FIELD                 BUSINESS

 

Review of Public Sector Services qualification

 

National Certificate in Public Sector Services (Client/Customer Services) (Level 3) [Ref: 0659]

 

Learning State Limited has completed the review of the qualification listed above. 

 

Date new version published                                                             June 2011

 

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

 

Summary of review and consultation process

 

Member agencies identified a need to review the above qualification to align with the current competencies required for customer services representatives in the public sector.

 

Learning State consulted both nationally and regionally, covering a national office view and a regional office view of customer services.  An extensive email consultation list was compiled of industry stakeholder groups who use the customer services qualifications and other agencies with a service delivery focus. 

 

An industry stakeholder focus group meeting was held in Wellington.  This included large government agencies such as New Zealand Police, Department of Corrections, Inland Revenue, and Work and Income New Zealand among others.  In Auckland and Christchurch, workplace assessors and learning and development managers also took part in the industry stakeholder consultation. 

 

Key feedback from the industry stakeholder group is reflected in the changes to structure and content of the qualification.  Changes were also made so that the qualification would be relevant for both central and local government learners.

 

National Certificate in Public Sector Services (Client/Customer Services) (Level 3) [Ref: 0659]

 

Review category

B

See Key to Qualification Review Categories at the end of report

 

Changes to structure and content

·         total qualification credit requirements were reduced from 85 to 50 credits

·         the Customer Service Elective set was renamed the Client/Customer Service Elective set to better reflect the title of the qualification

·         a new Public Sector Knowledge Elective set was added to the qualification

·         standards 17123 and 19895 from the Compulsory set were removed from the qualification

·         two elective sets were removed the qualification: the Quality Management Elective set and the Business Administration Elective set

·         credit requirements for the Communication Skills Elective set were reduced from a minimum of 22 credits to a minimum of 15 credits

·         credit requirements for Set A of the Communication Skills Elective set were decreased and credit requirements for Set B of the same elective set were increased from a minimum of 2 credits to a minimum of 3 credits

·         standards 377, 11826, and 11827 from the Customer Service Elective set were removed from the qualification

·         standard 62 is no longer listed in the Customer Service Elective set, but can be used to  meet the requirements of the balance set of the qualification

·         both Set A and Set B in the Communication Skills Elective set specify classifications rather than standards.

 

Transition

 

People currently enrolled in programmes or courses leading to the award of version 4 of this qualification may complete the requirements of that version or transfer their results to version 5 of the qualification. 

 

The last date for assessments to take place for versions 2 and 3 of this qualification is December 2013.  The last date for assessments to take place for version 4 of this qualification is December 2014.

 

For the purposes of this qualification, people who have gained credit for the following higher-level standard are exempt from the requirement to gain credit for following standard - see table below.

 

Credit for	Exempt from
14943	14950

 

It is not intended that any existing candidate be disadvantaged by these transition arrangements.  However, any candidate who feels they have been disadvantaged should contact Learning State Limited at the address below:

 

Learning State Limited

PO Box 25293

Panama Street

Wellington 6146

 

Telephone       04 495 1410

Email                qualifications@learningstate.govt.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