Skills for Good - October 2025: 2025 Employer Survey, Save on Apprenticeship enrolments, and more

Tēnā koutou

We will shortly be sending out invites for our ninth annual employer satisfaction survey, and as with previous years, I strongly encourage you to share your feedback. We spend considerable time poring over the results and your feedback, and it is only by acting upon this over the years that has allowed us to progressively lift our overall employer satisfaction results.

In this newsletter, we share details around a number of enrolment offers that we continue to have available across October and November. A common theme that emerges each year from the employer survey around barriers to training is budgetary constraints, and so I encourage you to take advantage of these offers, and set your staff up for successful learning outcomes over 2026. If you happen to be attending any of the NZACA, DAPAANZ or NZDSN conferences over the next few weeks, come and talk to staff on the Careerforce stand about these offers.

In a story below, we have provided an update on the recent legislative changes that were required to enable our transition out of Te Pūkenga, and into a newly established Industry Skills Boards. The key takeaway message from this remains the same as with all previous updates – everything continues business as usual, and as an employer or learner, you won’t notice any change.

Ngā mihi nui

Rod Bentham
Executive Director, Careerforce

As we have previously shared, Careerforce will transition out of Te Pūkenga and into a newly established Health & Community Industry Skills Board (ISB) on 1 January 2026, and we recently submitted a transition plan to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) for their approval.

This transition was recently enabled via the passing of the Education and Training (Vocational Education and Training System) Amendment Bill which passed into law on 21 October. This legislation will disestablish the centralised model created under Te Pūkenga and enables the establishment of Industry Skills Boards (ISBs) to lead standard-setting, qualification development and temporarily manage work-based training. Next month, Orders in Council are due to be considered by Cabinet which will establish the eight ISBs which will be operational from 1 January 2026.

As a result of the new legislation, Te Pūkenga is now officially known as the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology (NZIST). You may have noticed the gradual removal of Te Pūkenga branding from Careerforce materials over recent months, in preparation for our transition out of Te Pūkenga.

Just as was the case with our transition into Te Pūkenga back in 2022, everything continues business as usual with our transition (as a distinct business division) into the yet-to-be established ISB.

Next week, many of you will receive a personalised email invite to complete our ninth annual employer survey, and we really want to hear from you. Say as much or as little as you want, but your responses give us an understanding on how we’re performing, and where we can improve. This year, we are also asking some specific questions around your training programme and provider choices. While we have continually refined our service offering over many years, we do need to make sure that we are putting our efforts and resources into the things that matter most to you.

Just a reminder that this survey is conducted by an external research company, Carte Blanche, and all responses are completely anonymous. The survey invites will be sent by Carte Blanche with responses closing Sunday 30 November.

At 62, Sue Moxom is nearing the completion of her Diversional Therapy Apprenticeship through Careerforce, after two previous attempts. Working at Metlifecare’s The Orchards in Auckland, she credits her success to strong support from her Careerforce Advisor, helpful Study Hubs, and connecting with other learners.

Inspired by a TV show, Sue introduced an intergenerational programme with local school children, which has brought joy and purpose to residents. She’s gained confidence and hopes to support other diversional therapists in future.

We're pleased to offer 50% off the following apprenticeship enrolments, from 1 October until 30 November 2025, with enrolments priced at just $1,000 (incl. GST)*, a saving of $1,000.

The Apprenticeship in Advanced Care and Support gives staff the skills required to provide person-centred or relationship-centred care and support to people with complex needs. The apprentice can choose from one of seven focus areas.
Find out more >

The Apprenticeship in Diversional Therapy is designed to recognise and enhance the skills of diversional therapists, meeting the qualification requirement to be registered with NZSDRT. Find out more >

The Apprenticeship in Mental Health and Addiction Support enables a person-centred approach to supporting recovery, fostering hope and building resilience for service users. Find out more >

The Apprenticeship in Disability Support aims to develop skills required to support autonomy, identify goals, and opportunities to overcome challenges, and enable good lives for people with a disability, tangata whaikaha, family and whānau, and the wider community. Find out more >

Te Pou is pleased to announce the launch of the Support Worker Professional Development Grant, which covers training enrolment costs for those working in eligible mental health and addiction support roles. This grant is for support workers and peer support workers employed by publicly funded non-government organisations (NGOs).

