Skills for Good - December 2020: Upskilling those supporting the homeless, WDC Consultation, Christmas message and more

A cohort of Kaimahi and Peer Support workers at DCM are set to upskill following a government initiative that has made significant training funding available to the sector.

The six support workers, some with lived experience, are about to embark on their own journey of learning with support from Careerforce.

DCM (formerly Downtown Community Ministry) works with people who experience being homeless. The organisation which recently celebrated its 50th birthday, provides services for vulnerable and marginalised men and women who are experiencing homelessness, or the threat of being homeless. Forty Kaimahi and Peer Workers and back office staff work across 3 main service contracts.

For Paula Lloyd, Aro Mai Housing First Team Lead, work with the street homeless population began in 1995 in central London. Now she leads the team of Kaimahi and Peer Support workers in Wellington.

“We call the people we work with ‘taumai’, (meaning to settle),” says Paula. “This reflects the journey we embark on together to become settled, stable and well. We work with taumai to find and sustain housing, access a benefit and manage their money, and to connect to whānau.”

“I love working within a space that has such valuable purpose and that we can see change happening from the mahi that we provide. We have many obstacles to be creative around, but we also celebrate many successes.” says Paula. “Some of our workers come from being our taumai once, and sometimes quite recently,” says Paula.

Via RoVE, vocational education is undergoing its biggest transformation in 35 years. Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) are a crucial part of these reforms, and to formally establish the WDCs, a legal instrument called an Order in Council is required for each WDC. Over the last few months, industry-led interim Establishment Boards have been working with the Tertiary Education Commission and industry sectors, peak bodies, educators, Māori business and industry, to engage and provide advice to develop draft content for WDC Order in Council proposals.

TEC has now opened consultation on the Orders in Council proposals to establish WDCs, and which will close on 5 February 2021. Go to WDCconsultation.tec.govt.nz to find detailed consultation documentation, and to have your say.

At Careerforce, we are continuing to focus on building out our trainee engagement journey, to augment the support you provide to your employees. This includes the recent introduction of sending out of training schedules (with a list of unit standards and completion) email to graduates of health and wellbeing levels 2 and 3. We are working towards sending out quarterly training progress reports to trainees, in response to their specific request for these. We are also working on building the journey for trainees across other programmes next year.

In January, we will commence graduate surveys, whereby upon completion, all graduates will receive a survey invite seeking their feedback on their learning journey. The insights we gather from these surveys will be used to understand and address some of the common barriers to completion, plus also support our NZQA reporting requirements.

In a previous issue of Skills for Good, we detailed how we had been successful in securing funding from the TEC Covid-19 Response Fund for a campaign with the objective of attracting, training and retaining a resilient and diverse care and support workforce in a post COVID-19 environment. TEC has recently signed off on our detailed phase 1 scoping documentation, and the next stage is the release of an RFP to prospective agency partner(s) who will be charged with successfully developing and implementing the campaign. It is hoped that the campaign will launch in March/April 2021.

Careerforce has undertaken consultation during 2020 with the aged residential care, home and community, disability, and DHB sectors regarding development of a new Level 4 Advanced Care and Support programme of industry training.

Consultation has included a review of existing unit standards, and also development of new unit standards for inclusion in the programme. Draft copies of the proposed new unit standards are now published on our website.
We invite stakeholders and programme providers to provide feedback on the proposed standards. If you or your organisation wishes to comment, please email acsproject@careerforce.org.nz before the close of business on Friday 22 January 2021.
Click 'Read More' for more information.

Rehab L4 – Awaiting NZQA Approval

The reviewed qualification was submitted to NZQA on 5 November. We are awaiting approval from NZQA.

Skills for Living L1 – Awaiting NZQA Approval
The reviewed qualification was submitted to NZQA on 12 October. We are awaiting approval from NZQA.

PCPA L4 – Awaiting NZQA Approval
The reviewed qualification was submitted to NZQA on 12 November. We are awaiting approval from NZQA.

Social & Community L4 – Awaiting NZQA Approval
The reviewed qualification was submitted to NZQA on 5 November. We are awaiting approval from NZQA.

Public Health L5 – Approved and listed in the NZQF
The reviewed qualification was approved by NZQA on 28 August. This is now listed in the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF). The last date of assessment of programmes leading to version 2 of this qualification is 31 December 2022.
See the NZQA page outlining the Qualification here.

Here are some useful dates

The first export of results to NZQA will be actioned on 11 January 2021.
Awarding of qualifications will commence Wednesday 13 January and once completed, it will show on the Record of Achievement (RoA).
The first certificate print run of the year will be on 18 January. Certificates will arrive within two weeks of this date.
The first Apprenticeship Programme certificate print run will be on 25 January. Certificates will arrive within two weeks of this date.
First Welcome Pack run will be on 21 January and packs will arrive within 2 weeks of this date.