Last updated: 18 Mar 2021

Careerforce, as the qualification developer has commenced a scheduled qualification review of the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Social and Community) (Level 4) with strands in Community Facilitation, Community Health Work, Mental Health and Addiction Support, and Social Services.

We are pleased to confirm that the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Social and Community Services) (Level 4) is now approved by NZQA and listed in the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF).

The reviewed qualification went through with minor changes that includes:

Minor changes to the qualification title, strategic purpose, education and employment pathway, the requirements of the qualification, general conditions for programmes, and to all Graduate Profile Outcomes (GPO) wording. These changes were to align with the different sectors who have a support workforce, reflect strengths-based language, and address the importance of the skills and cultural competencies to identify with Māori.

Credit values of GPOs 2 and 5 were modified to accurately reflect the time taken to learn, practice, and be assessed for the skills aligned to the GPOs. The overall qualification credit value remains unchanged at 120 credits.

Changes were made to the strands to better reflect the employment pathways of a support workforce. This included the removal of the Community Facilitation strand due to the ambiguity of job roles it led to and the overlap of some tasks for support roles in the community with the Social Services workforce.

Two new strands in Disability Support and Diversional Therapy were added to acknowledge the differences in skill acquisition to work with people with a disability and in the role of diversional therapy.

The Social Services strand was re-named as “Whānau, Community and Social Services” to reflect the sector direction changes and to include information-based support roles previously in the Community Facilitation strand.

The NZQA have approved the replacement of the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Social and Community Services) (Level 4) with strands in Community Health Work; Disability Support; Diversional Therapy; Mental Health and Addiction Support; and Whānau, Community and Social Services [Ref:2992-2] and is now listed on the New Zealand Qualification Framework (NZQF).

 

NZQA page outlining the Qualification

Qualification Overview (nzqa.govt.nz)

Please note the last date for assessment for programmes leading to version 1 of this qualification is 31 December 2023.

Thank you for your contributions to the qualification review process. If you have any questions, please contact qualreview@careerforce.org.nz