In Aotearoa New Zealand we have several qualifications that were specifically developed to help professionalise the adult literacy and numeracy education sector in New Zealand. Three of these are:
- National Certificate in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education (Vocational/Workplace) – NCALNE (Voc)
- National Certificate in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education (Educator) – NCALNE (Ed)
- National Diploma in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education – (NDipALNE)
These qualifications are unique in the world and the first one on the list is particularly interesting because it is designed for people who are trades trainers and vocational tutors in particular – people who don’t typically think of themselves as literacy and numeracy experts.
These qualifications were written specifically for the New Zealand training environment and accordingly have sections that relate to our history and culture as a country. This includes historical initiatives relating to education, but also in relation to Te Ao Maori – the world of Maori education.
This content also helps to give these national qualifications a distinctly Kiwi flavour. The content from Matauranga Maori is appropriate and goes a long way to opening the eyes of many educators (myself included) to different ways of thinking about education and training. This is critical when it’s obvious that the so-called mainstream or traditional academic ways of doing things aren’t serving the interests of all of the learners.
It’s also entirely appropriate when it comes to working with trades and vocational training which lends itself to hands on approaches.
What I’m interested in now is the following question:
- Given that these qualifications have a significant amount of New Zealand content baked into them, how could they be exported as valid international education opportunities?
The NCALNE (Voc) in particular is a short, intensive and largely non academic way of orientation tutors and other interested people to the world of literacy and numeracy, and embedded literacy and numeracy in particular.
In many ways, this particular qualification is the perfect vehicle for organisations, governments, perhaps even countries to transmit what they see as their national infrastructure for literacy and numeracy.
What I want to do is design a parallel set of outcomes, where appropriate, for the three qualifications that would allow them to retain their structure, acknowledge their original context, but allow others working in international and other multicultural settings to benefit from the training, experience, knowledge, and credentials that go with the qualifications.
Any thoughts on how I could do this? Let me know in the comments…
