Skills for Good - February 2020: Help shape the WDCs, qualification review update and more

Kia ora

Welcome to the February edition of Skills for Good.

This month’s edition includes a focus on feedback and engagement. We are grateful for the large number of employers who took the time to complete our annual employer survey. The number of respondents was very pleasing. We look forward to sharing the findings and the resultant actions with you in the coming months.

Your thoughts and feedback have been an important and valued part of the Qualification Review, Consistency Reviews and Evaluation Reviews. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to these reviews.

Finally, there is an opportunity to feed into the design of the Workforce Development Councils. You can read more about this below. I encourage you to have your say in this important piece of work.

Ngā mihi nui

Andrew Saunders
General Manager, Employer Services

Careerforce Assessor, Catriona Baker, shares how she sees Michelle and other staff at Barnardos work with passion, integrity and respect as she carries out their assessments. She says, "we are very lucky to have such an incredible workforce within this social service sector."

Police data published in June 2019 found that 133,022 family harm investigations were conducted in 2018. These are staggering numbers, particularly when you consider that 76% of family violence incidents are not even reported to police, according to data published on the 'Are You OK' website.

Michelle Brown, Team Leader for Social Services at Barnardos says, "our aim is to work ourselves out of a job. The goal is to have families who don’t need social services any more in their lives because we’ve created a beautiful, amazing community that can support them through everything."

Barnardos, Aotearoa New Zealand’s national children’s charity works across a range of areas every day towards the vision of ‘An Aotearoa New Zealand where every child shines bright.’ Barnardos’ work related to family violence includes a number of family violence prevention initiatives, support services for children and families who have experienced family violence, and advocating for systemic change to support every child and family to live free of family violence, child abuse and neglect.

Unfortunately, with the current statistics, New Zealand needs more people working in social services to support children and families affected by violence.

We have just received the results to the 2019 employer survey, and plan to share these results with you, together with our resultant action plan, in the coming months. This was the third annual running of this survey, and now also allows us to see any emerging trends.

We did however want to tease you with a few results in the meantime! Pleasingly, for perhaps the most important measure, overall employer satisfaction improved for the third year running. While we’re chuffed with this result, there is still plenty of room for improvement, and we appreciate all the feedback provided that highlights where we need to improve.

Also pleasing was the survey completion rate which also increased for the third year running. This in itself shows a strong level of engagement, and that our employer partners genuinely want to contribute to our ongoing improvement, and recognising that it will ultimately lead to improved satisfaction and training outcomes on your part.

1. Qual Review Social and Community Services L4 – Face-to-face meeting planning
We have extended the online consultation and are inviting stakeholders to a face-to-face meeting in March. At this meeting, we will consult on the findings from the survey and discuss any details that require further consultation.
Please complete the survey by following this link: https://www.careerforce.org.nz/qualification-review/social-and-community-level-4/
At the end of the survey, you can also sign up to attend the face-to-face meeting.

2. Qual Review Cleaning L2 and L3 – Qualifications approved
We received approval from NZQA for the revised qualifications on 3 February. Thank you to everyone who supported this qualification review.

3. Qual Review Rehabilitation Support L4 – Preparing for NZQA submission
We have now gathered attestations in support of the revised qualification. We are now preparing to submit these along with other documents to NZQA.

4. Qual Review Peer Support L4 – Preparing for NZQA submission
We have now gathered attestations in support of the revised qualification. We are now preparing to submit these along with other documents to NZQA.

5. Qual Review Addiction Studies L6 – Preparing findings and recommendations
We have now completed all consultations and analysis. We are preparing to publish our findings and recommended changes, and seek attestations of support from stakeholders.

6. Qual Review Primary Care Practice Assistance L4 – Face-to-face meeting planning
We’ll be inviting stakeholders for a face-to-face meeting and will discuss the findings from the survey and any details that required further consultation.

7. Qual Review Public Health L5 – Face-to-face meeting planning
We’ll be inviting stakeholders for a face-to-face meeting and will discuss the findings from the survey and any details that required further consultation.

8. Qual Review Skills for Living 1 – Change of scope
Due to feedback received from stakeholders, we have changed the scope to this review to include new qualification development. We’ll be in touch with stakeholders to discuss the next steps.

We are pleased to share that the following reviewed qualifications are now approved by NZQA:

2316: New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Level 2) with optional strand in Health Care Facilities Cleaning v.2 (40 credits)

3025: New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Level 3) with optional strands in Specialist Cleaning, and Supervision v.2 (45-55 credits)

Please note the last date for assessments leading to version 1 of these qualifications is 31 December 2022.

Thank you to all stakeholders for your contribution and support in this review.

It has been identified that there are increasing instances of plagiarism where trainees and apprentices are copying material for their assessment answers. Assessment answers must be in their own words.

Careerforce does not allow direct copying from any source, such as Careerforce learning materials, books, printed material, the internet or another person, for answers to assessment questions.

Exact technical terms and definitions may be used only if it is shown where they came from. This may also include workplace policies and procedures, legislation, standards and codes.

If you identify this type of activity, please would you discuss this with the assessor.

When checking the results of the literacy and numeracy assessments, it’s important to remember that these assessments only indicate a small part of an adult’s learning capability. Trainees who score low on the literacy assessment, may struggle with reading and writing but are likely to have strong speaking and listening skills and this is how they learn best. They will enjoy discussion-based, group learning sessions, or time with a coach / mentor to talk through the content of the learning modules and how they relate to their job.

Oral assessments are also an option. Most smart phones have a voice recorder app. If not, you can download one for free from the app store for iPhones, and for androids.

To meet assessment requirements, oral assessments must be administered by the assessor only. Mark the recording time on the assessment document next to each question (in case you wish to refer back to that part of the recording later). Jot down the main points the trainee makes in their response, on the assessment document. Then move onto the next question and repeat.

If you need to paraphrase a question to assist a trainee’s understanding, make sure you are not hinting at the answer. Also, note down on the assessment document, that it is an oral assessment and you are writing on behalf of the trainee. Then sign and date under this statement.

The app allows you to name the voice file and email it to yourself as an attachment. You can then store it in your trainee’s training file. If the assessment is chosen for moderation, you can email the voice file and a copy of the paper assessment to the moderator.

Please contact Cushla if you would like support with oral assessment techniques.

Just another reminder that Careerforce no longer accepts new applications for qualification equivalency assessment (for pay equity purposes). We are still processing the final applications that were received by 31 December 2019, and expect these assessments to be completed and outcomes notified before 31 March 2020.

Don't forget that employees can still achieve pay equity via qualifications. They can review the extensive list of over 1000 qualifications already assessed as equivalent (as listed on the Careerforce website), or complete the Health & Wellbeing Level 2, 3 and 4 qualifications via a provider of their choice. Please advise your staff of their options.

The most recent qualification decisions are available here. We will continue to update you with the latest qualification decisions next month (for applications received before 31 December). Please also check our website for all equivalency decisions.