Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia says trade training schemes it wants reintroduced should extend to information and communications technologies.
The schemes were scrapped, along with the Department of Maori Affairs, at the end of the 1980s, Waatea News reports.
Mrs Turia says that decision meant a generation of Maori missed out on training that would have given them sustainable jobs and careers.
But she says teaching traditional trades like carpentry and plumbing should not be at the expense of the new areas of work.
