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History of Career & Transition education in New Zealand

Data provided by Keith Thomson

Key Dates

1844 - The first educational legislation in New Zealand was titled An Ordnance for Appointing a Board of Trustees for the Management of Property to be set aside for the Education and Advancement of the Native Race. The trustees' responsibilities were given as follows: ?The establishment and maintenance of schools for the instruction of the native people in the English language, and for the systematic course of industrial and moral training in English usages and English arts, and in the providing for the relief of the sick, and generally in such a way as may be most conducive to the bodily and spiritual welfare of the native race, and to their advancement in the scale of social and spiritual welfare.?

1857 - the Mechanics Institute opens in Dunedin

1877 - Education Act

1884 - Hogben complained that the rigid standards of examinations restricted primary teachers' liberty and encouraged cramming at the expense of general education development.

1886 - Wellington School of Design established - later became Wellington Technical School

1889 - Dunedin Technical School - (NZ technical Schools)

1889 Hogben becomes headmaster of Timaru High School ( a co-ed school).  He inherited an academic curriculum directed towards the Matriculation examination which he was unable to abolish because it was regarded publicly as the hallmark of a well rounded education. He felt compelled to remind pupils, teachers and parents that such a curriculum was not suited to the perceived vocational and educational needs of the great majority of adolescent students

1906 - Christchurch Technical/Wellington

1909 - Parson Model - the beginning of a structured approach to Careers Education ( see McMahon & Patton Assessment: A Continuum of Practice and a New Location in Career Counselling)

1913 - YMCA providing guidance services

1914 - Education Act required all children aged 7-14 to be enrolled on the register of a public school or other registered school

1920 - Amendment to 1914 Act raised the leaving age to 15 .  Its date of implementation was to be by Order in Council but no such Order was made until the 1940?s

1922 - First intermediate school established in Auckland

1923 - Apprentices Act

1925 - Dept of Education Report on Educational subjects No 16 Investigations into Certain aspects of Post Primary Education,  Frank Tate

1926 - Keys Thesis - An Inquiry into the transition from Secondary School to the University of New Zealand

1928 Harris Thesis - was successively a primary teacher, technical school teacher, training college lecturer and(in 1941 ) an officer of the Department of education


1929 - First official recognition of Vocational Guidance in N Z schools by Dept of Education Append to Journals1929 E-1 p5-Mcq

  • Approval was then given for the appointment in Christchurch and Wellington Technical Colleges of ?assistant teachers who had specialised in?..?

1930s - Technical Colleges began to show interest in guidance services and some cooperated with the YMCA.  In this period guidance in secondary schools began to emerge as rather undefined or in an arrangement dependent on pastoral relationships between teacher and pupils

1935 - Dept of Education reported that a member of the staff of the Technical schools in the four main centres had been assigned the duties of school vocational guidance officer

1936 - Proficiency Examination (which selected students for free schooling in secondary schools) abolished

1936 -Beeby Report on Intermediate Schools

1936 Conference of Vocational guidance Officers held in Dec

1937 - July - Modern Trends in Education conference - Proceedings published 1938

1938 March ? Conference of vocational Guidance officers held with representatives of the Dept Of Education - this led to

1938 - report of the Superintendent of Technical Education recorded the establishment of Youth Centres in the four main centres ?where all the problems relating to educational and vocational guidance of youth are considered jointly by officers of the Education and Labour Departments"

  • Eight vocational guidance officers were appointed, two attached to each of the Technical colleges in the four main centres and Careers Teachers were appointed in selected post primary schools to work in collaboration with the vocational guidance officers

1938 Edit A E Campbell - Modern Trends in Education

1939 - Careers allowance #40

1940 John Nicol - The Technical schools of New Zealand

  • 1857-Mechanics Institute est in Dunedin
  • 1879 P8
  • 1886-Wellington school of Design est-later called Wellington technical school
  • 1889-Dunedin Technical School developed
  • 1906? Christchurch Technical School

1940 - H.C. McQueen, Vocational Guidance in New Zealand-NZCER Pub

1941 - H.C McQueen et al, The Background of Guidance NZCER

1945 - H C McQueen,  Vocations For Maori Youth NZCER

1945 - R.Winterbourn, The Why and How of Vocational Guidance

1945 - William Anderson, The Flight from Reason in New Zealand Education

??1945  Margorie Donald Thesis - An Investigation into the Vocational preferences of 420 Girls Who will shortly leave Post Primary Schools

1948 - regulations introduced which provided for the appointment of careers advisers in all state secondary schools with rolls > 200

        - also first appointments made to what was to become the Dept of Education Psychological Service

1950s - late years saw a pilot scheme for guidance counsellors

1966 - Government making decisions to authorise the establishment of guidance counselling service at school

1971 - there were 265 Careers Advisors

                            53 guidance counsellors who were also responsible for careers advising for their gender( see Di Lynes p6-also Education 1971 Guidance in Secondary schools: Report of Working Party

1970s - first oil shock meant students who had previously left school at the end of year 10 returned to school but School Certificate was not a realistic goal for many-.  Some schools developed Transition programmes , sometimes with assistance from DSIS discretionary funds

1970s - seeDaley and Moorehouse 1987 Transition Education

1981- Careers Education in Secondary Schools published

1985 - the ?Gold Books? appear ie Careers Handbook

1985 ?Foundations for CATE laid at Lincoln university

1985 - 16 Jan - Govt Transition Education Statement released

1986 - some piloting of a national transition course

1986 - First CATE National Conference in Christchurch

1987-88 - $16.3 million (500%) increase in Transition Funding

December-Goff (Chch Press) described Transition as the fence at the top of the cliff and reflected that ACCESS was the ambulance at the bottom. Mr Goff acknowledged that choosing a career was a much slower process than simply a few hours of vocational guidance at the end of school certificate

"??.The idea is not to wait until the student has dropped out but to provide positive alternatives within the formal education system".

??.LINK begins

1989 - ?Tomorrows Schools? devolved power/decision making from the Department of Education to the schools

1989 - Transition Division of MOE begins producing resources including the ?Purple Books?

1990 - National Education Guidelines were established, revised in 1993,1996,and 1999. The NAGs have 3 components

  • National Education Goals
  • National Curriculum Statements
  • National Administrative Guidelines

1991 - ERO reviews Transition education

1993 - The New Zealand Curriculum Framework was developed.  This was seen as a major philosophical shift.  Education of the 1970s and 1980s was seen as a catalyst for achieving social equity whereas the philosophy of the 1990s was one of education as a contributor to economic growth (Snook 1991)

1995 Lynch Report-Review-Career Information and Guidance and...

1995 - ...Careers Information Grant (CIAG) begins in June

1996 - Transition Bulk Funding begins and Transition programmes begin to decline

1996 - Bulk Funding of Careers/Transition resources staffing into middle management - 330+ teachers cut from the system

1996 - LINK becomes STAR ( Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource)

1996 - Careers made ?accountable? through the ?NAGs?

2002 - Gateway starts

2005 - Designing Careers Pilot

2007 - CPaBL Creating Pathways and Building Lives) starts

2008 - Youth Apprenticeship Scheme starts