Skills For Good - December 2019: Highlights from 2019, serious Christmas message, RoVE update and more

Kia ora

Welcome to the final Skills for Good newsletter for 2019.

I wish to thank all the people that completed our Employer Survey this year. The number of respondents is slightly up on last year, which is pleasing. Your responses will contribute greatly to the work-plan for Careerforce into 2020 and beyond.

I hope you enjoy this edition of Skills for Good as you will see it has been a very busy and productive year at Careerforce.

It's been a pleasure working alongside you in 2019 and we look forward to continuing our relationship next year.

I wish you, your team and your whānau, a safe and enjoyable Christmas.

Ngā mihi nui

Andrew Saunders
General Manager, Employer Services

As we have previously outlined, a key part of the reform of vocational education (RoVE) is the establishment of Workforce Development Councils (WDC’s), that will assume responsibility for standard setting and qualification development. A key focus within our recent series of workshops was seeking stakeholder feedback on the number of WDC’s and their respective coverage areas – this was then shared with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) to support their recommendation to the Minister.

Education Minister, Chris Hipkins, yesterday announced that there will be six industry-led Workforce Development Councils, one of which will be for Health, Community & Social Services, which encompasses most of Careerforce’s current coverage. Careerforce currently also has cleaning and urban pest management within its coverage, but the changes announced yesterday will see these fall within a Service Industries Workforce Development Council.

At this stage, it is expected that all WDC’s will be up and running by June 2021.

For more information on this announcement, visit the TEC website or the Beehive website

The inaugural Prime Minister’s Vocational Excellence Awards aim to raise the status of vocational education and recognise the achievements of students.

Leader of Learning for Pathways at Sacred Heart, Warwick Foy, who nominated Kyah was pleased she received the award. "It was time to celebrate other types of success."

By term 3 this year, Kyah had completed a Level 3 qualification, the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing in Health Assistance, through Careerforce’s Gateway programme. It’s a 70 credit NZQA recognised qualification.

This month we highlight some work done by the Skills Highway team at the Industry Training Federation. They have collated a list of frequently asked questions from employers. Here’s a sample:

We have issues with efficiency and productivity and we think it’s due to literacy or ESOL – what can we do?
What’s wrong with the school system? Why do we have these problems in the workplace?
How do we address this issue without offending our staff? We don’t want to make them feel like they’re dumb or worry that their job is on the line.
WIFM – What’s in it for them and what’s in it for me?
We’ve got this new technology coming in – how do we make sure our workers are ready for this change?
How do we introduce literacy training? What happens if nobody comes forward – or if too many people come forward?

See the full list of responses here.

Read about employers who have run workplace literacy programmes in their workplaces here:

For more information on setting up a workplace literacy programme, please contact Cushla, 04 550 2426, 027 838 9512 cushla.wilson@careerforce.org.nz

Cleaning L2 and L3 – Revised qualification documents submitted to NZQA

The final NZQA qualification application documents have been submitted to NZQA on 22 November. We will update all stakeholders when we hear back from NZQA in the new year.

Rehabilitation Support L4 – Expanding review to cover all strands

The initial phase of the review focused on the Brain Injury strand. Recommendations from Brain Injury stakeholders also impact on the Spinal Cord Impairment, and Chronic Illness strands, and additional consultation is now being undertaken with relevant stakeholders.

Skills for Living 1 – New qualification development proposed

Sector representatives identified a need for another qualification as part of the qualification review. We will update stakeholders on the next steps in the new year.

Peer Support L4 – Analysing feedback

The online survey has now closed and face-to-face consultations have finished. We have started analysing feedback. We’ll publish the results and recommendations in the new year.

Addiction Studies L6 – Analysing feedback

The online survey has now closed and face-to-face consultations have finished. We have started analysing feedback. We’ll publish the results and recommendations in the new year.

Primary Care Practice Assistance L4 – Analysing feedback

The online survey has now closed and we have started analysing feedback. We’ll publish the results and recommendations in the new year.

Social and Community Services L4 – Planning the Review

We are now preparing for stakeholder consultations that are happening in the new year.

Public Health L5 – Online consultation ongoing

The online consultation is open until 20 December. To complete the survey, please visit the Careerforce website.

Keep up to date! Visit the Careerforce website for more information about the Qualification Review.

We recently held a series of leadership summits across Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin for learners enrolled in our Leadership and Management Level 5 / 6 Diploma programmes. We had a great turn out in each region, and feedback has been very positive.

The summits were designed to inspire bold new learnership thinking and approaches, based on the theme ‘resilience and change’. Guest speakers and panellists from around Aotearoa shared their perspectives on this topic, showing approaches applied across diverse industries and circumstances.

We would like to acknowledge the speakers who participated (Jason Tibble from MSD, Gordon McGowan from Lean Business Advantage, Mike Brummitt from the Community

Care Trust, Dougal McGowan from the Otago Chamber of Commerce, and Joanne Greatbanks from the Otago Polytechnic). We would also like to thank the Southland and Otago Chambers of Commerce for their support.

"It was great to attend a Summit for leaders and managers... I got a lot out of the speakers and panel presentations ... the networking opportunity was awesome." 
"A really good event ... the subject matter and down-to-Earth presentations by the speakers was awesome." 
"... I was glad the Summit took the form it did as I learned heaps from the speakers…. A really good day for me."

"A real first for me as a manager – a day where I got to participate in manager-type issues…."  
"I’d like to see more of these events for managers – my boss really enjoyed the day too!"

Following the success of these events, we are looking at planning additional activities across New Zealand in 2020 as part of the trainee support sessions run by the assessors. This will enable trainees from all regions to benefit from professional development opportunities.

Careerforce wish to remind you that beyond 31 December 2019, we will no longer be accepting new applications for qualification equivalency assessment (for pay equity purposes). We will process all applications received by this date, and expect these assessments to be completed and outcomes notified before 31 March 2020.

From 1 January 2020, employees can still achieve pay equity via qualifications. They can review the extensive list of over 1000 qualifications already assessed as equivalent (as listed on the Careerforce website), or complete the Health & Wellbeing Level 2, 3, 4 qualifications via a provider of their choice.

Qualifications listed as Individual Assessment Required
Qualifications previously listed as ‘individual assessment required’ have been thoroughly reviewed and are being classified as either ‘Equivalent’ or ‘Not Equivalent’. These decisions will be posted on our website in the next few days.

The most recent qualification decisions are available here. We will continue to update you with the latest qualification decisions for the next few months (for applications received before 31 December). Please also check our website for all equivalency decisions.