Review and revision of Forest Foundation Skills, Forest Operations, and Forestry qualifications

FIELD AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY and FISHERIES

Review and revision of Forest Foundation Skills, Forest Operations, and Forestry qualifications

National Certificate in Forest Foundation Skills (Level 2) with strands in Establishment, Pruning, Chainsaw Operations, Breaking Out, and Landing Operations [Ref: 1410]

National Certificate in Forest Operations (Level 3) with strands in Establishment, Pruning, Thinning to Waste (Small Trees), Tree Felling - Basic Techniques, Breaking Out for Ground Based Harvesting, Breaking Out for Cable Harvesting, and Landing Operations [Ref: 1411]

National Certificate in Forestry (Mensuration (Level 4) [Ref: 0833]

FITEC has completed the review of qualifications [Ref: 1411] and [Ref: 0833] and has revised qualification [Ref: 1410].

Date new versions published January 2010

The next qualification review is planned to take place during 2014.

Summary of review, revision and consultation process

During the period April 2008 to September 2008, FITEC ran a series of workshops at nine different locations around the country to introduce the new Level 2, 3, and 4 forestry qualifications. During these workshops, and through subsequent use of the new qualifications, feedback from trainees and assessors was gained, which resulted in small structural changes to the qualifications.

Also during 2008 the industry approached FITEC suggesting that a review of the National Certificate in Forestry (Mensuration) (Level 4) [Ref: 0833] was required. It had been determined by mensuration and inventory companies that many of their workers were coming into the industry without relevant prior knowledge and the step to complete the existing Level 4 qualification was too great. The industry requested a Level 3 qualification targeted at the skills required to establish and collect data from sample plots and a Level 4 qualification targeted towards people who had gained experience on the job and were involved in planning inventory operations and carrying out different types of sampling. There was also a request to include some of the core forestry standards.

This report includes a REVIEW section for qualifications 1411 and 0833, and a REVISION section for qualification 1410.

REVIEW

Main changes resulting from the review

National Certificate in Forest Operations (Level 3) with strands in Establishment, Pruning, Thinning to Waste (Small Trees), Tree Felling - Basic Techniques, Breaking Out for Ground Based Harvesting, Breaking Out for Cable Harvesting, and Landing Operations [Ref: 1411]

National Certificate in Forest Operations (Level 3) with strands in Establishment, Pruning, Thinning to Waste (Small Trees), Thinning to Waste (Large Trees), Tree Felling - Basic Techniques, Thinning for Extraction, Breaking Out for Ground Based Harvesting, Breaking Out for Cable Harvesting, Landing Operations, and Mensuration [Ref: 1411]

Review category

See Key to Qualification Review Categories at the end of report

Changes to structure and content

· Overall credits have changed from 53-87 to 49-98; the Establishment Strand has increased from 68 to 71; the Breaking Out for Cable Harvesting Strand has decreased from 68 to 66; and the Landing Operations Strand has decreased from 80-70.

· Core Elective 2 has been extended to allow more flexibility for forestry workers to gain other standards if required.

· The Establishment Strand elective set has been extended as the two standards previously in that strand will not always be suitable for trainees working in establishment operations.

· A Thinning to Waste (Large Trees) strand has been added. When version 1 of this qualification was submitted this strand was left out as it was thought to be too similar to Thinning to Waste (Small Trees). However, the two operations are very separate and trainees will only work in one or the other, not both. Therefore, the additional strand is needed to differentiate between workers' capabilities.

· A Thinning for Extraction strand has been added. This strand is required as there is now a growing trend to harvest waste for biofuel or biofuel related products.

· Standard 43 has been removed from the Breaking Out for Cable Harvesting strand as candidates working in breaking out operations usually don't own their own chainsaw. Achieving the strand was difficult while it contained standard 43.

· The Landing Operations strand has been adjusted and contains a compulsory section and an elective to allow workers on mechanised harvesting landings to achieve this qualification by selecting the new standard, 25787 Carry out quality control of logs on a landing, from the new elective. Standard 43 has been removed from this strand as not all workers on a landing will be using a chainsaw. Standard 6924 has been moved to the new elective and standard 22132 has been added to the elective.

