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.
With around six more weeks until Toitū te Waiora is disestablished, there has still been much to do. I’m proud of our kaimahi who have continued to work tirelessly under the challenging circumstances.
So much of our work has relied on strong partnerships and relationships because we certainly haven’t been able to do it alone. We’re delighted to be attending a special event at Parliament next week hosted by Health Minister Hon Simeon Brown and Stroke Aotearoa New Zealand to celebrate the development of a suite of skill standards, micro-credentials, and the New Zealand Certificate in Long-Term Health Conditions (Level 3).
Toitū te Waiora developed these in collaboration with Stroke Aotearoa New Zealand, Diabetes New Zealand, Arthritis New Zealand Matemōpōpōna Aotearoa, and the Heart Foundation, with support from the Open Polytechnic. We’re very proud of the work we have done with our partners to improve the care and support given to people living with long-term conditions.
We’re also grateful to our members of the early childhood education and social services National Industry Advisory Groups for their contributions this year, you can read more below.
Our relationship with the Māori Qualifications Service (MQS) at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has been invaluable over the past year and we’ve been able to collaborate on important mahi, which you read more about below.
It’s our hope that these relationships will be able to form again in the new Health & Community Industry Skills Board (ISB) from 1 January 2026 and important programmes of work like these will continue.
If you would like more information on the ISB establishment, the TEC website is your best source of information.
Ngā mihi Sean McKinley Chief Executive
The early childhood education and social services NIAGs have had their final close out hui last week which was an opportunity to reflect on the valuable contributions made and acknowledge the collective expertise and commitment of members.
Read more on our website.
Toitu te Waiora has acknowledged the mahi of MQS for the integral part they played recently in reviewing our first of their kind cultural capability skill standards within the Health & Wellbeing skill standard development project. Read more here.
Since Toitū te Waiora was established, we’ve made huge progress and our latest Annual Plan shows just how much. Since inception we have developed 109 new skill standards, listed 12 micro-credentials, and improved our quality assurance processing times significantly. Read more about our achievements in 2024/25 on our website.
We’ve just published our Occupation Snapshot, which follows the publication of our Qualification Snapshot and Industry Snapshot last month. The Occupation Snapshot provides a high-level overview of industry workforces and includes things like basic demographics, most common occupations, work patterns and skills that are in demand. Check it out on our website.
We’re pleased to announce NZQA has approved nine new skill standards to align with the New Zealand Certificates in Prisoner Management (Levels 3, 4 and 5).
A need for these new skill standards was identified in 2023 following qualification reviews. Toitū te Waiora worked in consultation with the Department of Corrections, Serco, Te Pūkenga, the Public Service Association and the Corrections Association of New Zealand to review the existing unit standards and develop the new skill standards.
Four skill standards and two micro-credentials which will support frontline workers to improve how they understand and safely respond to risk and enable safety and wellbeing have been submitted to NZQA for approval. They have been developed in collaboration with the Centre for Family Violence and Sexual Violence Prevention, and align with the Family Violence Risk and Safety Practice Framework.
