FIELD                 AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES

 

Review of Forest Health Surveillance qualification

 

National Certificate in Forest Health Surveillance (Level 5) [Ref: 0909]

 

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

 

Replacement qualification

 

National Certificate in Forest Health Surveillance (Level 5) [Ref: 1589]

 

Date new versions published                                                          October 2010

 

The next qualification review is planned to take place during 2015.

 

Summary of review and consultation process

 

This review was prompted by a request from industry to the Biosecurity Sector Operating Committee which consists of representatives from Scion, providers, specialist health monitoring companies, MAF biosecurity and FITEC.  Industry considered that the existing qualification included skills and knowledge that were not related to forest health surveillance activities and that this was a major barrier to completion of the qualification.  Industry requested that the qualification be redesigned to ensure that the content was linked to the key set of skills and knowledge that forest company employees require to monitor forest health.

 

Existing unit standards within the qualification were reviewed to ensure they reflected latest industry practice for forest health surveillance.

 

A draft qualification was developed and endorsed by the Biosecurity Sector Operating Committee.

 

Main changes resulting from the review

 

This qualification has been designated as expiring and replaced by a new qualification.  The replacement qualification has a compulsory section with unit standards that are all directly related to forest health surveillance skills and knowledge.

 

National Certificate in Forest Health Surveillance (Level 5) [Ref: 0909]

National Certificate in Forest Health Surveillance (Level 5) [Ref: 1589]

 

Review category

C

See Key to Qualification Review Categories at the end of report

 

There are significant differences between the reviewed and replacement qualifications:

·      Total credits for the replacement qualification (55) are significantly less than the replaced qualification (130).

·      Standards 1123, 1124, 1126, 1131, 1135, 1138, 6916, 6917, 14666, 14667, and 17769 from the compulsory section of the replaced qualification were not included in the replacement qualification.

·      Standard 22894 was included in the compulsory section of the replacement qualification.

·      Standards 5700, 5705, 5874, 16819, 17976-17978, 18615, and 24556-24559 from the elective section of the replaced qualification were not included in the replacement qualification.

·      The replacement qualification does not include an elective section.

 

Transition

 

FITEC will work with the only provider involved in delivering this qualification to transfer all candidates currently enrolled in the National Certificate in Forest Health Surveillance (Level 5) [Ref: 0909] to the new replacement qualification.

 

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

 

Credit for	Exempt from
5872	22895
5875	22894

 

It is not intended that anyone is disadvantaged by this review.  However, anyone who considers that they have been disadvantaged can appeal to FITEC at the address below.

 

Forest Industries Training and Education Council (FITEC)

PO Box 137067

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