The Economic Costs and Benefits of Industry Training

The ITF commissioned independent economic research company BERL to research the economic costs and benefits of industry training. The results were released publicly on 14 December.

ITF media release

BERL media release

Executive Summary

Industry training makes a significant contribution to the New Zealand economy.

This contribution can be observed through:

• An analysis of the costs and benefits of industry training borne by the public and private sectors.
• Experiments using the BERL computable general equilibrium (CGE) model.

BERL ITF Report - The Economic Costs and Benefits of Industry Training

In recent years the officially recorded total cash funding of industry training has been approximately $300 million per year. Of this sum, approximately 70 percent has been provided by government and 30 percent by industry. Industry, employers, and employees also provide additional cash for training-related costs and ‘in kind’ resources such as time for training.

BERL ITF report - Industry Training an Overview

In the previous sections of our report we have discussed how industry training makes a significant contribution to the New Zealand economy. This was observed through experiments using the BERL computable general equilibrium model, and through our analysis of the costs and benefits of industry training borne by the public and private sector.