Advanced trade, technical and professional qualifications – matching supply to demand
There is a limited number of areas where it is clear that increasing the number of people with trade, technical or professional qualifications would definitely reduce skill shortages. These areas are in engineering, building and medical professions. Demand in these areas has been driven by increased use of technology, increased construction activity and increased demand for health services. In other areas examined in the report, improving the quality and relevance of qualifications is likely to be as important, or even more important, than increasing the number of people graduating.
This is report is the second in a series of three reports looking at the supply of and demand for advanced trade, technical and professional qualifications. The first report, looking at demand for qualifications is available on Education Counts.
Author: David Earle [Ministry of Education]Date Published: July 2008
3 - Identifying demand for advanced qualifications
The first report in this series ended with a summary of the demand for advanced qualifications across occupational groups. The qualifications that appear to be in high demand are set out in Table 1 below in terms of field of study, occupation and level of qualification.
Table 1: Qualifications in high demand by occupation, field of study and level
| Field of study | Professionals | Technicians and associate professionals | Trades workers | Other |
| Information technology | Bachelors + | Bachelors | ||
| Manufacturing engineering | Diploma | Level 4 certificate (printing) | Level 4 certificate | |
| Process and resources engineering | Diploma/Bachelors+ | |||
| Automotive engineering | Diploma | Level 4/5 certificate | Level 4 certificate | |
| Marine engineering | Diploma | |||
| Mechanical and industrial engineering | Diploma/Bachelors+ | Diploma/Bachelors | Level 4/5 certificate | Level 4 certificate |
| Civil engineering | Diploma/Bachelors+ | Diploma/Bachelors | ||
| Geomatic engineering | Diploma/Bachelors | |||
| Electrical and electronic engineering | Diploma/Bachelors+ | Diploma/Bachelors | Level 4/5 certificate | Level 4 certificate |
| Aerospace engineering | Diploma | |||
| General engineering | Diploma/Bachelors+ | Diploma/Bachelors+ | ||
| Architecture | Bachelors | Diploma/Bachelors | ||
| Building | Diploma/Bachelors | Level 4/5 certificate | Level 4 certificate | |
| Medical studies | Bachelors+ | |||
| Midwifery | Bachelors | |||
| Pharmacy | Bachelors | Diploma | ||
| Dental studies | Diploma/Bachelors | |||
| Radiography | Bachelors | |||
| Rehabilitation therapies | Diploma/Bachelors | |||
|
Early childhood education |
Diploma |
|
|
|
| Special education | Bachelors | |||
| Accountancy | Bachelors+ | |||
| Business and management | Diploma/Bachelors | |||
| Sales and marketing | Diploma/Bachelors | |||
| Tourism | Diploma | |||
| Human welfare studies and services | Diploma/Bachelors | |||
| Behavioural science | Bachelors+ | |||
| Law | Bachelors+ | |||
| Food and hospitality | Level 4 certificate | Level 4 certificate |
This second report works through the subject areas identified in the above table. The subject areas have been grouped by the broad levels of bachelors and above, level 5 and 6 diplomas and level 4 certificates.1 Education is not covered in this report as the data the Ministry has from the census is not sufficiently disaggregated to look at the different levels of teaching.
Footnote
- These categories reflect the coding categories for the 2006 census.