Skills for Good - July 2022: Free enrolments, learner stories, programme changes...

Kia ora

We remain scheduled to transition into Te Pūkenga as a business division of its Work Based Learning (WBL) subsidiary on 1 September, and are conscious that you may have read some adverse media publicity about Te Pūkenga in recent weeks. We wish to assure you that your Careerforce contacts and contact details remain the same, as do all our current systems and processes. As the reforms are embedded over the coming years, there will be change. However Te Pūkenga has an absolute commitment to growing workplace based learning. We fully expect that over time, there will be even greater supports available for both employers and workplace learners.

As we enter the second half of the year, we are pleased to see a continuing rebound in the levels of enrolments, and also in learner activity. We understand that workplace learning may have taken a back seat to simply keeping the ship afloat over the last year, and sincerely hope that this rebound is a reflection that workplace pressures may be starting to ease a little. This is a timely opportunity for a reminder that enrolments remain free across all Careerforce programmes through to the end of this year. Read more below.

Finally, in this issue of Skills for Good, we encourage you to consider registering for SpeedMeet 2022 events happening across the country. These represent a great opportunity to promote career pathways and current vacancies to a younger audience, and to support building the much needed diversity and resilience into our care and support workforce.

Ngā mihi nui

Jane Wenman
Careerforce Chief Executive

The Government's Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) is currently funded to run until December 2022, but this fund only covers the portion of the enrolment up until this date.

If, for example, a learner is enrolled in a Health & Wellbeing Level 3 programme in October 2022 and which has an expected duration of 12 months, TTAF will only cover the portion of the enrolment from October to December (25%).

However, as a show of support for our pressured sectors, the Careerforce Board has made the decision that Careerforce will cover the residual enrolment fees, and we will not be looking to charge partial enrolment fees (on a pro-rata basis) for any TTAF eligible enrolments across 2022, as some other providers are. This is great news for our cash-strapped sectors, and we hope continuing to remove a significant impediment to training for our employers and learners will continue the achievement of workplace based programmes and qualifications.

The Careerforce Board also made the decision to waive enrolment fees through to December 31 on our Level 5 Diploma in Business (Leadership & Management), which was not covered by TTAF.

Cleaners who previously never thought they would have the chance, now have aspirations of realising their full potential via business ownership.

Cleaning Franchise company, Paramount Services, is supporting its staff to progress from cleaners to successful business owners. Paramount Services National Franchise Manager Stella Blake is passionate about training. “Most of our cleaners haven’t grown up in an environment where there might be opportunities for scholarships, or to gain a tertiary qualification. But now there’s a pathway, and a real career opportunity,” says Stella.

“I think it’s wonderful for them to know that they can start off with just a part time cleaning job, do a Level 2 qualification in cleaning and then one day own their own business.”
With support from Careerforce, Paramount Services is currently putting 80 – 100 learners through on-job training at various levels. Learners get trained in cleaning techniques, and gain nationally recognised NZQA qualifications as well as specialisms and supervisory skills, whilst having the support and backing of a major franchise organisation as well as Careerforce.

Paramount Services is an Auckland based franchise company that provides commercial cleaning services to businesses, councils and government agencies. It has a network of 140 franchise business owners and over 1,000 staff, and delivers full-service cleaning programmes across the country.

We hear a number of inspiring stories about the work your trainees and apprentices do every day, and about the difference their training and achievement of qualifications has made to both their work and personal lives.

These stories allow us to bring workplace training to life and they help to inspire and motivate others with their training. If you have some great stories that you would like to share, we’d love to hear them. It's an opportunity to celebrate and recognise your organisations and your heroes, as well as inspire others. If you think you have an interesting story, please email us at marcomms@careerforce.org.nz

Reigniting joy for older people during the last phase of their lives is a career that is truly life changing for young wahine Māori Yazmin Te-Amohanga, Ngati Maniapoto, Tainui.
‘Yaz’, 27, is pursuing a career as a diversional therapist, currently working at Calvary Hospital in Invercargill where she recently completed a Level 4 Certificate in Diversional Therapy through Careerforce.

Her decision to work in the healthcare, care and support industry was influenced by her love and respect for her foster father who lived with muscular dystrophy, and her own experience of mental illness.

Registrations are starting to close for this year’s high school SpeedMeet events.

We’re excited to join other industry training organisations to support nine national events throughout August and September, starting in Wellington on Thursday, 4 August.

