MINUTTES OF MEETING O
OF BCITO CARPENTTRY NATIO
ONAL ADV
VISORY GR
ROUP Held Tuesdayy, 5 May 201 5 9.00 am Kauri Room, Level 6 Conferen
nce Centre Present Ross Fau
ulkner David M
Mudge Rob Cun
nningham
Bob Monopoli Graham Burgess
Brian Dillon Richard Wilkinson
Jack Harrris Mark James Northerrn Region (Accting Chair) Wellingtton Region
Southerrn Region Certified
d Builders Asssociation Provider Representa
ative – Southh Island ative – Northh Island Provider Representa
Northerrn Region Fletcherr Constructio
on EPMU/B
BTU Representative In attendance Ruma Ka
araitiana
Chief Exxecutive, BCIT
TO Greg Du
urkin Group M
Manager, Sta
akeholder Enngagement Helen Hines‐Randalll Industryy Advocate Glenn Duncan Group M
Manager, Apprentice Tra ining Pauline Sutton Qualifications Mana
ager, BCITO Mark Diamond Senior P
Project Mana
ager, Qualificcations Team
m Mark W
Williams Insight &
& Innovation
n Manager (Ittem 7 only) Kate Hopkins Minute Secretary Apologiees Jon Haack Central South Island
d Region Peter Ro
Central North Island
obson d Region EPMU/B
Paul Joh
hnston BTU Whoo By
ON POINTS
ACTIO
Helen Hiines‐Randall to send an u
up‐to‐date B CITO organissational charrt HHR ASAP
A
to NAG m
members. Ruma Kaaraitiana to eensure that C
Carpentry NA
AG memberss are notified
d RK Ongoing
about th
he Apprenticee of the Yearr Competitioon.
Helen Hiines‐Randall to post the Ministry of W
Women’s Afffairs HHR ASAP
A
documen
nt regarding the employment of fem
males on the BCITO website. WELCOME A
AND APOLOG
GIES 1. Ross Faulkneer opened th
he meeting aand welcome
ed everyone.. Rob Cunninggham moved
d that the appologies be a
accepted wh
hich was secconded by Graham Burgess and
d carried. Glenn Duncan’’s apology fo
or lateness due to flight ddelays was also accepted. As it had beeen a year sin
nce the groupp last met introductions were made aaround the ttable. 1
2. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES Resolved That the Minutes of meeting held on 29 May 2014 be confirmed as a true and correct record. Moved: Bob Monopoli Seconded: Brian Dillon MATTERS ARISING  Regional Advisory Group Meetings: Rob Cunningham raised concerns around the lack of RAG meetings, and his comments were echoed around the table. Main points noted were: o A RAG meeting was held in June/July last year which primarily dealt with the new Carpentry Qualification and there have been none since. o This problem has been going on for around 5 years and it appears that there is no interest from the BCITO in holding RAG meetings. o The RAG meetings are meant to be a pre‐cursor to the NAG meeting for the purpose of bringing matters of regional interest to this table. o All members agreed that RAGs were the platform for feeding information back to the NAG. 3. Ruma Karaitiana responded with the following comments: o The round of Regional Advisory Group meetings held last year were deliberately structured around the new Carpentry qualification and the Review of Specialist Trades. o The BCITO is interested in regional engagement and is trying to manage quite a complex issue around the best way of bringing all stakeholders together. o The organisational change made at the end of the year was largely about how the BCITO engages with industry, which involves National Advisory Groups, Working Parties and Regional Advisory Groups. o The big difference with RAGs is that they involve cross‐sector industry representatives, whereas NAGs are trade specific. o Inside the newly formed Stakeholder Engagement Group are 4 Industry Advocates and each is responsible for 3‐4 trades. This is the first NAG meeting to take place under the new regime and the next objective is working out how to pull it all together in a regional sense to industry’s advantage. o Ruma conceded that in the past the BCITO was good at engaging with industry when there was something which it wanted to communicate but not so good when industry wanted to raise issues with the ITO, so there was a need for the organisation to reorient itself to industry’s needs. 
