work to produce an end product. This is especially true in developing countries where lowly skilled people have difficulty in obtaining qualifications due to a lack of literacy. The qualifications system, which has been implemented in New Zealand, is a competency-based system and national qualifications can be obtained by construction workers, especially at the lower levels, without (theoretically) ever entering a classroom. It is therefore fitting that developing countries throughout the world should be aware of the developments which have taken place in this type of training which can be adapted to provide customised training structures in any particular country.