· A Mensuration strand has been added. This strand recognises the skills required to establish and collect data from sample plots in the forest.

Candidates enrolled in version 1 of this qualification can choose to complete that version or transfer their existing achievements to this version. Candidates have until December 2012 to complete version 1 of this qualification. All new candidates will be enrolled into version 2 of this qualification.

This qualification contains standards that replace or are substitutes for earlier standards. For the purposes of this qualification, people who have gained credit for the expiring standards are exempt from the requirement to gain credit for the replacement standards - see table below.

Credit for	Exempt from
43, 6917	23411
6923	23000
6949	22998
1250	25952

National Certificate in Forestry (Mensuration) (Level 4) [Ref: 0833]

Review category

See Key to Qualification Review Categories at the end of report

Changes to structure and content

· This qualification was not meeting the needs of industry and was designated as expiring. An additional strand has been added to the Forest Operations qualification to recognise the skills of mensuration. An additional strand will be added to the Forest Operations Advanced qualification to recognise the skills of inventory.

Candidates enrolled in version 3 of the National Certificate in Forestry (Mensuration) [Ref: 0833] can choose to complete that version or transfer their exiting achievements to version 2 of the National Certificate in Forest Operations (Level 3) with strands in Establishment, Pruning, Thinning to Waste (Small Trees), Thinning to Waste (Large Trees), Tree Felling - Basic Techniques, Thinning for Extraction, Breaking Out for Ground Based Harvesting, Breaking Out for Cable Harvesting, Landing Operations, and Mensuration [Ref: 1411]. Candidates have until December 2012 to complete version 3 of this qualification. All new candidates will be enrolled into [Ref: 1411].

It is not intended that any existing candidate be disadvantaged by these arrangements. However, any candidate who considers they have been disadvantaged may appeal to FITEC at the address below.

Key to Qualification Review Categories

Category A The qualification is published as a new version with the same NQF ID	Changes are made to SSB name, contact details or purpose statement
	No change is made to title, rules or components of the qualification
	No transition arrangements are required
Category B The qualification is published as a new version with the same NQF ID	Changes are made to title, rules or components
	The new version of the qualification recognises a similar skill set to that recognised by the previous version
	The SSB is confident that people awarded the new or previous version are comparable in terms of competence
	Transition arrangements are required if candidates must gain additional/different credits for the new version
Category C A new (replacement) qualification is published with new NQF ID	Significant changes are made to the qualification in terms of components, structure, type or level
	The SSB views people with the replacement qualification as being significantly different in terms of competence from those with the replaced qualification
	Transition arrangements are required
	Transition may be limited to phase-out dates
Category D Qualification will expire. There is no replacement qualification	Qualification is no longer required by industry
	The qualification is designated as expiring and a last date for meeting the qualification requirements is set

REVISION

Main changes resulting from the revision

National Certificate in Forest Foundation Skills (Level 2) with strands in Establishment, Pruning, Chainsaw Operations, Breaking Out, and Landing Operations [Ref: 1410]

Changes to structure and content

· An elective set has been added to the core section of this qualification to create more flexibility for candidates enrolled in this qualification.

· Standards 22995 and 22997 have moved from the Core Compulsory to the new Core Elective.

Transition

This qualification contains standards that replace earlier standards. For the purposes of this qualification, people who have gained credit for the expiring standards are exempt from the requirement to gain credit for the replacement standards - see table below.

Credit for	Exempt from
43, 6917	23411
6923	23000
6949	22998
13108, 13109	22994
17757, 17760, 17761	22997

It is not intended that any existing candidate be disadvantaged by these arrangements. However, any candidate who considers they have been disadvantaged may appeal to FITEC at the address below.

Forest Industries Training and Education Council (FITEC)

PO Box 137 067

PARNELL

Auckland 1151

Telephone 09 356 7250

Email info@fitec.org.nz