Rob Cunningham noted that there was an existing avenue for employers to liaise with their TAs but asked how the regional challenges brought to their attention were conveyed back to National Office. Ruma explained that regular meetings between TAs and their Area Managers resulted in information being fed back to the National Office team but he agreed that there needed to be a more formal engagement process at regional level. He stated that understanding regional variations was important for the BCITO’s own business point of view. Ultimately the Area Managers and Associate Area Managers will be responsible for running the Regional Advisory Groups with involvement from the Stakeholder Engagement Group. 2
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Dave Mudge noted that prior to 2008 Wellington used to have really good RAG meetings but it was very dependent on the Regional (now Area) Manager’s willingness and enthusiasm to hold them. Ruma noted that Area Managers’ and TAs’ main drivers were providing an excellent service to the employers and maintaining numbers of trainees and the biggest challenge was to make sure that they weren’t pushed too hard. Further discussion on this subject was covered in the Stakeholder Engagement agenda item. 4. 4.1 4.2 CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT Ruma Karaitiana’s report was received and he noted that much of the content dealt with the results for 2014 which was a very successful year for the BCITO. BCITO Performance:  Ruma noted that there were 5,500 Carpentry apprentices at the end of 2013, which grew to 7,000 by the end of 2014. This represented the fastest rate of growth which the BCITO had ever experienced. The total number of apprentices in training is now 9,700.  Brian Dillon asked whether the rate of growth in Specialist Trades was the same as Carpentry and Ruma responded that there wasn’t a standard pattern across all the trades. He noted that 981 people signed up in December which was a “monster” month, very much due to the closing off of the Reboot Scheme. Ruma commented that the only downside to the Reboot Scheme was the high level of discontinuance due to people taking the money on offer and then discontinuing their training. The scheme had attracted quite a few people who had lower‐level skills and attributes and they may find it difficult to gain the qualification.  Brian asked Ruma how confident he was about the screening of potential employers to ensure their suitability to train. Ruma explained that with every boom period in construction, there is an influx of new employers who want apprentices. He said there was a need to invest in more on‐site coaching of these employers, and was confident that the BCITO was better configured now to manage those challenges than in the past.  Ruma outlined the changing cohort shape which was hopefully returning to normal with ¼ of total trainees at the beginning and at the end of the qualification duration and the rest in the middle. He said the challenge was around the uneven shape across the country over the next few years and explained that Christchurch had started topping out in terms of total numbers, whereas it was almost impossible to forecast how many trainees were needed to meet the Auckland demand.  Ruma stated that, unlike recent years, it was nice not to be forecasting a loss with a small surplus in 2013 leading to a much more dramatic increase in revenue in 2014. He explained that the figure shown on the graph was somewhat inflated due to a timelag in the BCITO boosting its resources to meet industry demand, in the form of Training Advisers, training resources in the field, and increasing its regional presence with Associate Area Managers and satellite offices. Ruma also signalled that the BCITO would be making a significant investment in the digital learning environment in future years.  Ruma advised that 25% of the BCITO’s income was accrued from the fees which apprentices pay. Tertiary Education Commission: Ruma advised that the BCITO had not received any funding challenges from the TEC this year and they have been happy to front up with the funding 3
requested, as “construction” is deemed to be a high priority industry. The 2016‐18 Investment Planning Process is underway and there may be more of a funding challenge from 2016 onwards. In the meantime the ITO’s relationship with TEC is going well. 
