Training for Good - May 2022: Life Changing Careers campaign, Celebrating Youth Week, share your story and more

Kia ora

Welcome to the quarterly newsletter for trainees. In this issue, we share that the Life Changing Careers campaign is back again this year. Keep an eye out for inspiring and uplifting support worker stories. If you'd like to share your story, send us your details - there's a chance you'll win a spot prize.

Next week is Youth Week (7 - 15 May 2022) and we'd like to recognise our youth workers, youth service providers and others working with young people. As you know, we love to celebrate success, and in this issue, you can read about one of our recent apprenticeship graduates: Te Puke youth worker, Israel Hapi.

We've also got more tips and hints and resources to support you with your training journey.

As a trainee you can now access Careerforce's iportal where you can view and download your own training progress reports. You can see which unit standards you have completed, and which are yet to be completed. Once logged into iportal, you can also click on the 'Careerforce Resource Library' button on the header ribbon and access our learning materials on the library.

Simply go to the iportal homepage here and click on 'Register a new account'. We've also prepared a helpful user guide that provides detailed instructions.

Consistent with some of our fellow industry training organisations, Careerforce is introducing a minimum 3-month enrolment period for any new training agreements across our training programmes. This will apply to any new enrolments into programmes (including Limited Credit Programmes) that lead to the award of a New Zealand Qualification or Apprenticeship.

Across current Careerforce programmes, the minimum expected training duration is 6-7 months, and this is based upon the credits that need to be completed, and which in turn is based upon the level of training required within the work setting. A minimum enrolment period helps to ensure the integrity of qualifications awarded via Careerforce programmes, and that the appropriate level of training has been completed, and with the required levels of workplace-based observations and assessment. This change also ensures consistency with our current policy of refunded enrolment fees for any withdrawals within 3 months of enrolment.

As an already enrolled learner, this change will not impact upon your current training programme.

Well, now you can now achieve the qualification through our new apprenticeship programme.

Like the trainee programme, the new Apprenticeship in Advanced Care and Support (Level 4) has an expected duration of two years and enables the apprentice to develop the skills required to provide person-centred or relationship-centred care and support to people with complex needs.

However, the key differences of the apprenticeship programme are that:

It is more beneficial for workplaces that don’t have the infrastructure for an in-house assessor.

Apprentices and their employers can choose from the programme’s seven focus areas which are dependent on their workplace’s needs (Bariatric Care, Dementia and Bariatric Care, Dementia and Brain Injury, Dementia and Frailty, Frailty, Palliative Care, and Spinal Injury Care).
Employers will be eligible for Apprenticeship Boost funding (currently available until August 2022).
Careerforce will provide full pastoral support via a dedicated Apprenticeship Advisor.

Don’t forget! We have free enrolments until the end of the year. So, chat to your employer now if you’re keen to enrol.

While we still await formal approval of our proposed transition plan into Te Pūkenga by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), it remains our expectation that we will transition into Te Pūkenga in September of this year, and as a business unit within Te Pūkenga’s Work Based Learning (WBL) subsidiary. We will update you on any progress towards the September transition, but can assure you that our expectation through this transition is that there should be minimal disruption, if any. All current learner systems and processes are expected to remain the same for some time.

He ōu whakaaro – share your voice
A key principle of Te Pūkenga is Learner at the Centre. To support their work, they are running a series of face to face and online wānanga between 12 - 23 May, and we have been asked to nominate some of our learners to participate, and to ensure a strong work-based learner voice. They are particularly keen to hear from Māori, Pasifika or Disabled leaners, and each confirmed participant will receive a $40 supermarket voucher. If you would like to be considered, please drop an email to marcomms@careerforce.org.nz, together with your details (name, location, employer, role, programme, age, gender & ethnicity). We will then share these with Te Pūkenga.