Skills for Good - November 2021:Employer Survey, changes to library and more

Tēnā koutou

Welcome to the November edition of Skills for Good, the penultimate issue before Christmas!

As per the following story, our employer survey closes off on Tuesday, and I really do encourage you to take some time providing your feedback. 2022 will be a year of change for us as we prepare for our transition into Te Pūkenga, and our focus really is on being in the best possible shape for this transition. Your feedback acts as a very strong guide on where we need to focus our attention.

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 employees progress with their training. We all ultimately want to see the same thing, that your staff successfully graduate, just as our Pacific duo, Louise and Daphne, have recently done with their Business Diplomas in one of our featured stories. Kei runga noa atu!

2021 has been a tough year for everyone, and we sincerely hope you are able to ease in to Christmas, and that Covid-19 does not derail your best laid plans for your summer break.

Ngā mihi nui

Jane Wenman
Careerforce Chief Executive

Our 2021 annual employer survey closes next Tuesday (30 November), and we really want to hear from you. Your responses give us an understanding of how we’re performing, and where we can improve. Plus, in this year's survey, we are asking specific questions around ‘modes of [training] delivery’ that will best support learners to succeed. As an ‘employer led’ model of vocational education, you know your staff best, and what will and won’t work for them.

Just a reminder that this survey is conducted by an external research company, Carte Blanche, and all responses are completely anonymised. Email invites are sent by Carte Blanche (Kate McRoberts). If you can’t find the survey invite, or can’t recall getting the email survey invite, please email Marcomms, and we will arrange for a survey link to be sent.

Remember that every 20th survey completion receives a $50 Prezzy Card.

Learning resources are being transitioned from the Careerforce website to Careerforce's iportal. The Library will look and feel the same and contain the same resources, but simply transitioned to iportal.

We've contacted trainees, to explain how they can continue to access the library of resources using their new iportal login. Many have already done this, but we've sent a reminder to trainees this week, to remind others to do so as well. We also encourage you to remind your trainees about this.

Once trainees have registered to access iportal they can view and download their own training progress reports at any time. They’ll be able to see which unit standards they have completed, and which are yet to be completed. Until now, trainees have not been able to personally track their own training progress, and we believe this will give trainees a greater sense of empowerment and self-responsibility through their training journey.

Here is a sample of the training report that the trainee will see. Download Guide

Two Pasifika graduates have taken their management skills to the next level, with the completion of the Careerforce Level 5 Diploma in Business – Leadership & Management.

Louise Fuimaono and Daphne Amataga are Service Managers for the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) in Auckland and have over 20 years’ experience between them. They’re both passionate leaders.

“What I enjoy about management/leadership is being able to see all the big picture stuff, having a positive influence and being able to help others grow and develop,” said Daphne.

“I like getting the mahi done,” explains Louise. “It gives me satisfaction when we are successful through working together and helping clients.”

When MSD encouraged Louise and Daphne to take on the Business Diploma in 2019, they took it as an opportunity to be reassured of the knowledge they had gained by working their way up through the Ministry.

“Doing the qualification gave me reassurance that I’m doing what I am meant to be doing. It was good to have it all on paper,” said Daphne.

We're pleased to announce the launch of a new programme, the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Level 3) Support Work – Disability, and we are now accepting enrolments.

Aimed at disability support workers and caregivers, the programme develops
the skills and knowledge required to provide person centred support across the disability sector.

The new programme is more contextualised than the regular Level 3 Support Work programme, and gives the disability sector increased assurance that graduates have the knowledge and skills that apply to their particular area of work.

The launch follows a period of in-depth consultation with the disability sector who provided ongoing support with the design of the Level 3 programme. Stakeholders expressed the need for a support work programme that better reflects the need for staff trained to support people with disabilities, tāngata whaikaha, whānau and family and the wider community. The Careerforce Disability Advisory Group played a key role in this work and welcomes the new programme. It was instrumental in helping to ensure that the disability sector is respected, represented and visible.

The new programme is a great pathway for those who may want to progress their skills and competencies by training towards relevant Health and Wellbeing apprenticeships (Level 4), or towards a leadership and management qualification, and is expected to be completed over 12 months.

Following sector input, the Vision and Hearing Screening programme has changed from 60 to 70 credits. The expected duration has also changed from 10 to 12 months.

The new 70 credit programme reflects changes in the reviewed New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing Level 3 qualification. Revisions to the programme have been made with sector input to align with updates to the National Hearing and Vision Screening Protocols.

