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The October 2022 issue of REAL Assessor News covers Careerforce’s transition to Te Pūkenga, Dyslexia Awareness Month, keeping an eye out for plagiarism, ‘Assessor Spotlight’ with Steffi Elliott and more…
Te Pukenga Careerforce pōwhiri, Pipitea Marae, Wellington, Monday 5 September 2022. Credit: Hagen Hopkins.
On 1 September, and as a further key milestone in the implementation of the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE), Careerforce transitioned as a business division into Te Pūkenga Work Based Learning Limited, a subsidiary of Te Pūkenga. You may have noticed co-branding on our online services like Aka Toi and iportal… even our website has had a freshen up!
Coinciding with the transition, Jane Wenman announced that she would be finishing her tenure as Chief Executive of Careerforce. Reflecting on her tenure, Jane commented that “it has been an absolute privilege to lead Careerforce through the last 4 years, albeit having to navigate the turmoil created by the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) and then Covid-19. My six years with Careerforce have been a career highlight.”
Rod Bentham assumed the role of Director of the Careerforce business division of WBL, effective from 1 September.
Rod was formerly Careerforce’s General Manager of Learning Solutions, and has been with Careerforce since May 2018. He has nearly 25 years experience in vocational education and training, including tenures across both polytechnic and industry training organisations, and ten years leading national qualifications services at NZQA.
Over September, Te Pūkenga completed its consultation with kaimahi (staff) on its proposed high level operating structure, and a decision was made at the start of October. While these outcomes may have eventual implications for Careerforce staff reporting lines, they won’t have any immediate impacts upon our training relationships with you.
Your annual moderation for 2022:All Careerforce registered assessors are required to go through an annual registration review. Part of this review is to ensure that each assessor successfully participates in annual moderation. If you have received a request to submit samples for moderation for this year, please submit your most recently assessed samples from 2022 via the Moderation Submission Form.
An earlier request asked that you provide your moderation samples for 2022 no later than 31 October, and we would appreciate these being provided as soon as possible. For everyone else, you will receive a request for samples in 2023.
11 December – This is the last day to register results to ensure they are exported to NZQA on the last run of 2022. This includes any unit standards expiring in 2022.
25 November – Last certificate run of 2022 for apprentices (please make sure results are in by 20 November).
12 December – Last certificate run of 2022 for trainees (please make sure results are in by 4 December).
12 – 16 December – The last week to submit a Training Agreement for enrolment in 2022. We can’t guarantee enrolment completion of Training Agreements that are incorrectly completed or that come through to our Client Services team after Monday 19 December.
22 December – Careerforce closes at 12 midday.
5 January – Careerforce opens at 8am.
Updates to Health & Wellbeing (Level 3) unit standards
In early October we emailed employers, assessors and trainees enrolled in versions of unit standards that expire on 31 December 2022. We recommended that learners prioritise completing these units by 30 November to enable assessors like yourself to complete your marking. Here is a copy of the email sent to learners and here is a list of impacted units standards.
Updates to the Health & Wellbeing (Level 2) programme
A new version of the Health & Wellbeing (Level 2) programme was released on 1 September 2022. The earlier version expires on 31 December 2022. Learners enrolled in the earlier version were encouraged to complete their assessments by mid November to assessors like yourself to register your outcomes. If trainees are unable to complete their current programme by the end of this year, they will be rolled-over into the new version of the programme from 1 January 2023. Here is a copy of the email sent to learners..
Updates to the NZ Certificate in Cleaning (Level 3) with optional strands in Specialised Cleaning and Supervision
A new version of the above programme was released on 19 September 2022. The earlier version expires on 31 December 2022. We ask you to encourage your trainees to prioritise the completion of their programme by mid November. Here is a copy of our email sent to workplaces.
Changes to the New Zealand Certificate in Cleaning (Level 2) with a strand in Health Care Facilities Cleaning
Early this year we advised that the 40-45 credit programme was being replaced by a new 43-48 credit programme in July. Learners enrolled in the earlier programme will need to complete their assessments by 31 December 2022. Here is a copy of our email sent to workplaces.
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month and the global Go Red For Dyslexia campaign is in full swing.
Dyslexia/neurodiversity affects around 15% of people worldwide and impacts on their education, their working lives, and wider social interactions. Dyslexia is best described as a difference, as opposed to a disability, but the way society treats people with dyslexia often turns it into a disability. Dyslexia is poorly understood and often overlooked in government policies. Currently, New Zealand gathers no statistics about dyslexia and New Zealand Human Rights legislation is silent on the subject.
This year, Dyslexia Scotland has launched an international campaign about fonts. There’s Nothing Comic About Dyslexia campaign gives Comic Sans, a font that faces prejudice of its own, an unexpected voice to help raise awareness of the importance of text presentation for people with dyslexia.
Your Careerforce Learning Engagement Advisors (LEAs) have a handout on the best fonts and spacings to use to support reading for learners with dyslexia. These are handed out at the Assessor Hubs. If you would like a copy, please email our Literacy and Numeracy Advisor cushla.wilson@careerforce.org.nz or your LEA, and we will get it to you.
Next year, we’ll be sharing more advice on how best to support your learners with dyslexia, and other neuro-diversities, in our professional development sessions and Assessor Hubs. Watch out for hub dates for 2023, coming soon.
For more information and resources on dyslexia:
As with all education providers in New Zealand, Careerforce does not allow copying or plagiarism. Copying answers from the learning material does not demonstrate knowledge or understanding and is not valid or authentic evidence.
Unfortunately, there are several online cheating services that offer to provide learners with assessment answers, for a fee. These services may be used by learners who are seeking a shorter path to completing their qualifications. One example that came across our radar is nzassignmenthelp.com. We are following up with NZQA (again) to investigate and, hopefully, shut down this illegal service. We note that it is prolific with examples/samples from the business domain too.
