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Issues paper

Technological change and the future of work

The Commission has released an issues paper to assist individuals and organisations to participate in this inquiry.

The issues paper outlines the background to the inquiry, our intended approach, and specific questions to which we are inviting feedback by 5 June 2019. Your submissions will help us better understand specific issues and ensure we have relevant information to inform our inquiry.

Future of work orange

Four future scenarios

Our issues paper presents four scenarios for considering the future impacts of technological change. These scenarios will be used to test the likely effectiveness of different policies. 

Four future scenarios


Is this a useful range of scenarios?

Issues paper videoWe're interested in your feedback about whether these scenarios cover a suitable range of future possibilities. We would also like to hear how you think New Zealand's policy settings should stack up under each scenario.

What changes might be needed...?

  • To labour market policies
  • To the education and training system
  • To support technology adoption

Watch this 2-minute video to find out more.


Digital inclusion

Our brief asks ‘how can we address the digital divide in New Zealand?’. Together with the New Zealand Work Research Institute we hosted a workshop to answer this question. We focused on how the digital divide affects young people, given the forward-looking nature of the inquiry. 

The workshop was designed to gather the views of experts and to contribute towards our forthcoming report on education and skills. There were three sessions:

  1. What is the nature of the digital divide that New Zealand should be concerned about?
  2. If you were the Minister of Education, would you spend money on digital access as a priority?
  3. If the access problem was solved, would we solve the digital divide? 

Find out about the key themes that emerged by reading a summary of the workshop and associated presentations:

Micro-credentials roundtable

Micro-credentials are a new mechanism to enable upskilling as well as recognition of existing competencies. We hosted a roundtable to delve further into the current status of, and potential future for, micro-credentials in New Zealand.

The roundtable brought together a variety of views from industry, the tertiary sector, training institutes and the public sector. The insights will form part of our upcoming report on education and skills.

Find out about the key themes of the roundtable discussion by reading the following summary.