This qualification was co-developed by IT Professionals New Zealand (ITPNZ) and NZQA National Qualifications Services (NQS).

The purpose of this stranded qualification is to provide Aotearoa New Zealand with people who have attained IT knowledge and specialist professional and technical skills in networking or systems administration and current ways of working including Agile and DevOps.

Graduates of this stranded qualification will be capable of providing IT infrastructure advice and support relating to networking or systems administration using industry-relevant skills and knowledge.

Graduates will be capable of operating within the applicable professional standards and practice, both independently and as part of a team, and may demonstrate self-management and some responsibility for the performance of others. This will enable them to contribute to society, supporting digital proficiency and capability in a range of community and voluntary areas, and to proceed to further study.

Graduates of this qualification will be able to:

- Plan and use services, technologies and tools to automate the deployment and management of devices, applications and infrastructure by way of scripts to automate standard system procedures.
- Implement, configure and deploy a range of services in the cloud, including infrastructure as code, billing and cost management, to meet organisational requirements.
- Investigate and implement advanced network security solutions to protect and secure assets, troubleshoot and mitigate threats and attacks, and to meet best practice and organisational requirements.
- Apply IT service management frameworks, change management processes and procedures to ensure licensing and compliance with organisational requirements, as well as concepts related to business continuity in an IT context.
- Apply professional and ethical practices with integrity to meet the industry wide expectations of a responsible IT professional, in accordance with legal, regulatory and organisational requirements.
- Apply communication, information design, teamwork, personal, and interpersonal skills, to enhance working effectiveness, efficiency, and quality outcomes in a variety of situations in an organisational environment.
- Apply project management tools and techniques, critical thinking, enterprise skills and knowledge of project planning, management and control, to analyse and solve problems for an IT related project.

Graduates of the Networking strand will also be able to:
- Configure, secure, manage and troubleshoot advanced wireless networks, including provisioning through autonomous, controller-based, and as a service, to meet organisational requirements.
- Apply advanced routing and switching configurations, internet protocols IPv4 and IPv6, and troubleshooting techniques to implement, secure, monitor, and maintain networks.

Graduates of the Systems Administration strand will also be able to:
- Implement and monitor a range of resilient and secure systems and network services, including identity management and directory services, to meet organisational requirements.
- Implement a server-based virtualisation infrastructure to support cost-effective solutions and meet organisational requirements.

This qualification provides an education pathway from the New Zealand Diploma in Information Technology Technical Support (Level 5) [Ref: 2596].

This qualification provides a pathway to further specialisation through industry-specific training, for example, IT Security, or to other IT-related qualifications such as the New Zealand Diploma in Cybersecurity (Level 6) [Ref: 3837].

Further education pathways include higher level IT-related qualifications, and industry certifications.

None.