Careerforce is also looking at suspicious activity within Aka Toi where we have seen instances of learners using the log-in details of others in order to access completed assessments and pass them off as their own. This is a breach of the learner’s training agreement and another example of academic dishonesty.
You can find out more about ways to detect plagiarism via:
Meet registered Careerforce assessor, Steffi Elliott, who works at Wairau Hospital and assesses some of their Healthcare Assistants.
Steffi Elliott (left) presents Kathleen Davidson with her NZ Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Health Assistance) (Level 3).
Where do you work and what do you do? I work at Wairau Hospital in Blenheim in the Inpatient Unit (IPU). The unit has three specialised areas: Surgical, Medical, and Assessment, Treatment & Rehabilitation (ATR). We either work Surgical end or Med/ATR end, depending on the roster and the need for a healthcare assistant at the time.
How long have you been at Wairau Hospital? I have been working in the IPU for 10 years, mostly permanent although I started as a casual.
How long have you been a registered Careerforce assessor, and which programmes do you assess? I have been a registered assessor for Careerforce since April 2019. I have mainly assessed Level 3 Health & Wellbeing. Although, this year my scope was extended to cover Level 4.
How many colleagues have you supported to achieving their qualifications? I have been supporting eight healthcare assistants until recently, as three of them have just completed their qualifications.
What gives you the most satisfaction from being a Careerforce assessor? Building up a rapport with the healthcare assistants and having a relationship with them based on respect and trust. It’s important to me that members of our team can approach me to ask questions without judgement. I believe that in our job we are always learning. I also love it when I have written a comment asking them to expand on their answers based on the expectation at Level 3 and they follow through. I also find it very satisfying motivating students.
Steffi with her German Shepherd
What do you think makes a positive difference to trainees in the workplace? Through supporting our healthcare assistants to complete these qualifications, it allows for all healthcare assistants to be on an even par in the workplace. It also allows them to upskill and gain a new qualification, especially if they are new to health.
For those that have previously worked out in the community, it gives them an opportunity to make some subtle changes such as learning to communicate back to the nurses of any changes they see in a patient’s condition. It also helps to show the nurses that the healthcare assistants they work alongside have the skills necessary to perform tasks such as looking after our dementia patients and being competent at using the equipment, like a hoist.
What keeps you busy outside of work? I lead a very busy life on our lifestyle block with my husband Maurice. We also have our daughter Charlotte at home who has Noonan syndrome and we’ve been working alongside her to help her become more independent, especially now that she has her restricted driver licence. I also have a two-year-old German Shepherd who demands a lot of my attention. I also enjoy watching Netflix and planning trips to concerts with my work buddy, Gail.
Want to feature in the next assessor spotlight, or know someone who should? Send us an email!
We’re always looking for ways to improve, and these incremental improvements all add up to changes in our procedures. Over the last little while we have updated and expanded upon our Assessment and Moderation Procedures Manuals.
Check them out here:
We have added more guidance around good assessment practice, what happens during moderation, and we have recently updated the way you can submit your samples.
These manuals are found on our website under Assessment and Moderation.
Careerforce has added another two very experienced educators to our NZ Diploma in Business (Leadership and Management) assessor team.
Introducing Neil Marwick and Becks West…
What inspires you? I love working with the learner and seeing them achieve and succeed. I am inspired by the transformation of the learner’s thinking, and helping them to realise their academic potential through the application of their own practical journey.
What is your ‘why’? To help support people in education and to be a leader by facilitation.
What do you find most rewarding as an assessor? The outcomes, the success. Seeing my learners complete their qualification.
Becks with her puppy, Riley
What inspires you? I love new challenges and experiences. I’m a perpetual learner and I aspire to pass this enthusiasm on to my learners.
What is your ‘why’? I love to see people progressing in an area of their interest which makes their lives more fulfilled. Being an educator allows me to do this every day.
What do you find most rewarding as an assessor? I love meeting new people, building relationships and helping them to achieve their goals and aspirations. Each person I work with has different needs and reasons for further study which I find interesting. It’s fascinating to chat to people about their work and how this supports other people and the organisation.
We’d like to acknowledge that there have been a lot of changes to programmes this year. This has come about as qualifications are reviewed every five years and programmes are updated to reflect any changes to qualifications post the review.
When a qualification is reviewed, it is listed with NZQA as a new version. The previous version has a last date for completion and any learners that have not yet completed by then will be transitioned to the new version of the qualification.
In case you missed any emails, here is a link to emails sent to workplaces about recent changes to programmes:
Here is a quick visual reminder for the steps you need to take when reporting Aka Toi or paper-based assessment results.
Earlier this year, Careerforce launched virtual sessions to help provide assessors with mārama (clarity) or support with any assessment of assessment practice questions.
Hono mai (connect with me) is a virtual assessor forum open every Wednesday from 1– 2pm. A Careerforce moderator is available during each session to answer any of your burning questions and help you find clarity in your role as a Careerforce assessor.
If you are an assessor, you can join the meeting link by logging into iportal. Just click on the ‘Hono Mai meeting for assessors’ menu option. If you have any questions, please email moderation@careerforce.org.nz
In December 2021, access to The Careerforce Resource Library became accessible via a secure login on the Careerforce iportal site. While the Library contains downloadable paper-based learning resources, learners are also able to use their iportal login to access their own training progress reports. This gives learners a greater sense of empowerment and self-responsibility through their training journey, so we ask you to encourage your learners to register/use iportal for their benefit.
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:
REAL Assessor News is a quarterly update sent to all Careerforce registered assessors. Archived copies of REAL Assessor News can be found under Assessor Toolkit.