We’re excited to bring you the latest updates, insights, and stories from our journey towards building a skilled, and qualified workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand, across the health, education, community and social sectors. Thank you for being a part of our workforce community. Each edition will keep you informed about our programmes, initiatives, and events, as well as share resources to help you either as a provider or a person interested in the work we do.
As you’re likely aware, all Workforce Development Councils (WDCs), including Toitū te Waiora will be disestablished at the end of this year, as part of the Government’s reform of the vocational and education training (VET) system. This began with public consultation during August and September last year.
The Government has signalled that Industry Skills Boards (ISBs) will replace WDCs from 1 January 2026. We have now focused our workplan to meet the Tertiary Education Commission’s (TEC’s) priorities for WDCs until the 31st of December 2025, which includes qualification development, standard setting, quality assurance and moderation, and endorsement of programmes.
On Friday, the Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds made an announcement on how the work-based learning model will look from 1 January. An industry-led independent work-based learning model will be introduced, which will see vocational education and training providers, including private providers, polytechs and Wānanga managing all aspects of an apprenticeship and traineeship in the future.
ISBs will ensure qualifications needed by employers across the country are available to all providers and will quality assure programmes developed by individual providers to ensure they’re delivering the skills an industry need.
Today TEC has commenced consultation on the number and coverage of ISBs. The proposals also include some sectors where standards setting is proposed to transition to NZQA. The consultation document can be found here.
I encourage you to attend one of TEC’s information webinars on these announcements tonight or tomorrow morning.
TEC is also inviting industries to nominate representatives to help establish the ISBs, which will each have three members from industry. Establishment Advisory Groups (EAGs) will be responsible for ensuring each ISB can successfully stand up on day one.
The role of the EAGs is focused on governance rather than industry advocacy. Candidates will need strong governance and change management skills, an industry background and an understanding of education and training.
Further information on the EAGs and the nomination process can be found here.
Meanwhile we have recently implemented an organisational restructure to prioritise our resourcing towards the core functions of ISBs, ensuring we can stay financially viable until December without any further government funding.
We remain fully committed to fulfilling our existing mandate and responsibilities. Our priority is to maintain the quality and consistency of our qualifications work programme for our providers and stakeholders.
We are not starting any new qualifications projects from now on. We continue to wait for more guidance from TEC as to whether further changes need to be made to our qualifications programme of work.
As we receive new information that affects our operations or qualification development that is relevant to you, we will provide an update you as soon as we are able.
Toitū te Waiora recently hosted its first kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) hui with the newly-established Social Services and Early Childhood Education NIAGs.
The dynamic groups represent a collection of voices from across both sectors and are dedicated to advocating for sector needs, influencing the strategic direction of qualification reviews, and addressing workforce trends and challenges.
Toitū te Waiora has just wrapped up a series of successful workshops and webinars in Auckland and Wellington, hearing from disabled people, whānau, people with lived experience, disability organisations, support providers, and training organisations – all bringing rich insights that will help shape what’s next.
Once the group is confirmed, we’ll begin the co-development of the new Level 3 and 4 qualifications and supporting skill standards. Drafts are expected by mid-2025, with new qualifications to be approved before the end of the year. It has been great to connect kanohi ki te kanohi and online with such a passionate and engaged sector.
Initially, Toitū te Waiora had planned to revisit this project in early 2025 after considering the next steps in the last quarter of 2024. However, after careful review of the project’s complexity and the substantial resources required, we have made the decision to put the initiative back to its original scheduled review date of 2026, rather than start it prior as previously intended.
The OHS Skill Standards span across all WDCs, and we have determined that it is not feasible to proceed at this time given the current VET reforms.
Toitū te Waiora remains committed to ensuring that the final skill standards meet industry needs to the highest standard. We will continue to assess the timing and resources required and look forward to engaging with stakeholders in due course.
We apologise for any inconvenience this delay may cause and appreciate your ongoing support of this crucial initiative.
Toitū te Waiora appreciates the time it took people to provide valuable feedback on the recent CMR consultation. More than 40% of respondents indicated they were satisfied with the draft CMR and did not propose any changes. The majority of the feedback came from the emergency services sector, followed by the adult education sector.
In the coming weeks we will be working through 35 individual pieces of feedback from 32 organisations and will then provide an in-depth update and response to comments on our website.
Toitū te Waiora is consulting on a proposed micro-credential to replace several NZQA-approved Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) training schemes for New Zealand’s emergency management sector with a single, cohesive micro-credential aligned with current industry standards and training requirements. The aim is to consolidate the schemes into one standardised micro-credential to set a national standard of consistent CIMS training. There is still time to have your say. We are seeking feedback until 9 May. You can find out more on our website.
Toitū te Waiora would like to thank everyone who has volunteered their time to contribute to this review, and most recently, provided feedback on the proposed skill standards socialised on our website. Phase one of the review is nearing completion, which involved:
View Table 1: Unit standards to be expired (D) or replaced and expired (C).
View Table 2: Newly developed skill standards and skill standards developed to replace category C unit standards.
Consultation is nearing completion on the Rope Rescue unit standards and leadership standards used by the New Zealand Response Teams which will be replaced with skill standards.
Toitū te Waiora, in collaboration with Te Puna Aonui, is developing new level 3 and 4 skill standards in Family Violence and Sexual Violence, aligned with the Family Violence Entry to Expert (E2E) Capability Framework.
These skill standards will provide the foundation for a structured qualification pathway, starting with a micro-credential which will support frontline workers to improve how they recognise and safely respond to risk and enable safety and wellbeing.
Toitū te Waiora has developed six draft skill standards to align with programmes leading to the New Zealand Certificate in Prisoner Management (Level 3) [Ref: 2658 Version 3]. These standards have been developed in consultation with the sector and union to ensure they align with current and future demands while incorporating the latest frameworks and research around prisoner management. These skill standards will be replacing the current unit standards, which are set to expire on 31st December 2027.
Toitū te Waiora is excited to announce that our first-ever Mental Health First Aid (Level 3) skill standard has been approved by NZQA and can now be used across a range of programmes, to support the development of confident and capable first response to mental distress in real-world settings. Read more on our website.
Following a request, Toitū te Waiora is proposing minor changes to unit standard 27081 Describe communication and correct us of de-escalation approaches in mental health and addiction services (Level 4, 6 credits, version 4).
Read more about the changes here.
7 April: NZ Doctor article on Toitū te Waiora long term health conditions skill standards.