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Overlapping Provision: Brian Dillon asked if the comments in Ruma’s report implied that the overlapping provision gave an unfair advantage to one party over another. He stated that, from an ITP perspective, competition will benefit the customer, which is the apprentice or the employer. Brian commented that most ITP apprentices were considered part‐time, which had a lot to do with their inability to access study allowances, and achieving the number of credits which need to be recorded in a calendar year. Brian noted that the criteria for full‐time and part‐time students was standard across the country with ITP apprentices being enroled as part‐time. Direct Funded Apprentices: Ruma explained that this meant employers could access the Industry Training Fund directly, and said there would be quite a few hundred trainees in engineering but wasn’t sure of the exact number. He noted that it had to be a large employer who would be able to deal with all the bureaucracy attached to this funding regime. 4.3 Glenn Duncan arrived during the following item. The Auckland Construction & Infrastructure Education & Training Alliance: Ruma gave some background to the structure of the Alliance and its strategic purpose of managing Auckland’s burgeoning construction industry growth for the foreseeable future from a group perspective rather than individual organisations trying to do it themselves. He specifically noted: o A mapping exercise has been carried out on the Auckland market and there is now a big picture of the demand in that region out to 2020 and a rough idea out to 2025. o They are now looking at what polytechnics and ITOs are offering, to see if they can achieve a match. o What they haven’t managed to crack is determining what might be done differently, and Ruma gave as an example the Waterview Tunnel. o The big target now is Auckland Airport which is a huge and long‐term development, and will require the Government to be flexible about difficult funding challenges. o Ruma commented on the Maori and Pasifika initiatives.  Jack Harris talked about his experience with Maori and Pacific Island trainees under the “He Toki ” scheme. Ruma commented that it was important to get the young people to a stage where they were “attractive” to the employer, and spoke about the challenges of bringing the students up to and past the entry level standard. The Passport used in Christchurch was a good way of identifying what each trainee could do.  Greg Durkin said there was something inherently broken if, after 10 years, the BCITO cannot get these young people into the industry, and some pretty hard questions needed to be asked. Is it the way the “product” has been developed for industry? Is it industry’s expectations? Do we have issues with what employers will and won’t accept? Ruma responded that this was what the Auckland Alliance was trying to determine and it was just a matter of doing things differently with a different result.  Glenn Duncan said some thought should be given to what the employer wants and present that to the trainee. Give them an understanding of how a business works. Ruma commented that one of the reasons they were focusing on Auckland Airport is that they included some social policy thinking and seeing the Airport Company as part of 4
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5. 5.1 the South Auckland community. Training there won’t be just about the construction phase but what happens afterwards. Ross Faulkner expressed surprise that Maori and Pasifika people couldn’t find work given the labour shortage in Auckland. Ruma advised that there were 40 employers looking for every one apprentice and didn’t think there was a simple answer. He said it was a complex problem which required a complex answer. Jack Harris spoke about a Pacific Island church being built and they were offered young Pacific Island workers but they were not interested. He wondered whether there needed to be social change on their part to give more support to their own people. Ruma agreed that the Pacific Island people don’t see construction as the first choice for a career. Greg Durkin noted that the Ministry of Social Development have been interested in getting people off the benefit and into employment, but not necessarily into long‐term employment and as a result there is quite a fast churn. He asked, how do you get people through the first two years? Even if it is only 6 months with an employer they tend to stick with the job. Glenn Duncan advised that there was a cohort going out to Maori Trades Training in July and he was hoping to get in front of those people soon. Unfortunately they come out of training in a group, not when an employer needs them. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT GROUP Greg Durkin outlined the structure of the group and its purpose, which was to create an environment which allows the BCITO to develop a dynamic communication pathway between itself and the industry in order to understand what industry is looking for, its needs, and what is on the horizon. Industry Advocacy:  Greg noted that prior to the merger the BCITO had coverage for 9 industries which had now grown to a complex combination of 14.  Initiatives currently being pursued by the team were noted in Greg’s report and he elaborated further: o A detailed audit was being undertaken, industry by industry, to see how the training environment was working. o There needs to be really good engagement at regional level with Area Managers, TAs and Skills Brokers, but if the communication stops there we are not getting the maximum value out of it. o This leads back to the work of Industry Advocates and in turn will feed through to Regional Advisory Groups.  Greg asked Dave Mudge about the successful RAGs which had been held in the past. o Dave said it involved all trades and they discussed all the issues:  what we could do in a region  what the BCITO were doing  what the associations were doing  Apprentice of the Year  Trade Training Day o Dave said it all seemed to have dropped off since the BCITO restructured. The new Area Manager stated he was not in favour of RAGs. Wellington had a meeting a couple of years ago and had good representation throughout the trades.  Greg noted his experience with RAG meetings in the last year and said only a few worked well. Post‐merger it had become very complicated and he wasn’t sure if it was 5
