Well, it’s taken a while… but it’s finally official. Here’s what you need to know:
- We have a new suite of unit standards for adult literacy and numeracy education.
- These new standards are for the new qualifications including the New Zealand Certificate in Adult Literacy & Numeracy Education (Vocational/Workplace).
- The old standards are now expiring, but are still fit for purpose for assessment until 31 December 2018. So there is roughly a two-year transition period.
- The content for Unit Standard 21204 has been broken up.
- The new NZCALNE (Voc) will eventually replace the current NCALNE (Voc), just like the current NCALNE (Voc) replaced the original NCALE (Voc).
In terms of the new NZCALNE (Voc), there are four new standards. These are:
- Unit 29622. Describe adult literacy and numeracy education in Aotearoa New Zealand. 5 credits
- Unit 2962. Design strategies to embed adult literacy and numeracy in the delivery of a training or education programme. 10 credits
- Unit 29624. Plan and facilitate embedded adult literacy and numeracy skills development in a training or education programme. 15 credits
- Unit 2962. Use assessment to strengthen adult literacy and numeracy teaching and learning. 10 credits
A caution:
- These standards are not the roadmap to delivering the new qualification. But they do provide a clear guide to what content the new NZCALNE (Voc) should assess as part of programme delivery. It will be up to providers to determine what that delivery roadmap should look like.
The good news:
- As ALEC already has consent to assess the ALNE standards to level 6, we’ll automatically get this consent extended to the new standards.
- We submitted our course approval documentation to the NZQA months ago for delivery of the new qualification but it’s been in limbo land pending the release of these new standards. This is now underway again on the NZQA side and we’re waiting to hear on its status.
- I’ve worked on both the new qualification and the new standards as part of the subject expert group. This means any new content will incorporate the best of what ALEC has had to offer to date, as well as our most current thinking and knowledge about embedding literacy and numeracy into training.
The plan:
- Our plan is to begin delivering the new version of the qualification with the new standards as soon as we can. Hopefully, this will be by the start of the academic year in 2017. This will depend on how much longer the course approval process takes and then how quickly we can move to develop the new content required.
- We’ll keep you updated here on any progress.
Any questions? Please let me know.