Plumbing board down the drain

The shortage of experienced plumbers in Hawke's Bay was such that when companies advertised for employees few got a reply.
"We don't grow on trees," one Napier plumber said. He said while the number of plumbers aged 55 and over were increasing, recent figures showed the number of under 25s was decreasing alarmingly.
The "desperate" shortage of skilled labour has industry figures clashing over who is responsible.
Their wrangling follows a Government move yesterday to sack all nine members of the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Registration Board.
Some plumbers believe the Industry Training Organisation (ITO) has performed poorly and is in need of an overhaul. Others say they stand whole-heartedly behind it. Tertiary Education Minister Michael Cullen announced yesterday's board sacking and a new board was appointed by Associate Minister of Health Damien O'Connor.
The sacking appears to be a response to the falling number of people coming into the trade, despite $24 million being spent on training over the past six years.
An independent report was the catalyst for Dr Cullen's reaction.
The report, from lawyer Hazel Armstrong, said the relationship between the registration board and the ITO was "dysfunctional".
Dr Cullen said many apprentices had passed the ITO national certificate but failed the board's registration exam.
The former chairman of the sacked board, Terry Wynyard, said public safety was the number one concern, and the issue was one of quality, not quantity.
"There was no way the board could gerrymander pass rates when the ITO's unit standards were substandard," he said. The managing director of the Design Association of New Zealand, Ralph Hill, said the ITO system, introduced by the Government in the 1990s, was flawed.
"I think the board has been made a scapegoat for the failing of a system," he said.
"I can't see the purpose of getting rid of a well-functioning board that is doing good for New Zealand and trying to introduce change."
New Zealand had turned its back on a "perfectly good" system of training apprentices which had worked for at least 60 years, Mr Hill said.
A system that encouraged on-the-job training was not working because apprentices were not being taught by people with the right skills, Mr Hill said.