CATE—Career and Transition Education Association eNewsletter

Kia ora everyone,

This Kaiārahi newsletter is focused on the National Careers System Strategy launched last week. This is the first step in working towards a more cohesive career system. To help you understand this better, I have tried to unpack the focus areas and highlight the key action points that relate to the work we do.

The online Gateway Conference is next Tuesday, this is an opportunity to talk with TEC, and understand the progress with the WDC's and our obligations in health and safety. Members will have a chance to connect with Gateway Coordinators at different schools and talk with them about their systems and programmes as well as hear from a number of industry providers.

Did you know our funding for Gateway has increased? Details of the funding changes are below.

Thank you to those who have completed the survey about the value of the Kaiārahi role. We are seeking feedback to support our funding application, more information below.

Ngā mihi,
Leigh

Career System Strategy
Te Rautaki Pūnaha Aramahi ā-Motu | The National Careers System Strategy was released last Monday and Craig Dyason, President of CATE NZ was in attendance at the release with Minister Tineti and Cherie Perrow from CDANZ and representatives from the TEC and the different ministries.

The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is the lead government agency responsible for careers in Aotearoa New Zealand and, as kaitiaki of the Strategy, is responsible for leading and coordinating its implementation. The TEC collaborated with other government agencies, the careers workforce, education providers, business, Māori and other community representatives, and more than 700 stakeholders to develop the Strategy.

The National Career Systems Strategy sets the direction for the careers system in Aotearoa New Zealand and the future state we want to move towards. It outlines the vision, strategic priorities and actions that collectively support the strengthening and futureproofing of NZ’s careers system. This Strategy is the ‘guiding star’ for the careers system and is designed to provide advice, support, and guidance for anyone at any stage of their career.

The National Career Systems Strategy is designed to empower people to understand themselves and their career aspirations, so they can navigate career opportunities throughout all of life’s stages.

Key to us working in schools are the following statements—

Develop options to increase effective careers support for secondary students. Work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop options for the delivery of careers services in secondary schools, for Ministerial consideration. This would include exploring a broad range of options including enhancing the current system, using external providers, and providing flexibility to schools to meet their specific needs.
Deliver learning opportunities, frameworks and resources to grow the capability of frontline careers service providers – prioritising those supporting Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people, youth and other priority groups.

a. Develop learning opportunities, such as training courses and micro-credentials, to help grow the capability of the careers workforce.

b. Expand the Network of Expertise funding for careers, to support schools to use available guidelines and frameworks to design and deliver high-quality career development programmes.

c. Build and share frameworks and resources that reflect an Aotearoa New Zealand perspective, careers theory and research, Māori and Pacific peoples’ insights and world views, with frontline agencies, education providers, employers and other careers support providers.

d. Support researchers to develop careers knowledge specific to Aotearoa New Zealand, including mātauranga Māori, and use Tahatū to communicate it along with relevant international research findings.

Here is the supporting document—Te Rautaki Pūnaha Aramahi ā‐Motu National Careers System Strategy Supporting Information which outlines on page 12 what they have heard from CATE around the barriers to delivering effective career education, These include competing school management priorities, lack of tagged funding, resourcing is insufficient, ratio careers staff to students too high, career education is not starting early enough and minimal support is available to schools.

The National Executive is meeting with TEC in Wellington on the 15th of September to better understand our role in the National Career System Strategy and the action plan that will follow.

Here is an opportunity to work on this strategy—Vacancy: Principal Advisor—Careers

2024 Funding for the Kaiārahi role under the Network of Expertise
The Network of Expertise contract that funds the Kaiārahi role ends on 31st December 2023. The funding is now being taken over by the procurement arm of the Government, meaning that NEX funding is also part of the government research, and project grants. Currently, there is no guarantee that further funding will be available, and if there is funding we are uncertain as to how much we will receive.

To support this tender, we need to have data to outline the value of the Kaiārahi role to CATE members. Please take the time to complete the following survey to ensure the continuation of this role.

Thank you to those who have already completed the survey, we have had 175 responses but would love to have comments from all 913 members. Please note that any comments and feedback are specific to the role of Kaiārahi.

Please complete the form on this link before Friday 15th September.