Skills for Good - October 2020: Thank Your Cleaner Day, Te Pūkenga and more

Kia ora

Thanks for taking the time to read our regular update. We never seem to have a shortage of stuff to talk with you about! In this issue, we’re promoting our looming annual employer survey and I reiterate the encouragement for you to participate – there is always room for improvement, and your feedback via this survey helps us to identify these areas. We also have a story about Thank Your Cleaner Day, which is this coming Wednesday – I also encourage you to have a think about how you can reach out to your own cleaners, and acknowledge the fantastic and often unrecognised work that they do for you.

With the launch of the Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) and Apprenticeship Boost, things have been pretty busy for us here at Careerforce. If you would like to know more about these, please reach out to your regular Careerforce contact.

Hei kona mai

Andrew Saunders
General Manager, Employer Services

Thank Your Cleaner Day was launched to recognise the tens of thousands of skilled, hard working cleaning staff who work day, night and weekends to keep your working and living environments clean, safe and hygienic.

Careerforce is proud to be an official sponsor of Thank Your Cleaner Day and our Chief Executive Officer, Jane Wenman says,

“To NZ’s wonderful cleaning workforce, we applaud the fantastic and often unappreciated and unseen work that you do day in, day out. This is your day, we thank you.”

Since our last RoVE update, the most significant development has been the announcement of the name for the new institute which is being formed as a result of the reforms:
Te Pūkenga (New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology)

A key workstream currently underway for Te Pūkenga is a ‘Learner at the Centre’ national engagement roadshow. Learner at the Centre is a key operating principle for the new institute, and the engagement will help to inform the development of the operating model. We are working closely with Te Pūkenga to ensure the voice of our work-based learners is strongly heard, and particularly for our trainees to share their personal experiences around key enablers and key barriers to learning success. A survey is also currently being finalised, and which will be sent to learners, to capture the views of those who have been unable to participate in the face to face engagements.

We continue to work closely with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and
Te Pūkenga on implementation planning, but our core focus remains on business as usual and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

IDEA Services is upskilling its 200+ Service Managers with support from Careerforce. As New Zealand’s largest provider of services to people with intellectual disabilities and their families, developing managers in their leadership roles is a key goal for the organisation.

A team of Careerforce assessors is supporting cohorts of trainees through the NZ Diploma in Leadership and Management (Level 5) qualification, in a phased roll-out which has seen positive and impressive outcomes.

Hutt Valley Service Manager-Workforce at IDEA Services, Venessa Dodge was one of the first to be put through the Diploma programme. Her team supports adults of all ages with intellectual disabilities to live in their own homes and enjoy life as part of their communities.

“The main thing for me now is an increased confidence in my own management and leadership style. I feel more confident in solving problems and making decisions,” says Venessa Dodge.

Michelle Phillips is passionate about the disability sector. The Whanganui branch Service Manager has a considerable background in the sector which armed her with valuable experience for her role at IDEA Services.

“I needed to step back a bit, gain their trust, listen to what they were saying and take things on board. Confidence is the biggest thing that the course has given me,” says Michelle Phillips.

The rollout of our 2020 annual employer survey will represent it’s fourth iteration. Invitations are being sent out early November, and we are hoping to repeat the fantastic participation we had last year. As with the previous surveys, we’ll share the topline results in the new year, together with the resultant actions that we’ll be committing to.

We strongly encourage you to take some time to complete the survey as we consider the results and the very rich verbatim comments very carefully, and we have introduced a number of changes and improvements in recent years as a direct result of the survey. In this year’s survey, we are asking a specific set of questions around the regular reports that we email out to employers, so we can better understand whether these are meeting your needs, and what improvements we could make.

All responses are completely anonymous, and the survey is conducted on our behalf by an external research agency, Carte Blanche (who will send the survey invites).

In our annual employer surveys, you have asked us to help you keep your staff engaged and active with their training. Our team at Careerforce have been developing communication touchpoints designed to be motivational, and to ensure that training does not fall off the radar.

To date, we have introduced welcome emails and welcome packs to successfully set our trainees and apprentices off on their training journey.

In the next few weeks, we are implementing a number of new touchpoints, starting with those enrolled in the NZ Certificate in Health and Wellbeing Level 2 and Level 3, and then subsequently include those enrolled in other qualifications.

Email with initial Training Schedule – Trainees (doing paper-based learning only) will be sent an email with their Training Schedule, listing all the unit standards that you have selected for them to complete. This is sent around the 10-day mark from the time the trainee’s enrolment is confirmed, and will reflect any unit standards achieved as part of any prior learning that are part of their current programme. Here’s a link to the sample Training Schedule with a guide for trainees. https://www.careerforce.org.nz/training-schedule-guide/
Completion emails – Trainees who have completed their programme will be sent a completion email congratulating them on their achievement, advising them on when to expect their certificates, and how to access their Record of Achievement (RoA).
Aka Toi initial welcome support phone call – This is a trial run offering phone support to those enrolled in Aka Toi. The main purpose is to find out if they have received their login details, and have managed to login successfully. They may also request a more detailed demo or ask any questions they may have around the e-learning platform.

What else can trainees expect?
We are working on developing the capability to send quarterly trainee progress emails with a copy of their Training Schedule. These emails are a gentle nudge, and will ensure that your trainees know exactly how much they’ve done and how far they have to go. We’ll also let them know if they are lagging slightly behind and offer some help if required.

The Auckland based Health and Disability business unit within Lifewise, works with 900 older people and 550 people living with a disability.

Michelle Smith, Acting Service Manager at Health and Disability says, “We have a strong commitment to encouraging training amongst our homecare workers.”

“Last year we put out a call to Homecare workers, asking who was interested in the Level 4 qualification.” Lifewise subsequently supported 18 Homecare workers through the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Level 4) Advanced Support, with support from Careerforce.

Qualification Review - Rehab L4 – Preparing for NZQA submission

The qualification is at the internal quality assurance process stage and submission to NZQA will follow.

Qualification Review - Skills for Living L1 – Preparing for submission
Attestation Gathering closed on 10 September. We will now prepare all the documents required for submission to NZQA.

Qualification Review - PCPA L4 – Attestation gathering extended
Attestation gathering is extended until Friday, 23 October. Please read the summary of recommendations and download the attestation form on the Careerforce website.

Qualification Review - Social & Community L4 – Preparing for submission
Attestation Gathering closed on 28 August. We will now prepare all the documents required for submission to NZQA.

Qualification Review - Public Health L5 – Reviewed Qual Approved by NZQA
The reviewed qualification was approved by NZQA on 28 August. We are waiting for the reviewed qualification to be published on the NZQF.