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possible to have 14 industries involved in a RAG. Dave Mudge said Wellington felt there was sufficient overlap between Carpentry and Specialist Trades for a combined meeting. He added that they used to involve the polytechnics in their RAG meetings. Graham Burgess said people needed to know that RAGs will be an ongoing thing. They were previously told that RAGs would be up and running again but that didn’t happen and people just drifted away. Greg asked how RAGs worked in other parts of New Zealand with multiple trades. o Jack Harris said it worked well in Christchurch but was focused on the Carpentry qualification. o Glenn said Auckland had difficulty in finding the right time slot for the meetings and discovered that breakfast meetings worked well. Out of 500 employers they got a maximum of 30 attending. Greg said the BCITO was trying to ensure good integration of stakeholder engagement at the regional level to find out what happens in a region that is specific to that region. The BCITO wants that intelligence and RAGs may be a useful mechanism for some industries in some areas. Greg emphasised that as far as maintaining two‐way communication New Zealand wide, it was vital that the BCITO and industry both do their bit. Richard Wilkinson felt that there would be more value in getting TAs to talk to employers, rather than getting all the employers together. Bob Monopoli said this actually happened in the Nelson/Tasman region and also involved Placemakers, ITM and Nelson Polytechnic. They meet with TAs every 2 months where they can air their gripes, and this information links back to the BCITO through the TA network. Plasterers, brickies, carpenters, and stoppers all attend. Jack Harris advised that Canterbury took a different view. The local Area Manager gives out a whole lot of statistical information and some people just glaze over. The employers want to talk about what is happening with their trainees and there are some gripes about money. Jack said it was great that the TAs are getting involved in the meeting and passing on information about what they are finding out in the field. Dave Mudge advised that that was how it worked in Wellington with the TAs talking, and the employers talking. There was input from an apprentice representative from Fletchers who were not part of that group and they learned what the trainees wanted to get out of their training. They also got the associations involved. Dave added that RAG meetings would be a good platform to push Apprentice of the Year. Ruma emphasised the importance of RAGs being tailored to the needs of a particular region in order to get the best engagement with the local community. He said there would be an element of commonality across the country in the regularity of meetings and people’s expectations. The dovetailing of RAG meetings with NAG meetings appears to be a priority to enable issues of concern, and questions which require an answer, to be elevated up to NAGs and if deemed necessary to BCITO Board level. Ruma noted that the fact that the BCITO is now properly “staffed‐up” will help immensely with industry engagement at a regional level. The number of Area Managers has been increased and Associate Area Managers have been placed in the smaller centres and they will take responsibility for industry liaison in their own part of the country. Helen Hines‐Randall said she wanted to know what was happening at regional level and would be setting up a system to enable Area staff to feed information back to her so that she can get an overview of what is going on throughout the country. A full stakeholder communication and marketing plan is also being drawn up, which could be text messages to employers and apprentices, to get the reach. Helen said she needed to know how many 6
5.2 5.3 people attended an event and the importance of NAG members feeding all that information back to her to enable her to deal with it. Jack Harris asked for a BCITO “flow‐chart” showing who is doing what. Action: Helen Hines‐Randall to send an up‐to‐date BCITO organisational chart to NAG members. Ruma advised that the Industry Advocates not only had responsibility for engaging with the industries under their particular coverage but also the supply chain. He noted that with many trades, supply chain relationships were extremely important and and some National Advisory Groups had significant representation from the supply chain. Providers also formed an important component on certain NAGs particularly with trades which have block courses or off job training. Rob Cunningham stated that because of their large geographical area, when a meeting is called some industry representatives come from far afield for a whole day meeting. The cost to them is time off work and transport to the meeting and Rob said he sometimes wondered what was actually achieved for the expense involved. Registered Master Builders and Certified Builders already held carpentry meetings in those areas and