Skills for Good - November 2022: Have your say, 2023 fees schedule, free counselling for learners....

Kia ora

2022 has been another interesting and challenging year as we exited from the worst of Covid-19. With Christmas now fast approaching, we sincerely hope that the year is winding down at a less frenetic pace for you than it perhaps did in 2021. As you’ll see in the content that follows in this issue, there is certainly plenty still going on at Careerforce as we continue our transition into Te Pūkenga. While 2023 will be a year of change for our Careerforce kaimahi (workers) as we transition into national Te Pūkenga structures, our focus remains firmly on maintaining business as usual for our employers and learners, and you can rest assured that our processes and platforms will not be changing for some time, and your day to day contacts will also remain the same.

Earlier this month, we sent out invites for our sixth annual employer survey, and I strongly encourage you to take the time to provide your feedback. Growing the volumes and outcomes of workplace based learning is a key strategic imperative for Te Pūkenga, and your feedback acts as a very strong compass on how we can best achieve this.

While we track trainee learning progression throughout the year, our field team has a particularly strong focus on checking in on our learners as we approach the end of the calendar year. I equally encourage you to also check in on your staff progress with their learning, and we hope that the recently refreshed monthly training reports act as a simple guide for you to do this. We all ultimately want to see the same thing, that your staff successfully graduate, just as Bella and Thomas have recently done with their Youth Work Apprenticeships in one of our featured stories. Kei runga noa atu!

Ngā mihi nui

Rod Bentham
Director - Careerforce

Our sixth annual employer survey is currently underway and we really want to hear from you. If you haven't already had your say, there is still time and we welcome your feedback. Your responses give us an understanding of how we’re performing, and where we can improve. For this 2022 survey, your feedback will be shared across the Te Pūkenga organisation to help inform and shape the final Te Pūkenga operating model and structure.

Just a reminder that this survey is conducted by an external research company, Carte Blanche, and all responses are completely anonymous.

Grants
Apprenticeship Kickstart grants will not be available post-TTAF, and the standard enrolment fee of $2000 (incl GST) will apply to apprenticeship enrolments from 1 January 2023. While Kickstart will no longer be available, the following are available:

Government Fees Free - learners will again be eligible to apply for the Government’s Fees-Free programme. Information is available on the Careerforce website, and the Government’s Fees-Free website.
Apprenticeship Boost payments (to employers) remain available for qualifying apprentices until 31 December 2023, at a rate of $500/mth. As long as employers enrol new apprentices prior to September 2023, Apprenticeship Boost will more than cover the enrolment cost. More information on Apprenticeship Boost can be found here.
Other potential grant options are also available and as promoted on the Careerforce website.

*For TTAF eligibility and free enrolment, training agreements (with a 2022 training start date) need to be received by Careerforce by Monday 12 December 2022 (to allow time for processing prior to the 31 December TTAF expiry)

Christchurch manager Rebecca (Bella) Aitken is passionate about supporting kids who are struggling.

Bella manages Kiwi Family Trust, a social service agency that is yielding great results for their tamariki and whānau.

Bella says she feels more empowered in her role and confident in her ability, having completed the NZ Apprenticeship in Youth Work.

Now that she has completed the apprenticeship, she’s moving onto the NZ Diploma in Business (Leadership and Management) with Careerforce.

Helping at-risk boys find confidence and fulfil their potential is a real passion and rewarding career for Thomas Stenning.

With a Commerce Degree (Finance) in his back pocket, Thomas, 24 is still planning to continue his current career as a youth worker as long as he can – because he loves it. He has just completed an Apprenticeship in Youth Work with support from Careerforce.

“My own experience with ADHD has always inspired me to help young people with the same or similar challenges to overcome barriers in their lives,” says Thomas who’s currently a Youth Worker with the YMCA in Invercargill.

In May last year, Careerforce launched the “Life Changing Careers” campaign, promoting career pathways in health and wellbeing, and aiming to bring more diversity into the workforce. This campaign seeks to build greater resilience into the workforce, and ensure a future workforce that is more representative of the people that it is providing care and support for. It also recognises and celebrates the work that you and your staff do every day.

Off the back of stellar campaign results over 2021, the TEC extended further funding from their Covid-19 Response Fund to keep the campaign running across 2022. Across the 2 years of the campaign, there have been:

32.392m digital ad impressions delivered
15.366m video views
174k unique website visitors
339k website page views

Careerforce transitioned into Te Pūkenga on 1 September as a business division within Te Pūkenga’s Work Based Learning subsidiary, which was established as a vehicle to receive transitional industry training organisations before integrating into Te Pūkenga.

From 1 January 2023, together with all other business divisions of the Work Based Learning subsidiary, Careerforce will become a business division of Te Pūkenga (the Work Based Learning subsidiary will no longer exist).

From 1 January we will continue to do what we do now, doing the same jobs working with the same people, supporting high-quality in-work learning. The Te Pūkenga Council agreed to the timing to complete this transition first before Te Pūkenga rolls out its new organisation structure in tranches through 2023.

A friendly reminder that payment for any invoices issued by Careerforce on or after 1 September should be paid into our new Westpac bank account 03-0826-0168758-00. We also have a new GST number, which is 136-499-076.

The new details will be included on all future sales invoices. As we are a new legal entity as part of Te Pūkenga and our information has changed, we recommend that you set up a new vendor in your finance system – using our trading name Careerforce is still fine, or our new legal name is Te Pūkenga t/a Careerforce.

If you have any outstanding invoices/payments owed to Careerforce that were before 1 September, payment should still be made to the old ANZ bank account which is stated on the relevant invoice.

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

As we look ahead to the end of the year, here are some useful dates:

Careerforce offices will close for the Christmas break at midday on Thursday 22 December 2022 and reopen at 8.00am on Thursday 5 January 2023.
For TTAF eligibility and free enrolment, training agreements (with a 2022 training start date) need to be received by Careerforce by Monday 12 December 2022 (to allow time for processing prior to the 31 December TTAF expiry).
The last day to submit trainee results to ensure they are exported to NZQA on the last run of 2022 is 11 December.
The last trainee certificate run for 2022 will be 12 December. Final results for a completing trainee will need to be submitted by 4 December.
We will aim to enrol new trainees this calendar year, where Training Agreements are received by 12 December.
The last Welcome Pack run for new trainees this year will be 15 December and packs normally arrive within 2 weeks of this date. The first run in the New Year will be 19 January 2023.