Key to give free training pledge

CRAIG SIMCOX/Dominion Post

VISION: National leader John Key will use his state-of-the-nation speech in Auckland today to unveil a "youth guarantee" scheme that will provide 16 and 17-year-olds with a universal educational entitlement.

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School leavers aged under 18 will not be eligible for welfare benefits and will instead be offered free further education or training under a National Party scheme to be unveiled today.

The Press understands National leader John Key will use his state-of-the-nation speech in Auckland today to unveil a "youth guarantee" scheme that will provide 16 and 17-year-olds with a universal educational entitlement.

The speech to party faithful at Ellerslie at lunchtime today will officially kick off election year.

Prime Minister Helen Clark will follow Key tomorrow with a speech outlining her Government's plans.

It is understood National's youth-guarantee scheme will allow those who have left school access to free study programmes towards school-level qualifications.

The entitlement will be on top of current education entitlements.

National plans to fund the entitlements through polytechnics, wananga and private educators, rather than schools, and sees the scheme as a safety net for those who no longer fit in the school system.

The flip side is that Key is expected to announce that those not in work or further education and training and aged under 18 will no longer be eligible for any benefits from the taxpayer unless they are genuinely sick.

Teenage parents will be specifically catered for.

Key is expected to rule out raising the school leaving age from 16, arguing that some working 16 and 17-year-olds are learning more in their jobs than they would at school.

The plan is expected to have a hefty price tag, which Key will unveil today.

Today's announcement is understood to be part of a speech focusing on young people.

Key will underscore growing public concern over youth crime.

Law and order and the state of the economy will also receive attention in Key's speech.

Clark will make a breakfast address to the Waitakere Enterprise Trust in Auckland tomorrow.

Clark does not normally deliver a major scene-setting speech in January, preferring to use her opening address to Parliament in the second week of February to lay out the Government's work programme for the year.

But she has been forced into trying to steal Key's thunder by the state of the opinion polls, which continue to show Labour trailing National.

A New Zealand Morgan poll released last Friday showed National extending its lead by 4.5 points, reaching 52 per cent support, with Labour on 33.5 per cent.

A Herald Digipoll at the weekend offered better news for Labour, with the party closing the gap to 8.8 points, on 38.7 per cent compared to National's 47.5.

A spokesman for Clark's office said she would outline her vision for New Zealand in broad terms, but also provide some specific policy detail. "There is some grunt there."

Clark had not deliberately chosen to speak the day after Key.

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