Apprenticeship Journey - April 2023 - Nail that assessment, Support for Māori and Pasifika learners, meet fellow app rentices.....

Nailing that Assessment is a regular section in our newsletters designed to help you do just that, nail your assessment. In this issue, we provide some tips to help with all your assessments. We've also provided extra support further down the newsletter. See: Great assessment advice, tips and tools.

Tip 1:
IMPORTANT - only submit one task
Please remember, it is important that you ONLY submit one task within a module for marking at a time. Feel free to work on other tasks, but please don’t submit these until the first task has been assessed. This is because we need to give you feedback to help guide you, before you move forward to the next one.

Tip 2:
When you've finished one module, check-in with your apprenticeship advisor, for advice on which module to work on next. Your advisor will be able to provide support and suggestions to assist.

Tip 3:
Please add the name of the module, as well as the module number on your assessment. This helps to avoid any confusion, especially when there is more than one version of a module, with different names.

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Nelson youth worker, Bruno Saia, is passionate about helping young people overcome mental health challenges to lead better lives.

Bruno is driven by a thirst for knowledge, having impressively completed two New Zealand apprenticeships since his arrival in New Zealand from Brazil just four years ago.

With a background in journalism, his first role in his new country was as a reporter, but a desire to work with youth, inspired a career change. He landed a support worker role with Pathways, the mental health, addiction and wellbeing services provider, and later became a youth worker at ‘Real’, the youth brand at Pathways.

“I applied for the position knowing that the mental health qualification was part of it. For me it was an amazing opportunity. They don’t really have this kind of thing in Brazil. You study while you work – it’s a great idea and makes total sense.”

Ruth Snowden has started a lot of things in her life that she hasn't completed. "Something always got in the way, or I just lacked confidence," says Ruth.

Thanks to her employer, Oceania Healthcare and Careerforce, Ruth is very proud to have successfully completed her Apprenticeship in Diversional Therapy.
"This has been a big accomplishment for me. I feel very proud that I’ve done it, and very thankful," says Ruth.

Ruth gained confidence through attending a noho marae, provided by Careerforce’s Rōpū Taupuhipuhi Āmio / National Mobile Support team. These events offer kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face-to-face) support for Māori and other learners working with the Te Ao Māori unit standards in their programme.

"There was great encouragement from the tutors. I walked out of there feeling really uplifted, and thinking ‘I can do this, I can complete it to the end’. And now I feel very proud that I’ve done it."

How we support our disabled learners
Careerforce is committed to improving outcomes for our disabled learners, working with a lived experience advisory group to ensure our programmes are accessible and fit-for-purpose. Among the initiatives, disabled learners are assessed to identify individual support needs. The functionality of Aka Toi, our online learning platform is being developed to support learners with different impairments. Learners are given awareness and support to use assistive technologies and will be given more flexibility around time to complete assessments. Careerforce assessors are also being upskilled to better understand the needs of our disabled learners.

Assessments and Privacy

This is a reminder that it is a breach of the Privacy Act for personally identifiable information to be used in assessments.

Learners must not disclose real names or personal identification of any person in their assessments except to their assessor during verbal discussions. Assessor notes about discussions will also protect the details of any person. Similarly, confidential details about the employer, other staff or the workplace must be protected.

In instances where workplace reports or other documents are used as evidence to support an assessment, it is essential that this is done with the full knowledge and support of the employer, and that any identifying details (e.g. person’s name, NHI number, area where they live, unusual conditions/illnesses, family connections) are removed or blacked out before being submitted for marking. Any assessments where such identifying details have not been removed or blacked out will not be accepted, and will be returned to the learner for resubmission.

After arriving in New Zealand in 2011, Cathy Briones has used her love for learning and teaching to progress from workplace trainee to workplace assessor, and now a staff assessor at Careerforce.

Cathy joined Careerforce in January 2022 to support the assessment of learners completing the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing Levels 2, 3 and 4 – the same qualifications she achieved as an advanced support worker not too long ago.

“Learning never stops,” Cathy said, “I believe in growth and how important lifelong learning is.” Read more about Cathy's story

Here are some great suggestions from Careerforce Apprenticeship Advisor Jess Hannah

Learner General Information:

When you complete a full module, it will move from your dashboard to the completed section under record of learning.
It is useful to read your assessor’s feedback. This can provide some guidance and support for future assessments.
A good guide is to aim to complete 2 - 3 modules every three months. Although, a couple of the larger modules may take up to 3 months to complete.
Follow your workplace privacy policies when submitting supporting evidence. All identifying information must be redacted and anonymised.

Assessment Tips:

Print all practical and attestation assessments and keep them in a clearfile so you can collect evidence and examples as you go.
It can be useful to look over the assessment tasks before starting the learning. For those who have a module with the section called “Assessment – Are you ready to start?" this document covers in a written format what the assessment videos cover visually and audibly, the kinds of things to expect in the assessment itself.
Use the Assessment Glossary to understand task words.
We want to know how YOU apply the learning to your role. Demonstrate your knowledge and skills by providing REAL examples from your workplace. Think: when, what, who, why, where.
If you find yourself stuck or struggling, take a break or contact your advisor for support.
It’s okay to ask for clarification on a question.

Useful Tools:

The help section on Aka Toi has some useful “how to” guides and answers to frequently asked questions.
The resource library can be useful for additional learning and research topics. This can be found at the end of the module list on your Aka Toi Dashboard.
Some modules have a section called “More Resources”. This section may have some other relevant resources and printable “Job Aids” that summarise on a one-pager the main learning points from your module. These “Job Aids” are useful reminders and could help you in your day-to-day work.
Some assessment questions can be answered with voice recording and uploaded as an attachment to Aka Toi.
There are apps that you can download on your cellphone to scan documents and upload to Aka Toi.
Aka Toi can change speech to text when using a cellphone.

You need to be logged on to Aka Toi to be able to access Aka Toi support links above