This grant is particularly relevant for the following Careerforce programmes:

Apprenticeship in Mental Health and Addiction Support (save $2000 incl GST)
Diploma in Health and Wellbeing (Level 5) Applied Practice (save $2000 incl GST), for specialisations in:

Mental health
Whānau support
Positive behaviour support

Applications close at 12 noon on Friday, 7 November 2025.

Fees Free tertiary education and training was a policy introduced in 2018 to expand participation in tertiary education, and was based on a first-year Fees Free policy. Effective from 1 January 2025, this changed to a final-year Fees Free policy.

It is possible that you have learners who could be eligible for first-year Fees Free, based on their training over 2024, and it is important that these learners are aware that this only remains available until 31 December 2025. Learners need to go to www.feesfree.govt.nz to determine their eligibility, and if they believe they are eligible, they need to submit a completed statutory declaration form before 31 December 2025. We are also communicating to learners who may be eligible.

For more information about the transition from first-year Fees Free or the final-year Fees Free policy, visit ird.govt.nz/fees-free.

This is a reminder that from mid September, the New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Level 2) changed from a 43–48 credit to a 40–45 credit programme, with a fixed 8-month duration. These updates apply only to new enrolments from that date.

The refreshed programme (Issue 1.1) features updated content, a new visual style, clearer assessment overviews, and practical job aids. Existing learners will continue with the original version unless starting a new assessment. New learners will begin with Issue 1.1. All changes reflect sector input and aim to enhance the learner experience. Refer to the dedicated email for more information, or contact your Careerforce Workplace Advisor

We’re excited to launch our refreshed Health and Wellbeing Level 2 programme - Careerforce’s most popular full certificate qualification. Ideal for onboarding new staff, the updated programme now features simplified language, visual aids, and clearer assessments to better support learners with disabilities, literacy challenges, or English as a second language.

These enhancements aim to improve accessibility and learner success, with early workplace feedback calling the format “easy to read” and “highly effective.” Unit standards remain unchanged, and all new learners will be enrolled in the updated version. For more details, refer to the email or contact your Careerforce Workplace Advisor.

To help support the sectors we work with, we introduced savings for employers on our most popular Level 2 and 3 programmes for the full 2025 year. We reduced fees by over 50% for our most popular Level 2 and Level 3 Health and Wellbeing, and Cleaning programmes. The enrolment fees are just $95 (incl GST), reduced from $200-$230 for 2025 enrolments. This applies exclusively to employer-led enrolments, where employers actively support their learners with assessment.

Be sure to take full advantage of the current reduced rates, while the savings are still available. Refer to our website qualification/programme pages for prices.

Learners who’ve completed the Dementia Care LCP can now access a further $110 (incl. GST) discount on enrolment into the Advanced Care and Support Apprenticeship.
During October and November 2025 only, the enrolment fee is further reduced to $890 (incl. GST) for LCP graduates, a saving of over 50%.
Do you have staff who’ve recently completed or are about to complete their Dementia Care LCP?
They may be ready to step up to an Advanced Care and Support Apprenticeship. Contact us for for more information.

Higher quality of care: Staff gain advanced skills to provide safer, more effective support.

Better staff retention: Ongoing development shows employees they’re valued, boosting engagement and loyalty.

Stronger workforce capability: More qualified staff can take on greater responsibility and support team resilience.

Compliance and reputation: Demonstrates commitment to quality and aligns with industry standards.

Future leadership growth: Builds a pipeline of skilled, confident staff ready for advanced or leadership roles. Contact us for for more information.

Our Specialised Programmes, Micro-credentials, or Short Programmes can help to build targeted skills, fill specific knowledge gaps, or meet industry and compliance requirements. These flexible learning options are ideal for staff who want to upskill for their current role, prepare for career progression, refresh existing knowledge, or explore further study before committing to a full qualification.

Short Programmes provide supplementary learning opportunities to people that have previously completed Careerforce programmes. They are not a qualification, but a coherent short programme of learning and the unit standards achieved will feature on a person’s NZQA Record of Achievement (ROA).

Micro-credentials are short, NZQA recognised training programmes that have fewer credits than a qualification (between 1 and 40) and either lead into a qualification or focus on specialised skills and knowledge that top up a full qualification certificate or apprenticeship programme. They can also be coherent standalone programmes of specialised skills for professional development.