All training agreements will now be enrolled into the new 70 credit programme, which launches on 1 December 2021 when learning and assessment resources become available on the Careerforce Resource Library, via iportal.

In 2020, the Government made significant additional funding available to vocational education. The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF), and the Apprenticeship Boost Fund were welcome news for the health and wellbeing sector which continues to experience workforce shortage challenges.

Radius Care provides residential aged care with 23 facilities across New Zealand. The organisation has been innovative in developing a programme that utilises the apprenticeship boost funding for thirty-two of their staff who are now enrolled in an apprenticeship.

General Manager People and Culture, Marg Paramore, was instrumental in setting up these initiatives that recognise their people across their facilities. “I wanted to give everybody the opportunity to ‘have a go’ and realise their potential, aligned to areas of our business where we can help them thrive.

“The funding has meant a number of our team can get really strong qualifications that perhaps they wouldn’t have been able to have access to before. The qualifications will stand them in great stead and enhance them further in their roles.”

With support from Careerforce, Radius already had staff completing the standard Level 2, 3 and 4 New Zealand Certificates in Health and Wellbeing. The new funding allowed the organisation to also offer Level 4 Apprenticeships.

Trainees and apprentices who have not yet started the modules will be moved to the latest issue of the module(s) and those who have started must submit all assessment tasks for marking by Friday 10 December 2021.

Assessors will have until Friday 31 December 2021 to mark all assessment tasks as achieved.

Any trainee or apprentice who hasn’t submitted tasks by Friday 10 December 2021 will be moved to the latest issue of the module(s). Alternatively they can request to be transferred now.

A message has been added to the modules and the affected trainees and apprentices will be contacted.

Congratulations to the winners of the grocery voucher draw, for participating in the recent literacy and numeracy survey. There were three $50 vouchers and the winners are:

Tania White from Ngati Porou Hauora Charitable Trust
Corina Gerritsen from Nurse Maude Christchurch
Someone who wishes to remain anonymous!

Many thanks to all the workplace literacy contacts who completed the survey. The results tell us that most of you identify literacy, language, numeracy and digital learning needs in staff before, or immediately after training starts. The main way these needs are identified is by the trainee informing you (60%) or by their manager/supervisor/assessor when supporting them (46%). The Careerforce literacy and numeracy reports are helpful or somewhat helpful (56%) in confirming this. Some of you asked for more information on interpreting the results of these reports. We are setting up a new page on our website with this information.

Dependence on a trainee disclosing their learning needs increases when identifying dyslexia (86%). Only 3% of you have used an approved dyslexia assessor or screener. More information on screening options and learning support for trainees with dyslexia will also be on the new literacy and numeracy webpage.

Your solutions are outstanding. Many of you have study buddy systems (41%) or mentors (36%) in place, backed up by extra time with the trainer/assessor (37%). Some of you provide reader/writers for trainees with dyslexia, and many use oral assessment methods where possible.

A small percentage (12%) utilise the TEC funded workplace literacy and numeracy providers. However, 51% of you stated you would like to know more about these providers. We will profile these providers on the new webpage – coming soon.

You have presented us with a range of ideas on how we can improve literacy and numeracy support to our workplaces. We are looking at new and better ways to get information and advice to you. More on this in future newsletters.

Once again, thank you so much to everyone who participated in this survey.

Ngā mihi nui
Cushla Wilson
Careerforce Literacy & Numeracy Advisor

As we approach the end of the year, we wanted to share some important dates:

The last day to submit trainee results to ensure they are exported to NZQA on the last run of 2021 is 12 December.
The last trainee certificate run for 2021 will be 13 December. Final results for a completing trainee will need to be submitted by 5 December.
The last apprenticeship programme certificate run will be 25 November.
We will aim to enrol new trainees this calendar year, where training agreements are received by 13 December.
The last welcome pack run for new trainees this year will be 9 December and packs normally arrive within 2 weeks of this date. The first run in the New Year will be 13 January.

Please note that our office are closed from 1pm on Thursday 23 December 2021 and reopen on Thursday 6 January 2022.

The Workforce Diversity Campaign has been running for over six months and is continuing to drive people looking for care and support work to our Jobs for Good site. We encourage you to ensure you have your vacancies listed on this website, and leverage the eyeballs that the campaign is creating.

There are nearly 100 current live vacancy listings and we have now listed over 1000 jobs on the site to date, and are driving people to the site via google advertising. If you have a vacancy, make sure you don't miss out.

Remember, Jobs for Good is free, it’s easy to list vacancies, and it’s super-targeted.