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Read the latest: New national moderators, expiring versions of unit standards, assessor guides and more
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O C T O B E R   2 0 2 1
We hope you'll find this issue valuable to your role as an assessor
  • A message from the Manager Moderation and Assessment Practice
  • Remote Initial Assessor Training
  • Careerforce has handed over its standard setting responsibilities to WDCs
  • Access to Careerforce Library changing in December
  • Expiring versions of unit standards
  • Assessor Guides
  • ONE Assessor Guide for online or paper-based
  • Modules with the section: 'Assessment - Are you ready to start?'
  • Assessors are the top enablers for success - graduate survey results
A message from the Manager Moderation and Assessment Practice
We say hello and wave goodbye in this newsletter.

Farewell to our National Moderators
Our National Moderators – Heather Reeves-Timms, Wiremu Bayliss, Jane Webster, and Caren Oliver have all moved to roles within Toitū te Waiora, the Workforce Development Council supporting community, health, education, and social services sectors. This is a natural progression within the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE).

We farewelled them on 1 October and they started in their new roles on 4 October. We wish them the very best in their new roles and look forward to crossing paths in the future.

Welcome to new National Moderators
Moderation does not stop, however! On 4 October we welcomed Marama Rawiri and Xanthia Bollen to the team. They bring experience across multiple sectors and from very complex walks of life. A non-exhaustive list of their combined experiences and talents include: chaplaincy, tourism – supporting airlines and their customers during crisis, mental health and addiction support work, programme lead and lecturing for travel, tourism, business, foundation skills (so, experience from levels 1 – 9 on the NZQF!) and supporting young people with developmental and learning disabilities.

We will also welcome Richard Lee to the team later in the year. Richard Lee is currently an Assessor for our Diploma in Business (Level 5) (Leadership and Management) programme and has extensive experience supporting ITOs and NZQA with their moderation systems.

National Moderator team continues to support you
Our new moderation team has a slightly new role and job title of Careerforce National Moderator but will continue to support you with your annual moderation requirements as the year plays out.

We continue to contact assessors coming up to their registration review dates with requests for specific units - this helps Careerforce maintain optics on the overall health of our programmes and assessments, and provides us all with opportunities to learn and develop our practice and resources.

As and when Covid-19 restrictions lessen, we will be out and about supporting assessor hubs and you will get the chance to meet the new team soon – we look forward to catching up!

Ngā mihi,
Damon Harrison

Remote Initial Assessor Training
When Initial Assessor Training (IAT) courses are interrupted by lockdowns, we go online!

This most recent lockdown once again affected our face-to-face IAT courses around the country, and so we offered the courses online instead. We received some encouraging feedback from trainee assessors who completed the 2-day IAT courses.

Feedback from our online IAT courses:

  • The flexibility of doing the course online saved trainees time travelling to a location where the face-to-face course would’ve been held.

  • It was more effective and efficient to work on the qualification during this lockdown period.

  • The smaller numbers in the online ‘remote’ courses gave trainees more opportunity for comprehension and discussion.

  • Learning Engagement Advisors could adapt the training to the individual, more than usual, and extend our training repertoire!

Thank you to all our assessors who have joined us online and in our face-to-face courses, and who continue to do a wonderful job of assessing!

“Change is inevitable. Change is constant.” - Benjamin Disraeli.

Disraeli's quote sums up our last year and a half. We are encouraged that Learning Engagement Advisors have been able to change and adapt our method of training, and that our trainee assessors have enjoyed learning and adapting with us.

    Careerforce has handed over its standard setting responsibilities to WDCs
    4 October marked a major milestone in the implementation of the Reforms of Vocational Education (RoVE), with the official handover of standard setting responsibilities from Industry Training Organisations to one of 6 Workforce Development Councils (WDCs).

    WDCs are now responsible for developing and maintaining qualifications, and developing, setting, and maintaining unit standards for the industries in their coverage area. As part of this, WDCs now assume responsibility for external moderation (which ensures the quality of assessment carried out by organisations with consent to assess), and will support consent to assess applications where they are the standard setting body.

    Careerforce standard setting responsibilities have been transitioned to either:

    • Toitū te Waiora – the WDC for Community, Health, Education and Social Services

    • Ringa Hora – the WDC for Service industries, including cleaning

    The websites for these WDCs are www.toitutewaiora.nz and www.ringahora.nz respectively.
    Decision on transition of Careerforce’s 'arranging training' function
    The Careerforce Board recently made the decision that Careerforce’s ‘arranging training’ responsibilities will transition via ‘lift and shift’ to Te Pūkenga, but not until late 2022. You can read more about the decision here. We are now developing a transition plan, which does require approval by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) Board.

    Throughout 2022, and even post-transition, we do not expect that you will notice much difference for some time, if any. All Careerforce staff, systems and processes will simply transition across, and work will continue as it does today.
    Access to Careerforce Library changing in December
    The Careerforce Resource Library contains paper-based learning resources which are currently free to view and downloadable by all visitors to the Library, via the Careerforce website.

    From 1 December 2021, access to the Library will only be via a secure login on the Careerforce iportal site.