Rob suggested that, perhaps twice a year, a BCITO representative (TA or Area Manager) could attend these meetings. There could be a specific item on the agenda where he can get feedback on how trainees and staff are operating. Greg agreed that the intention always was that there would be a BCITO representative in the room when trade association meetings were being held. Insight and Innovation: BCITO conducts regular research from Stakeholders and Greg stated that it would be inappropriate for the BCITO to be gathering all this interesting information if it didn’t do something with it. He outlined the new position created to fulfil this objective and noted that Mark Williams would be joining the meeting later to present his report. Research: Greg outlined the two research projects which were currently underway. “Return on Investment in Training” was looking for the key factors which specifically increased value to enterprises through training. Greg said the BCITO wanted to have informed answers to questions which employers ask, eg “What’s in it for me and my company”? “What difference would training an apprentice make”? Greg addressed the issue of “rework” and was advised that it was brought about by a ratio of 90% human failure and 10% materials failure. He noted that industry spent a lot of time making sure they got the quality of materials right rather than making sure they had the right quality of humans working on the job. The research project on “The Impact of Mentoring Training on the Quality of Mentoring Engagement” was near completion and a report would be available by August. 5.4 Econometric Reporting and Demographic Modelling: Greg outlined the work which had been undertaken over the previous few months and noted the information contained in the tabled paper “Construction Update” which had been specifically prepared for the BCITO by Infometrics. It contained commentary to help people understand the statistics pertaining to the construction industry and would be refreshed five times a year. 7
5.5 6. 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Greg gave a slide presentation highlighting some of the more interesting statistics and advised that the software behind the information was a useful tool which would not only help the BCITO to understand what was happening within the industry but the information would also be useful to those in the industry with regard to current and forecasted trends. If NAG members wanted any further information on the Infometrics reporting they should contact Helen. Vocational Pathways: Greg advised that the Ministry of Education were still looking at how Vocational Pathways would work in practice within the secondary school system, and the BCITO had made it clear what it expected. Greg said he would update the industry as conclusions were reached. An explanation was given around the purpose of Vocational Pathways as a means of students gaining relevant standards whilst in school which they could use to enter the Construction Industry when they finished their education Brian Dillon advised that polytechnics were running Trade Academies with the same aim. Attention was focused on getting students to make a more informed choice about their education but at the end of the day all the students wanted was to get sufficient credits to gain their NCEA. INDUSTRY ADVOCATE REPORT Introduction: Helen Hines‐Randall outlined her background within the BCITO and her current role as Industry Advocate. Her overarching responsibility was to be a key relationship/account manager and to know what was going on across the whole sector. Helen noted that industry representatives still had access to the CEO, the Group Manager of Stakeholder Engagement and the Area Managers who will forward information through to her. As well, the TAs will have face‐to‐face relationships with trainees and employers. Activity to Date: Engagement to date had been with Certified Builders and Registered Master Builders, the CEO of Prefab NZ. Meetings were still to be held with other stakeholders including NASH and the New Zealand Institute of Builders. Communication with Industry: Helen referred to the Infometrics tool and noted that if anyone has specific requests they were welcome to contact her. In time, a communications/engagement plan will be developed so there is a phased approach to ensure that people are not hit with too much information at one time. Format of Future Meetings: Helen asked NAG representatives what shape and form they wanted future NAG meetings to be held.  Rob Cunningham said he found the meeting papers very interesting and worthwhile to him personally as they raised a lot of bullet points. He wondered whether there would be value in hearing about what was going on in other regions.  Brian Dillon suggested that some of the issues might be addressed through the Regional Advisory Groups and will filter back to the NAG that way.  Helen noted that this was a governance role, to bring information to the table and take information back to the associations, and asked if there was anything else which NAG members felt should be addressed at the meetings.  Ross Faulkner stated that industry definitely needed this kind of meeting to get information back to their members.  Rob said he would like 2 NAG meetings a year and some form of regional input. He felt that the TAs had enough to do, so perhaps the Regional Manager could attend a meeting to get feedback from the grass roots of the industry in that region.  Glenn asked if members would like a regional summary or highlights from an Apprentice Training perspective in each area which he could add to his report. 8
