Skills for Good - August 2022: Transition into Te Pūkenga, Business Level 5 Success, Programme updates

Kia ora

As this email is sent, we are in our final week as Careerforce as we currently know it, before we ‘lift and shift’ into Te Pūkenga on 1 September.

While there is naturally some sadness and nostalgia, this is balanced with a keen sense of anticipation at the opportunities for our Careerforce staff, employers and learners within Te Pūkenga over time. Once the final transitions of Transitional Industry Training Organisations are completed over the coming months, work based learners will make up over half of Te Pūkenga’s total learners, and we can be justifiably excited that a key expected outcome of the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) is for this proportion to increase.

I encourage you to read the stories of Nika, Emily and Nicky in this issue of Skills for Good. One of the real highlights of my role is hearing the powerful stories about our learners, and the real differences they are making in people’s lives. Certainly in our eyes, they’re all heroes, and deserve to be recognised accordingly. Please continue to share stories of heroes from your work places and we will do our utmost to celebrate them and give them the recognition they so richly deserve.

Ngā mihi nui

Jane Wenman
Careerforce Chief Executive

It is now less than a week to go until we officially transition into Te Pūkenga as a business division of its Work Based Learning (WBL) subsidiary, and our Careerforce staff will be officially welcomed into Te Pūkenga through a powhiri ceremony on 5 September. We will be joining five existing business divisions that have already transitioned (Competenz, Connexis, BCITO, MITO and ServiceIQ), and will be followed by HITO, Primary ITO, and some staff from The Skills Organisation. Once these final transitions are complete, our combined 140,000 work based learners will make up over half of Te Pūkenga’s total learners.

There is also an absolute commitment to further increase levels of workplace based learning within the new system of vocational education, and so while there will be some changes over time, we are confident that these will only serve to enhance what we do today. Te Pūkenga Acting Chief Executive Peter Winder commented “Increasing the focus on work-based learning is a key part of the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE). It recognises the importance of on-the-job training and how it will support learners to gain the skills that Aotearoa New Zealand needs now and for the future”.

Any invoices issued by Careerforce (Te Pūkenga Work Based Learning T/A Careerforce) on or after 1 September 2022 should be paid into our new Westpac bank account
03-0826-0168758-00.

Please note we will also have a new GST number 136-499-076.

As most Careerforce programmes have had free enrolment since July 2020, courtesy of the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund and Careerforce grants, it has likely been some time since you last received an invoice from us. Our new bank account information will be included on future invoices from 1 September onwards.

Please note our contact details have not changed and you can continue to send any invoice or account queries to accounts@careerforce.org.nz.

Earlier this month, Te Pūkenga commenced engagement on its organisational design and direction (Tā tatou huarahi | Our pathway), and is seeking feedback on a proposed organisation and leadership structure. The proposed structure has been designed to put in place the leadership structure Te Pūkenga needs to fulfil its Charter commitments to learners, their whānau, Te Tiriti o Waitangi partners, employers and priority communities - Māori, Pacific and disabled people.

This engagement is open until Friday 2 September. If you would like to read more about the engagement, you can access the full document on the Te Pūkenga website here.

While this engagement is primarily focused on seeking feedback from kaimahi (staff), Careerforce stakeholders (employers and learners) are also welcome to provide feedback by completing this questionnaire. Alternatively, you can email feedbackom@tepukenga.ac.nz.

This engagement does not propose any impact to kaimahi in the wider Te Pūkenga network. Kaimahi will get a sense of where they will fit in the proposed structure but this engagement is not a consultation process about their job. Following this period of engagement there will be a series of targeted consultations as Te Pūkenga moves function by function through this process.

At just 19, Nika Harley is already enjoying her dream job, while completing qualifications that will enable her to advance a career in the health and wellbeing sector.

“I absolutely love this job, it allows me to do everything I enjoy, every day,” says Nika who is training on-the-job as a Diversional Therapist at Woburn Rest Home in Waipukurau.
“I used to view rest homes as a bit miserable, sort of lifestyle hospitals, but that was out of complete ignorance. I was so wrong. I certainly had no idea about diversional therapists and that they were even needed in rest homes.”

Wanaka based Service Coordinator, Emily Black, loves helping people make big changes in their lives. “I like hearing the success stories from staff about the work they’re doing for the clients they support,” says Emily.

Emily started at Pact as a community support worker in 2020, supporting people with a mental health or intellectual disability. Now Emily is a direct line manager for a team of 13 staff across Otago and Southland who help support these people to lead fulfilling lives.

With the support and encouragement from her employer Pact, and Careerforce, Emily is developing her skills further by completing the New Zealand Diploma in Leadership and Management (Level 5).

“Drug and alcohol issues, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts are some of the challenging issues our rangatahi deal with every day,” says Nicky Mapp, Programme Manager at Hawke’s Bay’s Ignite Youth Employment.

She and her team take young people from the ages of 15 to 24 on a six-week programme that involves leadership, self-awareness and confidence building mixed in with physical activity to help get them into employment, education or training.

Thanks to a Careerforce supported Management programme, Nicky is now on her own learning journey, to help become a better leader for her team, as they support youth on the programme. Nicky is currently completing a Diploma in Business (Level 5) Leadership and Management.

The Level 5 leadership and management programme is for current leaders and managers with direct reports. This Diploma recognises the employee’s skills and experience while building on their existing knowledge to manage and lead teams effectively. Managers are then able to adapt modern business practice tools and strategies into their own workplace setting. Managers and team leaders will develop the skills and knowledge required to contribute to the achievement of an organisation’s operational objectives.

Find out more information about the New Zealand Diploma in Leadership and Management (Level 5) programme. There are no enrolment fees for workplaces wishing to enrol their staff into Careerforce business programmes before 31 December 2022.

The SpeedMeet events for Christchurch (13 September) and Dunedin (15 September) are still taking employer registrations, so get in quick before these close next week!

We’ve been thrilled to see so many employers taking part in the nationwide series – this week’s Auckland SpeedMeet was fully booked out!

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.

The events are possible through the support of the Ministry of Education and other industry training organisations.

Register for Christchurch and Dunedin SpeedMeets

Careerforce is updating its Health and Wellbeing Level 2 programme and a new version will be released on 1 September 2022. Enrolments into Careerforce’s current version of the programme will close tomorrow, Friday 26 August.

Our current version of the programme expires on 31 December 2022. Trainees who are currently enrolled are encouraged to complete their assessments by mid-November to enable Assessors to register the outcome by 31 December.

The units in the revised programme remain the same, however these two unit standards become compulsory:

US 20826 – Demonstrate knowledge of infection control requirements in a health or wellbeing setting; and
US 23686 – Demonstrate knowledge of a person’s rights in a health or wellbeing setting.
US 23686’s credit value is increased from 1 to 2 credits.

A reminder email, including information for employers with individualised Orientation and Induction Programmes, was sent on Monday. Read it here

Don't forget, free enrolments via the Government's Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) are only available until December 2022.

This fund however 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 earlier 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.

But remember, you need to get your enrolments in before 31 December 2022.