    Key information:

    • The Library will look and feel the same and contain the same resources, but simply transitioned to and accessible via iportal.

    • Trainees will also be able to use their new iportal login to not only access the Library, but also to access their own training progress report. This is an important milestone, as it gives trainees a greater sense of empowerment and self-responsibility through their training journey.

    In the coming weeks, we‘ll be contacting all our trainees to explain how to register for, and use iportal.

      Expiring versions of unit standards
      Each year, some unit standard assessments and learning resources are required to be updated.

      For versions of unit standards which are expiring at the end of the year, trainees cannot have results recorded for these expiring unit standards after 31 December. We aim to have the resources for new versions available in October for new trainees to enrol in.

      Here are the updates for versions of unit standards which will become available during October:

        Assessor Guides
        Key points about Assessor Guides:

        • They are supporting documents for the assessor to use with every assessment to ensure that they assess consistently and correctly.

        • These inform the assessor about how to conduct the assessment and about how to judge a trainee’s performance.

        • Assessor Guides contain model answers, evidence and judgement statements which is privileged information.

        Assessor Guides must not be shared by assessors with trainees or any other person.

        Model answers give an example of expected responses by a trainee. Unless otherwise stated, model answers are indicative and should be used as a guide.

        Assessors must be experienced in the subject areas for which they have been given scope to assess and are expected to use professional judgement when considering trainee evidence, especially valid and relevant evidence that is not covered in a guide.

        If you are not able to access an Assessor Guide for a unit standard via iportal, you do not have scope to assess against the unit standard and must apply to have your scope extended.

          ONE Assessor Guide for online or paper-based
          The Product Development team has been working on simplifying and improving assessment design, so that as much as possible the trainee has a similar type of assessment, regardless of whether they are on Aka Toi or doing paper-based assessments.

          One single Assessor Guide
          Assessors should start to see one single Assessor Guide (AG) that relates to both online and paper assessments. There are instructions for reporting in the AG that relate to Aka Toi assessments that are reported through Aka Toi, and paper-based reporting through iportal.

          Downloadable observation forms
          We have designed downloadable observation forms for trainees and assessors to download separately from Aka Toi, before sending to observers or managers for completion. In some cases the observation forms have questions which the trainee answers before the observation occurs, so the observer has more information and background about the task.

          QR Codes for paper-based feedback
          Coming soon, trainees and apprentices doing paper assessments will be able to provide feedback via a QR code. This will take them directly to an online feedback form, like the one in Aka Toi, where their feedback will be included in the data we gather in our Itomic records.
            Modules with the section: 'Assessment - Are you ready to start?'
            Going forward, when a module is released it will have a section called 'Assessment - Are you ready to start?'

            This ensures that a trainee always has access to the current issue of an assessment at the time they are ready to start, and they will need to complete a statement to confirm that the work will be their own.

            How to begin marking these submissions:

            • Assessors will first need to select the 'Access all assessments' link in the Assessor Information panel on the module.

            • This is a one-off task per module and will give the assessor access to all issues of the assessments as they are reviewed and re-released.

            More information can be found in Help > General guides > Working with modules with more than one issue of the assessment.

              Assessors are the top enablers for success - graduate survey results
              'Regular support from assessor' is what most graduates say enabled their success, according to our inaugural graduate survey report.

              Earlier this year, we commenced a graduate survey to better understand how our trainees and apprentices have found their training journeys with Careerforce, and what improvements could be made. Results from the survey will also help to inform our training programme consistency reviews to NZQA.

              The top three ‘enablers’ to successfully completing their training journey include:
              It's so encouraging to see assessors make the top of this list, and shows just how important your role is in trainee success.

              Other key findings from our inaugural report include:

              • Our graduates are generally very satisfied with their training journey with Careerforce, with an overall satisfaction score of 8 (with 10 being extremely satisfied) – this compares favourably with the overall employer satisfaction score of 7.5

              • 94% of graduates say they can use their learning at work

              • 93% say they gained new skills and knowledge
              Have your say on Leadership Development for the Health and Disability System
              If you work in the health and disability sector, you now have an opportunity to give input to the Leadership Capability Project. You are also welcome to invite members of your own networks to participate – here’s how to have your say:

              Background information
              Strengthening Leadership Development for Aotearoa’s Health and Disability System
              is a project led by the Ministry of Health, Manatū Hauora.

              The Ministry wants to understand what’s needed to develop and support leaders in the health and disability sector. They want to know how to encourage leaders both now and in the future who come from all the parts of the workforce including those from Māori, Pacific, disabled and rural communities.

              Take the survey
              Whatever your role in the health and disability sector, you have a valuable opinion or an experience to share. All responses are anonymous, and no individual responses will be stored or shared.
              You can take the survey here or find out more at www.futureleadersnz.healthcare/

              This newsletter is sent to all Careerforce registered assessors.  Archive copies can be downloaded from the Careerforce website.  Follow this link and scroll down to view and download archive newsletters:
               
               
              We do appreciate all the support and guidance you give to your trainees. As usual, if have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us:

              Assessor Support: assessor-admin@careerforce.org.nz
              Moderation Support: moderation@careerforce.org.nz

               
               
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