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7. Helen asked if members preferred to receive the papers in hard copy or in a digital form. The meeting agreed that they would prefer to continue receiving a hard copy. Dave Mudge asked if the papers could be circulated earlier as he had only received them two days before the meeting. Helen apologised for the tardiness in getting the papers out for this meeting and took on board Dave’s comments. Helen briefly outlined work she was doing with the other industry sectors under her coverage. Graham Burgess thought it was really worthwhile having an Industry Advocate and Helen listed areas where she would be able to supply information on what’s going on in the sector on a monthly basis. NAG members agreed that 2 meetings per year should be the minimum and Helen suggested that the next meeting would be scheduled for September or October 2015. Mark Williams joined the meeting for the next item. INSIGHT AND INNOVATION Mark Williams gave some background to the newly created position and the task of processing information coming out of various exit surveys. He noted the following: o Students are identifying they want more direction on what is coming up next. o Small Business Management training was high on the “want” list. o They want to gain knowledge about how to run a business rather than getting a certificate on the wall. o The BCITO will pilot a number of options to meet the needs within the sector. Some may be a one‐on‐one business mentoring model, small groups with a provider, or blended solutions. o Feedback was being sought from the carpentry sector on what areas of the business education sector were most needed, eg supervisory and first line management.  Dave Mudge asked how this would stack up against the Diploma in Building and whether the skills could be cross‐credited. Mark emphasised that the carpentry graduates were not interested in doing another full‐blown qualification. They simply wanted the knowledge and skills which would allow them to move into their own business. If a full qualification was offered the BCITO would need good completion rates in order to achieve funding. Helen talked about the two strands within the Diploma and noted they weren’t focused on small business management.  Mark stated that, in order to meet the need, the BCITO needed to know what the high priority areas were and asked NAG members to email him or provide feedback through Helen.  Ross Faulkner asked if Mark had spoken with Master Builders about the courses they are running at the moment. Mark said he had taken note of what was currently on offer and anticipated that there were a number of options out in the marketplace. The more information he could gather the better informed he would be when looking at what could be offered in terms of additional skills for graduate carpenters.  Dave Mudge advised that, in interviews with Apprentice of the Year entrants, most don’t have any idea what they will be doing in 5 years’ time. They don’t know what is on offer and this is what they want to see going forward.  Glenn Duncan said he supported this from a sustainability perspective in the industry, small businesses were going under because they haven’t carried out tax and accounting practices properly.  Ross Faulkner asked if the survey had asked how many people would take up a small business management course if it was available. Ruma pointed out that when people are canvassed in a survey they often respond with “best intentions” which are over‐
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stated compared with the actual, so the statistics would not be reliable. He suggested that you might get a different or the same answer from existing apprentices rather than exiting apprentices. Ruma noted that people wanted lots of little bits of knowledge which the BCITO was not set up to provide at the moment. 8. Mark concluded by saying the BCITO should maintain its marketing role rather than directly engaging with the students. He needed to determine what worked best regionally, nationally, in urban and rural areas, and what useful information will result from the pilot scheme, even if it is simply information on the human resources area. MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Andrew Robertson’s report was received and Ruma highlighted the following:  Brand Refresh: Ruma explained the staged roll‐out of the new brand without necessitating the elimination of the old brand from BCITO collateral.  New Web Page: This has just been launched and is completely optimised for mobile phone use, with the screen changing to suit whichever medium is being used.  “It’s Not” Recruitment Campaign: This campaign is aimed at 22‐30 year olds and designed for the digital world (Facebook and Twitter) with most of the activity taking place on the BCITO’s web page which has generated a lot of enquiries. Ruma talked about the “walking billboards”, the small amount of large billboard activity will increase, and the use of Phantom posters being pasted up around urban areas. This leads up to the “Got a Trade Week” which takes place 21‐28 August and will be a combined effort from all the ITOs.  Scholarships: o Employer Development Grants: 15 scholarships are offered a year and are always taken up. The recipients have to be employers of one of the BCITO apprentices to be eligible. Many decide to undertake Institute of Management courses, Business Mentoring etc. This is partly as a reward for loyal employers but also for sustainability purposes. o Outward Bound: 10 scholarships are offered to Specialist Trades apprentices each year. Carpentry are not included as an Outward Bound course is part of the Apprentice of the Year prize. o Gateway: 5 scholarships a year are offered for Gateway students moving into an apprenticeship.  