It is the voice of our industry and sector partners that shapes and decides the future of skills training across vocational education.
We engage and collaborate with industry to inform our work, and to address skills gaps in the workforce now and into the future.
We broaden our engagement reach ensuring our work is led by a range of voices across our sectors. There are significant workforce shortages across all our sectors and a more flexible, relevant and responsive vocational education system is needed.
If there are skills gaps in your workforce, or if you have staff that have skills that have not been formally recognised, get in touch with our engagement team – we will work to ensure that the required qualifications are available.
One of our key functions as a workforce development council is to work with NZQA to ensure qualifications relevant to the workforce are available on the National Framework.
We conduct reviews of existing qualifications to ensure they’re relevant and meet the needs of our sectors.
If you know of qualifications for your sector or workforce that are not fit for purpose, or if there are gaps in study pathways that prevent the development of your staff or workforce, contact our team.
We work to build a strong partnership with Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Māori are key strategic players in regional social, environmental, and economic development in Aotearoa. Māori make up a growing share of our workforce – with the Māori economy now worth close to $70 billion and growing. We are here to support Māori by developing the skills standards, micro-credentials and qualifications needed to realise aspirations for Māori businesses, hāpori and iwi.
Our engagement team are available to support – contact us directly.
Toitū te Waiora supported Odyssey House in developing and gaining approval for the first Peer Support in Addictions micro-credential in the country.
Under this micro-credential, people with lived experience of addictions can now obtain a micro-credential that recognises those experiences and skills. Peer support workers are a vital part of mental health and addiction services, providing a unique level of support and understanding, and growing the peer support workforce is a widely identified priority.
Mental Health and Addictions Lead Nicki Lishman and Qualification Systems Manager Dr James Dearnley from Toitū te Waiora worked alongside Odyssey House to provide support in navigating the system, offer advice and feedback, and have the qualification recognised by NZQA.
Peer Support 101 has now been delivered to around 200 people across Aotearoa, in both mental health and addictions settings, in Kaupapa Māori services, housing and other settings. The feedback has been extremely positive, and demand continues to grow.
Not only does this micro-credential give employers confidence in their peer support staff, but it also gives the workers themselves the backing and certainty that they are on the right track.
