Panel presentation and discussion on review of NZ Certificates in adult education and training qualifications

Attended a zoom meeting convened by Ako Aotearoa to update and gather feedback on the review of adult educatin and training qualifications. The meeting was facilitated by John Milne from Ako Aotearoa.  A panel consisting of the two developers Linda Keesing-Styles, Graeme Smith and ConnyHuaki.

Linda introduced suite of qualifications at Levels 4, 5 & 6 for adult education and training.

6 of the current 14 have had no users! Including ones for literacy educator and for learning design.

Graeme summarised the review process according to NZQA guidelines – plan development, stakeholder profile, digital scorecard (data on users of each qualification including enrolments and completions), surveys and zoom consultations.

Linda revisited the process for evaluating which qualifications were viable and which ones to review. Summarised the challenges including low completion rates for many of the qualifications. Presented on decisions to be made with regards to entry requirements to allow for better articulation across the qualifications and to improve completion rates.

Graeme summarised how the different qualification relate to each other and pathways from one level to the next and also horizontally across the specialisations.

Linda shared stakeholder feedback. She summarised work across the suite of qualifications to align language through them so that they are more cohesive.

Key changes for Te Tiriti and cultural competency and educational technologies/practical experiences updated with addition of glossary to reflect contemporary standards.

Work-based learning requirements added to most qualifications.

Graduate profiles also reviewed and updated.

3 certificate qualifications L6 (assessment advanced practitioner), L4 language teaching and L6 Quality assurance now removed.

Conny updated on consultation process and outcomes from her perspective of stakeholder.

Q & A followed.

Linda went through ‘guidance notes’ and their role in the updated qualifications. Again, all of these were re-organised and aligned across all the 11 ‘new’ qualifications. These ‘conditions’ will be also useful to providers to understand the intend of the graduate profiles- which are broad in nature – as all GPOs should be.

Going forward, the qualifications are now being uploaded into the new NZQA template for final feedback and review. Stakeholder attestations are still in the process of being gathered. Eventually, the qualifications will be registered, ready for use next year.

There is scope, especially in the newly formed NZIST to have economies of scale and to be able to offer the full range of qualifications which are relevant to teaching across the ITP (institutes of technology and polytechnics) sector in NZ.