What have we done so far?
Work on the NZQF review has been informed by significant engagement with stakeholders, alongside Advisory and Expert Groups established to support this review. We have undertaken extensive engagement on the future of the NZQF over a number of years, which has allowed us to hear from a range of sector, technical, mātauranga Māori, and educational experts.
2017
From late 2017, NZQA convened a group of leaders from education, business, the community and relevant government agencies to provide feedback at a strategic level on how to ensure the NZQF is fit for the future. The Advisory Group provided input into the elements of the NZQF and contributed to the technical improvements across our consultations. The Advisory Group challenged us to make the NZQF more relevant and encouraged more engagement from end-users.
NZQA engaged with six end-user focus groups in 2018, including iwi, Pacific peoples, businesses, professional bodies, qualifications developers, and learners. We heard consistently that we needed to ensure the NZQCF:
- clarified learning pathways
- improved the transition from secondary school to tertiary study
- allowed for the recognition of a wider range of credentials to recognise learning required to meet the emerging needs of employers and communities, and
- enabled the recognition of relevant skills in qualifications.
2018 and 2019
Following feedback from consultations in 2018 and 2019, NZQA convened an Expert Technical Group to provide detailed technical advice on the proposed changes to the NZQF. The Expert Group included two international representatives, along with nominees or representatives from across the tertiary education sector, including mātauranga Māori expertise.
The Expert Group made recommendations and gave advice on how to make the NZQF easier to use and more relevant to stakeholders, along with early feedback and thinking on how mātauranga Māori could be reflected in level descriptors and the principles for qualification development.
2020-2022
Late in 2020, NZQA engaged with a wide range of stakeholders on simplifying the design of vocational qualifications to support the reform of vocational education. As part of that engagement we received clear feedback that mātauranga Māori should be more strongly reflected in qualifications and teaching, learning and assessment.
During 2021 and 2022, there was further extensive engagement on weaving te ao Māori through the NZQF and recognising mātauranga Māori as a knowledge system which can be included in qualifications and credentials.
Overall, there has been support for this, with some consistent caveats – in particular that significant capability development would be needed across all parts of the system to do this authentically, while respecting that the kaitiakitanga of mātauranga Māori is the domain of hapū, iwi and Māori.
On this page
Previous consultation
2018 consultation
The first consultation (December 2018) sought views and suggestions on four high level ideas to strengthen the relevance of the NZQF and the capabilities of graduates.
The four ideas were:
- to include a wider range of education products on a broader credentials framework to provide a single source of information, enhancing the portability of credentials and enabling users to make well-informed decisions.
to explicitly include four transferable competencies in the framework (critical thinking, communication, collaboration and citizenship). This is to ensure that graduates have the skills, competencies and capabilities required to engage in meaningful work throughout their lives. - to address a range of technical issues such as clarifying the relevance of level 7 diplomas and the international comparability of the level 8 Bachelor Honours degrees.
- to make the NZQF more accessible and easier to use. This included different ways of presenting the framework, which are less hierarchical then NZQF’s more linear schema. We also sought ideas on how the framework could
- be more representative of New Zealand’s bicultural heritage.
2019 consultation
The second consultation (July 2019) sought feedback on eight more detailed proposals. In this consultation, each of the technical issues identified in the first consultation were separately addressed.
Following consultation and consideration of the feedback from the second consultation, NZQA decided to:
- include micro-credentials on a New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework.
- explicitly embed critical thinking, communication and collaboration into the level descriptors. ‘Citizenship’ is an overarching aim rather than able to be developed within the level descriptors.
- explicitly include practical skills and contexts into the level descriptors. This supports the intent of the reform of vocational education, by making vocational pathways more visible and helps to address parity of esteem issues between academic and vocational pathways.
- strengthen the purpose of the current level 7 diploma, so that it provides a pathway for learners in vocational fields of study.
- ensure that the new framework better reflects the bicultural nature of New Zealand, through requiring all qualifications to be listed in te reo Māori as well as English.
- make the new framework easier to use and more relevant to all stakeholders by using a fan design and improving how qualifications are found on the NZQA website. This will be done at the design stage, once all the other decisions have been made.