Terms of Reference

Introduction

Download the ToR

For a qualifications system to meet the needs of the economy and the labour market it must be relevant to, and well understood by, all those who use it. The end-users of the qualifications system include employers, current and potential students and employees, and wider industry.

Employers and industry groups in particular have documented a number of concerns with the usefulness of the current qualifications system. These concerns fall into the two main areas of user-friendliness and relevance.

To quantify and address these concerns, Ministry of Education and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) are leading a targeted review of the qualifications system with the active participation of the Industry Training Federation (ITF), Business New Zealand, the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITP New Zealand), the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, Te Tauihu o Nga Wānanga and the private training establishment sector.

The review focuses on certificates and diplomas at levels 1 to 6, excluding the NCEA, where there are a large number of qualifications. This is an area that employers and industry identified as having a lack of clarity about the connections between qualifications and skills.

The review is looking at the design, development and approval of these qualifications at a systems level and does not focus on specific qualifications.

Purpose

The purpose of the targeted review is to identify, at the system-level, if there are more effective ways for the overall design and development processes of qualifications to meet the current and future requirements of industry, individuals and other stakeholders.

Background

The New Zealand Register of Quality Assured Qualifications (the Register) includes all quality assured qualifications in New Zealand (40 credits and over). This includes

This includes:

• National Qualifications (unit standard based)
• National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) (based on unit and achievement standards), and
• all other quality assured qualifications developed by individual tertiary education organisations (known as provider or local qualifications).

There were around five thousand nine hundred qualifications on the Register in December 2008. Just over seventy six percent of these qualifications are certificates or diplomas (levels 1 to 7). Of the certificates, just over thirty-one percent are National Certificates and of the diplomas; just over fourteen percent are National Diplomas.

For a qualifications system to meet the needs of all New Zealanders it must be relevant and well understood by all those who use it, including current and potential students and workers. This means tertiary education providers need to align their qualifications with the needs of their specific end-users (employers and employees). Employers need to understand what skills and knowledge are represented by any qualification and individuals need to understand and be able to articulate the skills and knowledge they have gained through their study.

Concerns with the usefulness of the current qualifications system for industry (employers, employees and unions) have been identified in two main areas:

User friendliness

• a lack of clarity about:
  • the connections between qualifications, including pathways to higher level qualifications and the specific similarities and differences between similar qualifications,
  • the actual skills and knowledge conveyed by the completion of a qualification,

Relevance

• a lack of match between the content of qualifications and industry needs, and
• less than effective industry involvement in the design of qualifications.

The review will investigate these concerns and the requirements of others (standard setting bodies, quality assurance bodies and qualifications developers) to identify where any problems may lie. 

Objectives and scope of the review

Enhancing the relevance and timeliness of education and training supply is one way of addressing skill shortages.

Objectives

Skill development is currently recognised through a variety of processes in New Zealand – both formal and informal, and there are a number of qualifications development and approval processes.

The objective was to undertake a targeted review of these processes to identify whether there was a more effective way to align the design and development of qualifications with current or future industry needs, and the needs of individuals. This will include consideration of responsiveness, with regard to content and timeliness. As part of this, the targeted review considered the effectiveness of qualifications in communicating the skills and knowledge of the holder to employers and others.

Focus

Specific focus areas for the review are:

• diploma and certificate level qualifications where the significant numbers means that this is the area where there is most likely to be lack of clarity about the connections between qualifications and skills and knowledge
• industry and employers involvement in the design and development of qualifications; in particular ensuring effective employer and employee input, and
• minimising the duplication and proliferation of qualifications.

Scope

In order that the review remains targeted and is delivered in a timely manner, some parts of the qualification system were not examined. The table below indicates which areas were in and out of scope.

