Careerforce eChat July 2009

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Bupa – Workplace Champion 

With 45 rest homes and hospitals and more than 3,200 employees, Bupa Care Services, formerly Guardian Health Care, are one of the largest providers of aged residential care health services in New Zealand.

Over the last 12 months Bupa has worked closely with Careerforce, promoting and encouraging caregiving staff to being the Level 3 Core Competencies and Residential Qualifications, as well as the Level 4 Dementia Limited Credit Programme. To be eligible, staff have to be employed for more than 6 months.

Bupa was already committed to workplace based learning with a robust internal education programme. However, taking the additional steps of ensuring each rest home or hospital had two assessors and equipping Bupa’s staff (spread across 45 locations) with the skills and knowledge has been a significant undertaking.

Mapping out the verification and assessment tasks in each unit standard against the work that staff regularly do on a daily basis was important in getting support and buy-in from individual rest homes and hospitals.

This process helped demonstrate that staff were already doing a lot of the work required, and that by making a few modifications staff could obtain National Qualifications and embark on a learning pathway.

To help ensure the successful roll out of Careerforce’s Qualifications to as many caregiving staff as possible, Bupa tries to ‘buddy up’  rest homes and hospitals at different stages of the embedding process so they can learn from each other.

The training is fully funded for staff and is linked to the 'progress steps' - a pay scale where staff participation in training is rewarded. Bupa's Learning and Development Fund was established to ensure access for all to ongoing training and development.  Employees can also apply for study grants to undertake nursing degrees, nurse assistant training, or other relevant development study.

Qualification Registration Trucks On!

A major role and responsibility of Careerforce is toset standards and register qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework that meet the needs of the sector. Since June last year Careerforce has registered seven new National Qualifications, two significantly revised National Qualifications, and a Limited Credit Programme.

New National Qualifications (all Version 1):

• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Residential) (Level 3) June 2008      
• National Certificate in Disability Support Assessment, Planning, and Coordination (Level 5) June 2008
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Intellectual Disability) (Level 3) July 2008
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Human Services) (Level 3) July 2008
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Disability Information Provision) (Level 4) August 2008
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Field Workers) (Level 3) March 2009             
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Vision and Hearing Screening) (Level 3) April 2009  

New LCP (Version 1):

• LCP in Community Support Services (Residential) (Level 4) June 2008 

Revised Qualifications

• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Core Competencies) (Level 3) (Version 2) August 2008        
• National Certificate in Diversional Therapy (Level 4) (Version 5)  May 2009

With a focus on the future, we are working to develop new qualifications and unit standards in areas such as Brain Injury, Behaviour Support, Advanced Support/Team Leader, Advocacy, Public Health, Mental Health and Addiction, Allied Health, Health Care Assistants, New Born Hearing and Screening, and Orderlies.

Public Health Qualification Update

The Public Health Qualification Development Sector Panel is meeting for the third time in August. 

The Panel has been be working through the process of translating the existing Generic Public Health Competencies into unit standards. Once this is complete the Panel will investigate how these new unit standards (as well as some existing unit standards) can be packaged into a National Certificate, probably at Level 4. 

The Generic Public Health Competencies cover topics such as:

• Health Systems
• Public Health Science
• Research and Evaluation
• Community Health Development
• Advocacy
• Working Across and Understanding Cultures
• Communications
• Policy and Legislation
• Te Tiriti o Waitangi
• Leadership, Teamwork and Professional Liaison
• Professional Development and Self Management
• Planning and Administration

Draft unit standards and assessment materials for this proposed qualification are at various stages of development with some nearly ready for Panel endorsement, and others being developed further at next week’s panel meeting.

Integrated Workplace Learning Project Update

Careerforce has nearly completed a Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) funded project designed to explore the learning challenges workplaces face when training employees on-site.

The project began in January 2007 and has involved Careerforce working with workplaces to help upskill organisations (managers, trainers and staff) in supporting and strengthening employees’ confidence in literacy, language, numeracy and learning strategies, and the relationship between formal qualifications and workplace practice.

Almost 400 trainees from 27 workplaces involved in the project have so far completed the National Certificate in Community Support Services (Foundation Skills) Level 2 qualification. Trainees came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, including Maori and Pacific, and included ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) and non-ESOL trainees.

The completion rate for these 27 workplaces is a very pleasing 75%. Of the 25% of trainees who have not completed the qualification to date, 15% left their place of employment during the project, and 10% require more time and support to complete the qualification, which should lead to 85% completion.

Key Findings  

• Benefits for trainees involved in the project included increased confidence in learning and communication, improved organisation skills, measurable improvements in literacy, language and learning and increased desire to undertake higher qualifications.
• Key findings for trainers included the development of a stronger understanding on the link between literacy, language and learning and independent learning skills, enrolment in Adult Education qualifications and recognition of the importance of connecting learning to prior knowledge and experience.
• For workplaces, involvement in the project led to better service delivery, the development of a stronger organisation culture, and stronger in-house training capability.  

