Merran Davis, Deputy Chief Executive, Transformation & Transition at Te Pūkenga, has shared the following message to all staff.
Do you want to play a part in shaping the future of vocational education and training?
This year, Te Pūkenga will be working hard to co-design, engage on and confirm our proposed future operating model. The operating model will outline how Te Pūkenga will transform teaching and learning and create a cohesive sustainable vocational education system that helps improve wellbeing for all New Zealanders and supports a growing economy that works for everyone.
As New Zealand’s largest tertiary education provider, Te Pūkenga will ultimately have the national and regional reach to become a long-term skills training partner for firms and industries, enabling ākonga/learners to move between workplaces and other educational offerings and locations as their needs change. It will be a system that puts ākonga right at the centre.
Vocational education is changing in New Zealand. It’s a journey that will take time, and you’ve got the opportunity to play a part in helping shape that change.
We’ve already created a small co-design team, of about 20 people, made up of ākonga/learners, people who were integrally involved in the development of Te Pūkenga, employers, and a few independent thinkers. The co-design team will have strong Māori participation. You can read more about the co-design process here.
Sitting around the co-design team, to support their ideation process, will be a number of reference groups. Reference groups will be the testers and reflectors for the co-design team. They will help by providing thoughts, ideas and feedback. There will be a continual flow of ideas and feedback between the co-design team and the reference groups.
Do you want to be part of a reference group?
We need to create a whole bunch of reference groups that can bring their specialist skills and knowledge to the co-design process. Your lens will be vital.
Mahi for the reference groups will start in February 2021, and much of it will be done virtually on a dedicated online engagement platform. The co-design team and the reference groups will do most of their work from February through until about May 2021.
You’ll be able to do most of the work (reading, engaging in community discussions, providing ideas, and giving feedback to design proposals) in a time slot that suits you best – so you should be able to participate around your other day to day activities. Reference groups will allow you to quickly see what others in your group are thinking. You can always participate as an individual as well, offering your specialist feedback during the design process.
It might require up to a couple of hours per week in time depending on how many reference groups you participate in.
Participating in reference groups is voluntary and we can’t offer any koha for your mahi. But you’ll certainly get the chance to do something different, connect with and meet a range of other people, and play an important part in shaping the future.
If I don’t participate in a reference group, how will I know what’s going on?
Don’t worry – there will be lots and lots of people who won’t be able to participate in a reference group. Reference group participants will need to commit some time to their task, and we know not everyone will be able to do that.
We will be working hard to ensure our website is updated regularly during the co-design phase of the project so that those who are not in a reference group know what’s going on, how the mahi is progressing, and know when they will be able to participate in the next phase of the project – a national engagement.
How do I join?
This message is a heads-up to let you know you’ll have the chance to join one or more reference groups within the next couple of weeks, and gives you time to think about making a commitment to participate from February until May this year.
As soon as we have our online engagement tool up and running, we’ll be in touch again to let you know exactly what you need to do to join a reference group, what reference groups we’ll be creating, and what the next steps will be.
Interested? Please keep an eye out for more information in the next few weeks.