Skills for Good - March 2024: New Manaaki Fund, Gateway success, Free study hubs and more

Tēnā koutou

In this newsletter, we continue to expand on the ‘Careerforce Difference’. One of the differences we have expanded upon in recent issues is that our significant field team across Aotearoa come from your sectors and locations, and in this issue, we introduce Jemma, Bee and Sierra, who reside in the top of the South.

We also provide detail about the Manaaki Fund, which is designed to support our enrolled learners who are experiencing financial hardship. We encourage you to make any of your Careerforce learners who may be experiencing any such hardship aware of this fund, and encourage them to apply. This fund opens for applications on Monday.

There is also a fantastic story about three recent nursing graduates who all found their way into healthcare careers via their exposure to our Gateway programmes at school. We know that careers in health and wellbeing are not for everyone, and that it takes a special sort of person. Participation in our Gateway programme not only allows students to achieve NZQA credits, but also the opportunity to determine if a career in health and wellbeing is for them. If you would like to support Gateway placements in your organisation, and potentially provide a pathway for these students into your organisation upon leaving school, we would love to hear from you.

Finally, I encourage you to closely review your training reports in April, as you may have learners who have been placed on hold, and who are on target to be withdrawn due to lack of activity on their training programme. This is not a good outcome for your staff member, your organisation or Careerforce, so we are keen to work with you across April to avoid any such outcome.

Ngā mihi nui

Rod Bentham
Executive Director
Te Pūkenga, trading as Careerforce

In previous issues, we have touched on 12 elements that make up what we believe to be the ‘Careerforce Difference’, and in this issue, we expand upon the final three elements. Your support of Careerforce is certainly something that we never take for granted, and we are continually looking for ways that we can even better support your workforce development needs.

13/ Communication – art or science? Certainly not rocket science. Just a matter of continuously letting you know what you need to know, when you need to know it. Not too much, not too little. We know you’re busy folk, and our aim is to make your life easier.

14/ Data is power – As a tri-partite agreement between your organisation, Careerforce, and your staff member (learner), it is critical that we all track the training progress of your staff, and consider where intervention may be required. We support employers with regular (and bespoke) reporting, highlighting learners that have completed their programme, and learners that may need some additional encouragement. Learners receive quarterly progress reports, plus can access their own ‘live’ progress report at any time via iportal, giving them autonomy over their learning journey.

15/ But cash is king! - Nice one, you’ve made it to #15, but perhaps one of the most important considerations for you. We have consciously and continuously kept our enrolment fees very low, recognising the cost pressures that our systemically cash-strapped sectors face. Enrolment fees are however just one piece of the puzzle, and what matters most is the service offering, or what you get in return – refer to previous points 1-14!

We’re proud of our value proposition to our employers and learners, evolved over the last 30 years, and that we hope to continue evolving in partnership with you.

Successful applicants will receive a one off payment of $400 to help with alleviating financial barriers.

To apply, your learners need to complete the application form here. To be eligible, they must be enrolled in a Careerforce programme and meet all the relevant criteria. For more information, please refer to our FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).

Learners will be notified of the outcome within two to three weeks of the fund closing date.

Recipients of the Manaaki fund will be asked to provide feedback to Careerforce to enable us to measure the impact of this funding.

We can support learners with their application if needed, at Manaaki.Fund@careerforce.org.nz

The grant can be used for training fees, related resources (e.g. workbooks, tutors/facilitators) and wages of the course participant, if training occurs outside of their regular working hours, or back-filling for the participant if required.

Participants/individuals can be funded up to $6,000 (including GST) per calendar year, depending on the qualification level and number of credits.

This grant may support the enrolment costs for a number of approved Health and Wellbeing programmes:

Grant is open now and available until funds are allocated

For more information about these grants, please contact Te Pou directly via grants@tepou.co.nz.

Three nursing graduates are excited to be starting their careers in healthcare and owe it, in part, to the foundational knowledge they gained while still at high school.