Apprentice of the Year: Carpentry is the largest event but other AOY events are held for other trades within the coverage of the BCITO. Graham Burgess advised that last year NAG members were not notified about the Apprentice of the Year competition and no information was forwarded from the BCITO. Ruma said he would investigate and make sure this omission did not happen again. Action: Ruma Karaitiana to ensure that Carpentry NAG members are notified about the Apprentice of the Year Competition.  Build‐Ability: This was launched last week. It is a competition run in schools to stimulate students to consider construction as a career and driven by the Technology Teachers. 28 schools are participating this year which is a big jump from 8 in 2014. The challenge this year is to build a single‐storey outdoor hut which is portable and there has to be a customer. Master Painters and Dulux are providing paint to finish the huts. Each school’s progress must be published through a “blog”.  Carpentry Flyer: Ross Faulkner drew Ruma’s attention to the newly published Carpentry flyer and noted it used the term Builder instead of Carpenter. There was brief discussion 10
about what constituted a builder and whether this was an appropriate reference, although most people felt that young guys wanted to become a “builder” rather than just a “carpenter”. Ruma said he would review the wording and asked for confirmation from NAG members that their preference was for reference to a “carpenter” as opposed to a “builder”. Rob said the document could refer to both but a carpenter only became a builder when he had his own business. 9. 9.1 9.2 CARPENTRY QUALIFICATION REPORT Pauline Sutton highlighted the following points from the Standards Leadership Group report: Qualification Update:  NZQA have approved the New Zealand Certificate in Carpentry and registered it this month and it will appear on their website next month, which is really good news.  Because the documentation side of things has changed considerably at NZQA a copy of the certificate has been appended to the report together with an explanation of what it looks like.  However, the content that people in the industry are focused on is the specifications and these are published on the BCITO website. They provide guidance to people who develop programmes for the New Zealand Certificate in Carpentry, either the ITO or polytechnic sector. Particular attention has been paid to the wording inside the qualification document around the guidance for programme developers so that all programmes are underpinned by those specifications. In a nutshell, the specifications are the content of the New Zealand Certificate in Carpentry which very much reflects the skills and knowledge required of a well‐rounded carpenter. New Carpentry Package:  In previous years when the National Certificate was being reviewed you could roll over from one version to another. This is the first version of the new NZ Certificate so we have purposely selected this time to do more than just a bit of “spit and polish” to the resources which underpin the apprenticeship.  Mark Diamond is project managing the development of these resources. The components of the package are made up from a number of different tools which people in the training process use. Pauline noted all the elements of the Carpentry Package as depicted in the report.  The final enrolment date for the current National Certificate is 31 December 2016 and it is expected that early 2016 we will be rolling out the new package material and new NZ Certificate.  Mark Diamond referred to the Text Book+ which captured all the resources currently residing in the Box of Books and outlined the work he was undertaking to compile the Text Book. He noted that the aim was to offer text, illustrations and photos which will appeal to different learners. There will also be “How To” video clips to assist the learning process.  Pauline commented that some of the resources were being prepared with a view to the future digital strategy, including a guide to sourcing trusted third party resources for example. She said it was important to ensure that third party materials sourced electronically were up to NZ construction standards.  Pauline told NAG members not to be put off by the fact that it is being called a “Text Book”. It will be completely different from the Box of Books which was built on a module by module, unit standard by unit standard basis. The scope for the content has been derived entirely out of the skill sets inside the specifications and the team is confident that everything the apprentice needs to know will be contained within. 11
10. 10.1 Discussion:  Bob Monopoli expressed his thanks to Andrew Kear, Pauline Sutton and the SLG team in getting the new qualification approved.  Brian Dillon asked for an explanation around the two outcome statements (7 and 8) noted in the report. Pauline explained that these are capstone assessments – one about qualities and attributes and the other about commercial competence. They are not linked to a particular specification as they cut across all specifications and everything the apprentice does. Clarification was also given around the commentary about a graduate having the ability to supervise and pass on knowledge and skills.  Ross Faulkner asked when the Text Book was being rolled out. Pauline said the team were hopeful that it will be in the first quarter of 2016. They wanted to get the new qualification package (based on specifications) out as quickly as possible. She advised that Mark Diamond had been managing this process exceptionally well and was undertaking the mammoth task like a military operation. It was hoped to co‐ordinate the roll out of the Text Book around the BCITO’s full staff conference at the beginning of next year where there will be opportunities to deliver large amounts of information in a single hit.  