We say Yes…! Here’s why

In their recent needs analysis, the NZQA estimated the number of people employed with teaching responsibilities in New Zealand as over 27,000. A significant number of these are working part time, are on temporary or casual contracts, and represent an older demographic as well.

Discounting university staff who are not likely to be interested, the NZQA needs analysis reports that pre-degree adult teaching qualifications may be relevant to around 16,000 teachers, learning facilitators, and assessors.

The NZQA data set indicates that 2570 learners graduated with NCALNE qualifications in the period 2009-2012. Nearly, 2,200 or around 85% of these outcomes were the NCALNE (Voc) option. If the estimate of 16,000 is correct, the all providers working together have only reached 16% of the market for either of the two NCALNE qualifications across the years 2009-2012.

There are two points here. One is that this doesn’t take into account the massive churn that happens across the tertiary sector in the lower levels. Another is that we don’t have any data on how many of these tutors are teaching at levels 1 and 2 versus levels 3 and above.

We also know that in 2014 there were at least 5,000 places available across New Zealand funded by Youth Guarantee (YG) training, but we don’t know how many were funded.

While it’s difficult to suggest exactly how small or large the market for NCALNE training is, it’s probably that there are still large numbers of tutors across the country that we need to reach with the NCALNE (Voc) qualification.