Qualifications Forum. Achieved.

If you missed out on the recent sold-out New Zealand Qualifications forum then circle 1 December 2010 on your calendar and come to next year's event.

"We're thrilled with the response to the inaugural event," says Industry Training Federation Executive Director Jeremy Baker.

"There was great input from a wide range of people and a real desire to work together to improve the qualifications system."

Papers from last week's forum are available on the ITF website.

National degrees one step closer

Among the presentations at the Qualifications Forum was an update on progress towards New Zealand's first national degrees.  The National Bachelor of Youth Development and the National Bachelor of Social Work are being developed by the Social Services ITO. Executive Director Rory Truell and project leader Amanda Torr showed how a flexible and holistic use of competency-based assessment could be used in advanced programmes of learning.

Unit standards for the two degrees are currently with NZQA awaiting approval. Read more 

Huge interest in research forum

The Industry Training Federation's 2010 Research Forum is shaping up to be the largest ever.

The Federation has received the greatest number of abstracts in the event’s history – even more than for this year’s, which was the largest so far. Abstracts have been submitted on a wide range of topics, from training outcomes, to VET policy, literacy, assessment and programme design. The Abstract Evaluation Committee is currently considering submissions and a public programme will be available in late January.

The forum will be held in Wellington on 14-15 April and registrations will open in late January.

Industry Profiles Tool - bigger and better

The Industry Training Federation has launched the latest version of the Industry Profiles Tool which allows quick and easy access to detailed information about New Zealand industries.

This CD-based tool was first launched last year to support Industry Training Organisations in their skill leadership role but has been used by many other organisations with an interest in the make up of different industries.

ITOs use the detailed data available  to help them work with their industries to develop long term training and skill development plans. Among the additions to the new version are updated information on industry level turnover; work-related injuries and fatalities; and greater age-gender analysis.  It also has a new section with analysis of field of study for people within the chosen industry, which is expected to help illustrate the types of formally recognised skills people in the industry have or need.

For more information about the Industry Profiles Tool, or the more extensive Industry Skills Toolkit (available only for ITOs) contact Jenny Connor.

High Performance in ITOs

The ITF has released the second High Performance in ITOs report to support ITOs with self evaluation and quality assurance.

The report, which includes results from a second ITO Practices and Models survey, was developed to enable ITOs to draw on a number of shared good practices.

"ITOs are all different but they share a common mission, and a desire to provide a high level of service to their industries and trainees as well as to government," said Federation executive director Jeremy Baker.

"This report, and an accompanying web-based self review tool, provides ITOs with a high level description of quality so that each ITO can focus its quality assurance on the things that matter," he said.

Click here for a full copy of the report.

Return on investment from apprenticeship training in the automotive industry

Recent research from MITO, the NZ Motor Industry Training Organisation (Inc) indicates that employers recover their investment in an apprentice in the second year of training.

"Given that apprentices tend to stay with their training employer for around five years, the results endorse that an apprenticeship is a worthwhile investment for employers," says Group Manager - Corporate Affairs Lucie Wenmakers.

The findings are from a research project Return on Investment from a MITO Apprenticeship.