Within scope	Outside of scope
The nature and overall design of the qualifications system (at high level)	Specific qualifications
Level 1 to 6 qualifications excluding NCEA National qualifications and local/provider qualifications	NCEA, Level 7 and above qualifications
All quality assured qualifications of 40 credits or more	Non-quality assured qualifications Qualifications under 40 credits

Resourcing

The following individuals will undertake work on this review:

The Targeted Review Project Leaders Group
Tim Fowler	Deputy Chief Executive, Quality Assurance	NZQA
Andrea Schōllmann	Group Manager, Tertiary Education	Ministry of Education
Jeremy Baker	Executive Director	ITF
Dave Guerin	Executive Director	ITPNZ
Carrie Murdoch	Manager, Education, Training and Productivity	Business NZ
Don Farr	Skills Policy Advisor	NZCTU
Edwige Fava	President, NZAPEP	PTE sector
Bentham Ohai	Pouhere, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa	Te Tauihu o Nga Wānanga
Mandy Wong	Manager, Employment & Skills Policy	DoL
Janet Molyneux	Group Manager, Network Services	TEC
Working Group
Addrianne Long	Senior Policy Analyst	NZQA
Sophie Parker	Senior Researcher	NZQA
Natalie Bourke	Policy Analyst	NZQA
Colleen Slagter	Senior Policy Analyst	MoE
Michael Ross	Policy Analyst	MoE
Richard Elwin	Policy Manager	TEC
Josh Williams	Project Manager Qualifications and Quality	ITF
Carrie Murdoch	Manager, Education, Training and Productivity	Business NZ
Jan Osborn	Director Academic	ITPNZ

Reference and expert groups (as required)

Businesses
Wānanga
Private Training Establishments
Industry Training Organisations
Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics
Universities

Approach

The Ministry of Education and NZQA are jointly responsible for the targeted review of the qualifications system focussing on diplomas and certificates. The agencies will lead this work with the active participation of Business New Zealand, the Industry Training Federation, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, and the Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics of New Zealand, Te Tauihu o Nga Wānanga and private training establishment sector representation and through engagement with the Tertiary Education Commission and Department of Labour. In addition, ITP Quality, ITOs, ITPs and business representatives will be consulted where appropriate.

The approach to the targeted review is as follows: 

Identify underlying principles	Develop underlying principles that link to the following outcomes: related qualifications are connected standards and qualifications are used flexibly current and future industry needs are met. Obtain approval of principles by Project Leaders and interested parties (see project plan) Share principles with the Skill New Zealand Tripartite Forum
Investigate the effectiveness of current qualification design and approval process	Based on the underlying principles, undertake the following actions: Identify current qualification design and approval processes. Determine how effective the identified qualification processes are in meeting stakeholder needs (including progression and career paths for learners) and desired system-level outcomes. Do this through a range of research methods with relevant parties (see project plan). Determine what an effective process looks like and develop criteria for an effective process. Using collation of processes and research data, apply 'effectiveness criteria' to the current system to draw conclusions about its effectiveness and areas where change may be required (problem definition) (This data will include existing research outputs such as Torr (2007) Diplomas, Applied Diplomas and Diploma Pathways offered by Institutes of Technology/Polytechnics (ITPs) in New Zealand, a report to the Tertiary Education Commission of New Zealand, TEC: Wellington, New Zealand.
Assess current situation with regard to clarity and number of qualifications and compare it to international qualifications systems	Based on the underlying principles undertake the following actions Undertake analysis of existing qualifications looking at numbers, information designed to provide clarity of purpose and relationships with other qualifications. In particular, examine the relationships between national and local/provider qualifications. Identify areas of lack of clarity and overlap. Discuss this analysis with stakeholders in order to identify any barriers to clarity and/or drivers of proliferation of qualifications. Compare similar qualification systems from other countries with the New Zealand system with regard to clarity and number of qualifications.
Final report	Analyse and incorporate conclusions from the above tasks into a discussion document with recommendations or an outline of work needed to address the issues identified by the tasks. Consult on the conclusions and proposals. Develop a final paper.

Outcomes

A qualifications system:

• Where a person's qualifications clearly communicate to stakeholders accurate information about the nature and level of their skills and knowledge for employment or further learning purposes.
• That provides a map to further learning opportunities.
• That identifies clear connections between qualifications and skills and knowledge.

That is underpinned by processes that allow for more effective input from industry into the design of qualifications.

Evaluation of completed targeted review

The tests that will be applied to ensure that the targeted review is completed to the agreed standard:

• Milestones are met to the satisfaction of the Project Leaders;
• Any review recommendations are accepted by the Minister for Tertiary Education and progressed;
• Consultation with key clients indicates general satisfaction with the outcomes of the review.

Page updated: 23 June 2009