For a full list of findings from the project click here

Workplace Trainers from Auckland (left) and Palmerston North (right) are pictured with their “Certificate of Participation” obtained at professional development workshops for embedding literacy, language, numeracy and learning within training and workplace practice. Workshops were also held in Christchurch, Hamilton and New Plymouth

Want to get involved?

Careerforce has obtained funding from TEC to expand and extend the learning from this project across the sector, and into the Level 3 qualifications. If you would like to be included in this, or would like more information, please contact Louise Hawkins on (03) 374-1314 or louise.hawkins@careerforce.org.nz

First Intellectual Disability Qualification Completion

A care and support worker from Nelson Intellectual Disability Support Services has become the first trainee in New Zealand to complete Careerforce’s new level 3 Intellectual Disability Strand qualification.

Nelson Intellectual Disability Support Services held a graduation ceremony in July to celebrate the achievement of National Certificates by 15 staff. Six of these completed the National Certificate Community Support Services (Human Services) and nine completed the National Certificate in Community Support Services (Core Competencies).

Of these one graduate stood out. In addition to achieving Core Competencies, Judith Marsh became the first  in the country to complete the National Certificate in Community Support Services (Intellectual Disability).

Many family and supporters, along with Careerforce’s Ruth Kibble and Cassie Wise, attended the Graduation to celebrate the achievement of the graduates.

Ruth was invited as the guest speaker and praised Nelson Intellectual Disability Support Services on being an early adopter of the embedded model of learning and development, stating that the graduation was further proof of the model’s success. 

In response staff from Nelson Intellectual Disability Support commented that their journey to embed learning and development had its challenges and that much had been learnt along the way. They believe that key to their success has been offering group workshops to trainees. Each workshop is attended by one of four Nelson Intellectual Disability Support assessors who provide guidance to trainees on how their policies and procedures fit within the qualification requirements.

Ruth Kibble, Mark Nalder, Janet Pascoe, Judith Marsh and Cassie Wise celebrate Judith's achievement

Economic Deterioration Increases Demand

Results from Careerforce’s Inaugural Future Skill and Training Needs Scan indicate that demand for services will continue to increase as New Zealand’s economic situation deteriorates.

While the survey took place before the severity of the deteriorating economic situation was fully understood, many respondents indicated that the economic climate was already increasing the demand for their services and that this trend was expected to accelerate. 

Some of the responses indicating the effect of the economic climate on demand included:

• “We expect the economic pressures to add stress to our community and that more support, more referrals to counselling and budget advice and tenancy tribunals etc will be required. When those services are unable to accept referrals we will try to help our clients with their issues".
• "Recent changes will continue, but we also see that new challenges will emerge particularly as a result of the current economic climate. More people are likely to develop mental ill health, but they won't be the 'typical' client service providers are now seeing e.g the top 3%. Providers and funders will need to find ways of delivering services to this new audience before they end up 'going through the system' to become part of the 3%, and there may not be the facilities within government to open up new funding streams".
• "The current economy may push up numbers due to depression (loss of jobs, financial worries, low self esteem, social isolation)".
• "The worsening economic situation nationally has meant more stressed people, more unwellness, more seeking support".   

 To view the Key Findings from the Scan click here.

Care and Support Work - Just the Job

Just the Job is a television series aimed at informing 14-18 year olds about some of the possible career paths available to them.  Careerforce participated in the most recent series, which aired in March. This episode followed the experiences of Michelle who was on work experience at Kamo Home and Village Charitable Trust in Whangarei.

Michelle discovered that care and support workers have a wide variety of responsibilities, including helping residents dress for the day, joining in with arts and crafts, or getting out in the garden. Michelle also learnt about some of the more specialised care aspects needed for some of the residents.

To view Michelle trying her hand at care and support work,click here

Special thanks to Kamo Home and Village Charitable Trust for doing such a great job supporting Michelle.

Order Training Agreements Online

Careerforce’s new look training agreements can now be ordered on our website.

The new training agreements were developed as a result of feedback from the sector, and have been specifically designed for enrolment in the Career Pathway Qualifications. These qualifications currently include:

• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Foundation Skills) Level 2
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Core Competencies) Level 3
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Intellectual Disability) Level 3
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Human Services) Level 3
• National Certificate in Community Support Services (Residential) Level 3
• Limited Credit Programme in Community Support Services (Residential) Level 4

One of the major changes is dividing the training agreements into three parts. Part 1 is the Employer Section and only needs to be completed once for each batch of training agreements sent to Careerforce. Part 2 is designed to be completed by the trainee, and Part 3 indicates which qualification the trainee will be undertaking.

To order our new training agreements, click here