Civil Defence and Emergency Management NZQA Product Review

Update – Civil Defence and Emergency Management NZQA Product Review 

Toitū te Waiora is undertaking public consultation on draft skill standards in Emergency Management as part of the Civil Defence Emergency Management review. These standards were developed in consultation with subject matter experts from across the industry to meet the needs of the sector and update content to align with current best practice.

The tables below list the new skill standards developed, and where relevant the unit standards that will expire without replacement due to coverage across the new skill standards.

View the skill standard table here 

Feedback

• Is there anything you would like to see edited, added or removed from the draft skill standards? If so please, make suggestion for edit or addition.
• Do you have any concerns about the expiry of the unit standards listed?
• Do you have any further feedback?

We would appreciate feedback on the proposed skill standards by 5pm Friday 23 May. Please submit any feedback via the email address [email protected] 

Public Consultation: Proposed Civil Defence Emergency Management Skill Standards – Toitū te Waiora

Summary of Application to NZQA – Civil Defence Emergency Management Unit Standards to be Expired (D), or Replaced and Expired (C) 

• All category C and D unit standards in this set will be set to expire, with the last date of assessment on 31 December 2027.  

• Category D unit standards have not been used in the last five years. There is always an opportunity for redeveloping these as skill standards in the future if there is a need. 

• Category C unit standards are being replaced with skill standards. See Table 2 for further detail on replacement skill standards. 

• Unit standards with ‘Hold’ status in the Workplace Emergency Risk Management domain will be reviewed in 2026. 

• Rope Rescue unit standards and leadership standards used by the New Zealand Response Teams (with ‘To be updated’ status) will be replaced with skill standards in due course – consultation is currently underway.  

• Note: Although signalled as part of the CDEM review in initial communications, standards in the Emergency Communications and Workplace Fire and Emergency Response domains will be reviewed separately.  

 Read

The review so far. 

Phase One of the review is nearing completion, which involved:  

• Consulting with the Civil Defence Emergency Management 

• Identifying key CDEM roles that require training, 

• Identifying the skills required for these roles, and 
• Creating skill standards aligned to these roles. These skill standards will replace the existing suite of unit standards.

​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.

Who we’ve collaborated with 

We thank all the subject specialists from the following groups who gave up their valuable time to make sure that these skill standards will consistently meet the needs of a complex sector: 

• NEMA 

• Civil Defence Emergency Management groups  

• City, District and Regional Council staff 

• LandSAR New Zealand 

• Emergency Training Management Centre 

• Ministry of Social Development 

• Te Whatu Ora 

• Fire Rescue and First Response Limited 

• C4 Group LTD 

• Ngai Tahu 

• Ministry for Primary Industries 

• And more