Charlotte Bish, Jenna Newton and Paige Wright became friends at New Plymouth’s Sacred Heart Girls’ College. It was their shared interest in health that brought them together.

“We all liked health and biology and were all in similar classes,” Charlotte said. “I don’t know if we all kind of knew we wanted to be nurses or whether it was an idea we kind of had in mind at the time.”

To explore their interests further, when the trio heard about their school offering a Gateway programme through Careerforce, they all enrolled in year 12. As part of the programme, the students were placed into work experience at Taranaki Base Hospital, where they could shadow and learn from a healthcare assistant.

So, by the end of year 13 and before they parted ways to study nursing in different cities, they had gained the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Level 3) Health Assistance.

The women agreed that the Gateway programme gave them a head start with their nursing degrees.

To learn more about becoming a Gateway employer, visit our website, or get in touch with one of our Vocational Pathways Advisors on 0800 277 486 or email schools@careerforce.org.nz

Sierra Stretton, is the new Careerforce Workplace Advisor for the top of the South Region, taking over from Jemma Low. Sierra has a background in training and development, across various fields. For those of you at the 'Top of the South', Sierra looks forward to working alongside you all to understand how we can upskill our learners together. Sierra says, " I’m here to support you with most things Careerforce. Fire any questions my way. I'm very lucky to have an incredibly supportive team alongside me to help navigate these questions."

Email: sierra.stretton@careerforce.org.nz
Mobile: 027 235 9325

Read what learners say about our study sessions:

“I gained a lot of knowledge that I did not have before attending, and I feel more confident in doing my assessments.”

“The connection to other learners, and the brilliant support from the instructors.”

“Having one on one assistance and meeting up with others in our course with the ability to chat about our progress.”

“Being able to instantly ask for help with something I did not quite understand. Being able to get input to see if I was on the right track before putting time and effort into answering questions. Chatting briefly to other learners and see that we are all facing the same challenges.”

“Being able to ask for assistance and get an immediate response.”

“The support from the Careerforce staff was amazing.”

“Comfortable environment close to town.”

A recent Coroners ruling* in relation to ‘trapping’** has resulted in Toitu Te Waiora (the Workforce Development Council) updating Health and Wellbeing Level 2 programme
unit standard 28517 - Recognise and report changes and risks for a person in a health or wellbeing setting to version 5.

This means all Careerforce learning resources and assessments for US 28517 are being replaced with version 5 and all assessments for version 3 of the unit standard must be completed (and marked) by 31 March 2024.

This includes: Standalone assessments, Orientation and Induction integrated assessments and Aka Toi (Careerforce Learning and Assessment platform)

Careerforce resources have been updated to version 5 of the unit standard. More information is available here.

If you have any queries about the change to this unit standard, please contact your Careerforce Workplace Advisor.

More than 18 months ago we closed enrolments into our version 1 apprenticeship programmes. This was to make way for our revamped version 2 programmes.

Version 1 of our apprenticeship programmes closes on 31 May 2024. We have started our transfer process for apprentices who are not likely to complete version 1 in time. These apprentices are being transferred to version 2 so they can continue with their assessments. We have communicated with affected apprentices and their employers.

All other version 1 apprentices have until 1 April 2024 to complete and submit their assessments. This will allow time for assessors to mark and report their results by
31 May. We have started sending reminders to these apprentices.

There are some differences between our version 1 and version 2 apprenticeship programmes, which you can view here.

Following the extension of the Last Date of Assessment for the Health and Wellbeing Level 3 version 1 qualification, Careerforce will be accepting assessments from learners up until 31 May 2024 for the following programmes:

Health Assistance (version 1)
Support Work (version 1)
Orderly Services (version 1)
Newborn Hearing Screening (version 1)
Dental Assistance (version 1)
Vision Hearing Screening (versions 1 & 2).

After 31 May 2024, any learners who have not completed all of the required unit standards for their qualification will be transferred to the version 2 programmes, starting July.

If you have any queries about the closure of version 1 programmes, or transferring to version 2 programmes, please contact your Careerforce Workplace Advisor.