He mihi

We are now well into our mahi, and moving into Quarter Four moderation and quality assurance.

Tuesday 4 October saw the Ohu Mahi - Workforce Development Councils (WDC) celebrate one year since we were established. In this tāima (time) we have built our tīma (team) and our ways of working and developed and implemented food and fibre sector wide plans that support industry and stakeholders. Thanks to your support, we are continuing to implement our national quality assurance and moderation plan. Not a bad start, but plenty of mahi still to come.

In November the tīma will host a series of professional development workshops across the motu for Assessors and Teachers who deliver and assess food and fibre programmes and unit standards. This will be a great way for networking in your area and we expect participants to come away with new learnings.

I am very happy to say that our Quality Assurance tīma is complete, after welcoming into the whānau Jasmine Baker, Quality Assurance and Moderation Specialist, Kīngi Rakete-Tane, Poutiaki Te Ara Kounga Māori guiding us along on our mātauranga Māori journey, and Maraea Bottles, Quality Assurance Administrator.

We look forward to building our connections with you. I think it’s worth sharing Muka Tangata WDC key messages with you once again:

• As the WDC for People, Food and Fibre, we work on ways to enhance vocational education and training to meet industry needs.
• We honour the commitments made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and will attempt to ensure that their actions add value to this comment while ensuring that partnership and mātauranga Māori are at the centre of everything that they do.
• We engage with industry and providers, offer skills leadership and advice, work on qualifications, standards, and quality assurance, and we are keen to explore different ways of working to meet the needs of our sectors.
• Success for us is a vocational education system that works for learners and provides industries with strong workforces to support their sustainability and growth.
• We are looking to deliver a quality assurance framework for the food and fibre sector that incentives equitable outcomes for learners; provides industry stakeholders with confidence in workforce skills; and supports providers to succeed.

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi he toa takitini kē - Our success is a collaborative effort.

Ngā mihi nui  

Lester

Muka Tangata Quality Assurance Workshops

We are holding a series of professional development workshops across the motu for assessors and teachers who deliver and assess food and fibre unit standards.

These sessions will cover the role of our WDC has and provide professional development on assessments and answer any questions on programme endorsement and moderation. There are five planned for the North Island from Whangarei to Palmerston North, and three in the South Island (Christchurch, Nelson and Dunedin). Building on the success of these, more will be scheduled, and the content refined.

These workshops are now fully booked. Based on feedback on these initial sessions we will look to refine content and schedule additional dates.

Pānui – News

Whakawhanaungatanga - Building Relationships

We have been out and about for whakawhanaungatanga visits to providers and schools to learn how we can support them and answer questions. We get a tour of the facilities and get an understanding of their priorities in this changing vocational education landscape. We’ve conducted 22 site visits and have felt very welcomed and the feedback from providers has been extremely positive.

Rochelle Skudder during site visit to forestry operation in Whatatutu, Gisborne in August. 

Quality Assurance Staff Hui

Our team all gathered from around the motu at our Pōneke office for team building and professional development over two days. Some mahi was carried out in the moderation space. As most of us work remotely it is a fantastic time to connect face to face.

Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence

Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) bring together Workforce Development Councils, Te Pūkenga and other providers, industry experts, and leading researchers to grow excellent vocational education provision and share high-quality curriculum and programme design across the system.

The Vocational Excellence Framework has information for providers to 

• Guide project design
• Identify existing examples of excellence to promote
• Monitor the state of vocational education in the Food and Fibre sector

An overview of the document can be found here.

Programme Endorsements

Since 1 June 2022, WDCs now process Programme Endorsements for new or redesigned programmes (type 2 changes). This replaces the Programme Support process. Further information can be found on our website here. 

Moderation Calendar

Each quarter we focus on different industries. For Quarter Four, we will be looking at samples from Poultry and Pig, Seafood, Grape and Wine. The annual moderation plan can be found here.

The final date for moderation materials to be submitted for 2022 is Friday 2 December. The first day for submissions in 2023 will be 16 January.

Quarter Two by numbers

Post-assessment Moderation

A total of 189 learner samples were moderated.

Pre-assessment Moderation

100 individual pre-assessment moderation applications were received.

Consent to Assess

5 Consent to Assess applications received covering 12 individual unit standards.

Programme Endorsements (Commenced 1 June 2022)

18 applications endorsed.

Reminders

• All assessment resources need to be pre moderated and approved by Muka Tangata prior to use. There is no cost for this service and can be submitted to moderation@mukatangata.nz
• Timeframes – there is a 20-working day turnaround for any pre moderation, post moderation, consent to assess or programme endorsement application.
• Confidentiality - When you submit samples to Muka Tangata for moderation, please be assured that your intellectual property is treated confidentially. It is best practice to also advise the learners that their assessments may be submitted to Muka Tangata or NZQA for quality assurance purposes.
• The coversheet for pre moderation requests can be found here.
• The coversheet for post moderation requests can be found here.
• The Consent to Assess application form can be found here.
• Please use the moderation@mukatangata.nz email address if you have any questions or concerns. This email is checked often, and we will reply to your query as soon as we can.

Our Team