Ross asked when the ideal cut off point would be from the existing qualification to the new one if he was hiring another apprentice. Pauline explained that the BCITO will continue to sign up apprentices into the existing qualification and people should not wait for the new version to be rolled out. Because both versions of the qualification reflect the skills and knowledge of a well‐rounded, commercially competent carpenter, you could say that the qualification hasn’t really changed. All the skill‐sets are effectively the same, so if you wanted to sign someone up in July then there would be no point in waiting. The final cut off point for people to gain the existing qualification is 4 years from 31 December 2016. Pauline assured the NAG that a transition process will be put in place for people who wish to transfer from the current National Certificate to the new New Zealand Certificate.  Brian Dillon asked if apprentices could use this qualification without the need for off job training. Pauline advised that the qualification remained flexible enough to be achieved in different contexts and for those who wanted to achieve it entirely on job, they could do so. Likewise, for those apprentices who want/need additional support in learning, opportunities will still be available for off job training. APPRENTICE TRAINING REPORT Glenn Duncan noted that his report covered last year, this year and preparation for next year. Trainee Numbers:  The total number of sign‐ups for 2014 was 5942.  Completions were down on budget.  Withdrawals – explanation given about the 6 weeks’ “grace” period to allow an apprentice to sign into another training agreement.  There were 6903 active carpentry trainees at the end of the year.  The spike in numbers for December was due to the Reboot Scheme which negatively affected the number of sign‐ups at the beginning of 2015. Glenn noted the number of people who were eligible but didn’t sign up for Reboot.  Inactive employers, who used to train, were being contacted resulting in 6 new apprentices being signed up in Dunedin. 12
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10.2 10.3 10.4 11. 11.1 Glenn went through the graphs and statistics in his report and noted how few females were involved in carpentry. Helen referred to a document recently published by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs about the employment of women in traditionally male dominated occupations which may be of interest to the NAG members. Action: Helen Hines‐Randall to post the Ministry of Women’s Affairs document regarding the employment of females on the BCITO website. Glenn noted that the BCITO was working with polytechnics and PTEs on ways of meeting the forecast industry demand for apprentices. The job matching figures were noted, with carpentry accounting for 99.9% of demand. Off Job Training: 5%‐6% of the cohort are attending off job training in the carpentry qualification, and Glenn outlined the different options being made available. Staffing: Field Staff numbers at the moment are: TAs 107 Skills Brokers 10 Area Managers 7 Assistant Area Managers 4  Glenn said the challenge was to keep ahead of the wave and keep the service levels up. He noted that Christchurch had levelled out but they needed to keep the staff numbers up in Auckland.  TAs were a key intermediary between the BCITO and the employer. The more employers that enjoy the BCITO’s service and our relationship with them, the more they will continue to train. Premises: Glenn went through the list of changes noted in his report, which would result in some staff relocating the office they work from. He noted how important it was to particularly keep the Auckland employers up to speed with what was happening. Further discussion:  Brian Dillon asked about Off Job Training and the assessment process. Glenn explained that the assessment on site leaned towards oral conversations with the apprentice and using the employers to confirm that. It has moved from a tick box evaluation assessment to a more holistic assessment.  Ross Faulkner asked how many female apprentices were signing‐up. Ruma noted that it was a very small number which varied from trade to trade but there were likely to be more in the finishing trades. GENERAL BUSINESS International Situation: Jack Harris asked if the BCITO had any information about what was happening with apprenticeships overseas. Ruma responded as follows: o It was pretty much the same trend as in New Zealand. o In the European context carpentry is very much a traditional trade, what we would recognise as carpentry/joinery. It has a reasonably elevated status as a trade and almost looked at as a profession. o There is concern in the UK about the collapse of the apprenticeship scheme with a lot of pressure from migrant populations. o Brick and Block is going against the trend. 13
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There is a lot of interest in South America and Asia about how they lift training and South Africa and Kenya are working hard to figure out how they institute framework based structured training. Nothing much trending except in Australia where the Government has cut funding to RTOs and TAFEs and there will be no funding for Skills Councils beyond the end of June this year. Ruma concluded by saying that out there in the real world it looks like business as usual and he elaborated further about the situation in Australia and in New Zealand. There being no further business, Ross Faulkner thanked everyone for their input and closed the meeting at 2.00 pm. 14