FIELD                 AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES

 

Review of Forest Operations Advanced qualification

 

National Certificate in Forest Operations Advanced (Level 4) with strands in Establishment and Silvicultural Operations, Production Tree Felling, Hauler Set-Up, Machine Operations - Hauler, Head Breaker Out - Cable Harvesting, Log Making, Machine Operations - Log Extraction, Machine Operations - Loader, Mechanised Tree Felling, Mechanised Processing, and Helicopter Logging [Ref: 1412]

 

Forest Industries Training and Education Council (FITEC) has completed the review of the qualification listed above.

 

Date new versions published                                                          March 2010

 

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

 

Summary of review 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.

 

Main changes resulting from the review

 

National Certificate in Forest Operations Advanced (Level 4) with strands in Establishment and Silvicultural Operations, Production Tree Felling, Hauler Set-Up, Machine Operations - Hauler, Head Breaker Out - Cable Harvesting, Log Making, Machine Operations - Log Extraction, Machine Operations - Loader, Mechanised Tree Felling, Mechanised Processing, and Helicopter Logging [Ref: 1412]

National Certificate in Forest Operations Advanced (Level 4) with strands in Establishment and Silvicultural Operations Management, Production Tree Felling, Hauler Set-Up, Machine Operations - Hauler, Head Breaker Out - Cable Harvesting, Log Making, Machine Operations - Log Extraction, Machine Operations - Loader, Mechanised Tree Felling, Mechanised Processing, Helicopter Logging, and Inventory [Ref: 1412]

 

Review category

B

See Key to Qualification Review Categories at the end of report

 

Changes to structure and content

·         Core elective set 1 has been retained as set A; standard 24576 has been removed from, and standard 25578 has been added to, the set.

·         Core elective set 2 has become an open set B to allow candidates to choose standards from anywhere on the NQF.

·         The Establishment and Silvicultural Operations strand has been redesigned to focus more on management of Silvicultural Operations as this is the natural pathway for Silvicultural workers.  Accordingly the strand title has changed to Establishment and Silvicultural Operations Management: the strand has a compulsory section and an elective section; standards more specific to management have been added and standards specific to silvicultural operations have been removed; and domains have also been added to the elective.

·         An elective section has been added to the Machine Operations - Hauler strand to allow the machine operators to achieve standards relevant to their own forestry contexts.

·         Unit 1266, Manage a cable harvesting operation has been added to the Head Breaker Out - Cable Harvesting strand elective section.  This is in response to feedback that the Head Breaker Out is often responsible for managing a cable harvesting operation.

·         An Inventory strand has been added.  This strand recognises skills associated with establishing and measuring different types of forest inventory.

 

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 31 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 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

1255

24569, 24570

2722

20613

2723

20597

2724

20599

 

It is not intended that any existing candidate are 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

 

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