SpeedMeet provides the opportunity for employers looking for new talent to meet with secondary school students looking for a career. Think job-hunting speed-dating style!

Employers meet with each student for six minutes, then both note whether they’d like to see each other again. Matches are made and contact details are shared for another meeting.

Registrations for the Queenstown SpeedMeet close Thursday 28 July, and registrations for other events close in the coming weeks, so get in quick!

Click here to see event dates and to register now!

Careerforce is proud to be a silver sponsor of this year’s New Zealand Aged Care Association (NZACA) & Retirement Villages Association (RVA) Annual Summit in Christchurch.

The Summit also includes New Zealand's largest aged care exhibition of products and suppliers, with Careerforce being among the 156 trade stands exhibiting from 23 – 25 August. If you are attending, we encourage you to come see our team to discuss training options for your staff, pick up some freebies and recognise an aged care hero with our Tree of Recognition!

We'd like to acknowledge that there have been a lot of changes to programmes recently and we will be announcing a few more.

This has come about as qualifications are reviewed every five years and programmes are updated to reflect any changes to qualifications post the review.

When a qualification is reviewed, it is listed with NZQA as a new version. The previous version has a last date for completion and any learners that have not yet completed by then will be transitioned to the new version of the qualification.

In case you missed any emails, here is a link to emails sent to workplaces impacted about recent changes to programmes:

NZ Certificate in Cleaning (Level 2) with a strand in Health Care Facilities Cleaning >>More
Health Assistance and Support Work Strands of the NZ Certificate in Health & Wellbeing (Level 3) >>More
Business Level 5 Diploma Programme >>More
NZ Apprenticeship in Community Facilitation >>More
NZ Apprenticeship in Social Services >>More
NZ Apprenticeship in Community Facilitation – Disability Support >>More
NZ Apprenticeship in Community Facilitation – Diversional Therapy >>More
NZ Apprenticeship in Mental Health and Addiction Support >>More
NZ Apprenticeship in Social Services >>More
NZ Apprenticeship in Community Health Work >>More

It is important to read the information being circulated and if you have any questions please talk to your Careerforce Workplace Advisor or Apprenticeship Advisor.

"Kia ora koutou, Talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings to you all," says Ifi. Ifi has been at Careerforce for 8.5 years now so is familiar with many of you through her previous roles. She started as a Careerforce Workplace Advisor and after 7.5 years in the Moderation and Assessment Practice Team, has returned to the Employer Services Team as one of the Regional Managers for the Northern Employer Services Team and Pacific Lead.
Her region is Central, West and North Auckland as well as Northland. She also holds the Pacific Peoples portfolio across the motu.

A Samoan proverb goes like this: ‘O le ala o le pule o le tautua’ which translates into: The pathway to leadership is through service. For Ifi, this means, I serve to serve, I serve to lead and I lead to serve.
I look forward to working with you more.

Jillena (Ngāti Whakamarurangi, Ngāti Māhanga) has joined the team as a fellow Regional Manager of the Employer Services Northern Team, leading a team of Advisors to support workplaces to run workplace training programmes and to facilitate recognition of qualifications for their staff in South Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty.

Jillena has held leadership roles for over 20 years in health and disability, employment support, vocational rehabilitation and allied health services. She is passionate about building equitable outcomes for those traditionally underserved, such as Māori, Pacific Peoples, and people with disabilities.

She holds qualifications in Occupational Therapy, Adult Education and Training and Employment Support. In her spare time, Jillena enjoys spending time with whānau and friends, walking along the beach and retail therapy!

The training support section of the website gives advice not only for new learners to help get them started, but for those already on their learning journey, to help them stay engaged and motivated throughout.

Trainees can learn about the who, what and when of workplace training, their rights and responsibilities as a trainee, study tips, and more. They can find out how to access resources from the Careerforce library and view and download their training progress reports via a secure portal. To see this and additional support, including an explanation on how the assessment process works, please direct your trainees to this page: www.careerforce.org.nz/training-support

11.3% of Careerforce supported learners identify themselves as Pasifika People i.e. migrants from Pacific regions or their descendants.

We have developed some useful learning resources for employers that help to improve participation and success rates for Pacific learners and encourage their success. Among these resources, you can discover some key findings that improve the achievement and success of Pacific People. Find out about the Pacific Peoples worldview, and their values and beliefs important to wellbeing. Learn some Pacific greetings and how to pronounce Pacific words and names correctly.