Targeted training funding
Skill Enhancement (Rangatahi Maia and Tupulaga Le Lumana'i)
The Skill Enhancement fund supports two initiatives:
- Rangatahi Maia for Maori learners
- Tupulaga Le Lumana'i for Pacific learners
The purpose of the Skill Enhancement fund is to provide a pathway for young Maori and Pacific people to achieve qualifications at level 3 or above on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), leading to further education and training or sustainable employment.
These initiatives are intended to lead to employment at higher occupational levels in fields where Maori and Pacific peoples are under-represented.
The objectives of the fund are to:
- identify and encourage eligible learners to take part in training at level 3 and above on the NQF
- assist learners to gain nationally recognised qualifications and skills that will enable them to enter or re-enter the workforce
- identify and meet the needs of each learner and to link those needs to labour market opportunities
- develop and enhance the employability of learners.
Condition TRA019:Tertiary education organisations (TEOs) receiving Skill Enhancement funding must:
- Deliver training, including support services and workplace learning, in the geographical area as approved by the Tertiary Education Commission
- Provide a learning environment that is responsive and flexible to meet the physical, cultural and learning needs of their learners
- Ensure that all learners and other stakeholders are fully informed about all of the following:
- The TEO's Skill Enhancement programmes
- The TEO's support services
- The TEO's disciplinary and complaints procedures
- The TEO's policies relating to holding learners’ personal information and learners’ rights to review such information
- Develop individual learning plans for funded learners
- Arrange workplace learning opportunities for learners that are consistent with their learning plans
- Ensure the learner and their workplace learning provider enter into a written agreement recording the objectives and duration of any placement before it commences
- Ensure each learner is supplied with any tools, equipment, safety clothing, uniforms and tuition materials that may be required for the training, at no cost to the learner
- Pay any assessment and examination fees charged to learners directly to the people and organisations carrying out the assessments and examinations
- Use the funding to best achieve the targets set out for Skill Enhancement.
Skill Enhancement targets
Condition TRA033: Tertiary education organisations receiving Skill Enhancement funding must achieve the following targets:
- At least 60% of learners progress into further training, education, or employment within two months of leaving the Skill Enhancement programme
- On average, learners leaving the programme achieve at least 60 credits on the National Qualifications Framework
- Maintain occupancy of at least 75% for the programme's duration
- Meet any additional measures specific to the relevant initiative, specified in the funding application form or the Investment Plan approved by the Tertiary Education Commission.
If an organisation does not achieve the targets set for funded programmes, the TEC may review the level of funding provided to the organisation in subsequent years.
Learner eligibility
RuleENR100: Learners for which tertiary education organisations (TEOs) claim Skill Enhancement funding must meet all of the following criteria:
- Be a New Zealand citizen or Permanent Resident, currently resident in New Zealand
- Be aged 16 years or over
- Be of Maori or Pacific Island descent.
TEOs are expected to enrol learners targeted by each initiative in at least 80% of the available places on programmes under that initiative (Maori learners for Rangatahi Maia; Pacific learners for Tupulaga Le Lumana'i). Maori or Pacific people targeted by the other initiative may enrol in any remaining places.
Reporting
Condition TRA035: Tertiary education organisations delivering targeted training programmes must provide the Tertiary Education Commission with all reports, information, and documents required when and as stated in the Targeted Training Funding Handbook (PDF, 496 Kb).
Monitoring
The TEC monitors delivery of Skill Enhancement programmes through:
- occupancy rates
- individual learning plans
- acquisition of qualifications, or credits towards them, by learners
- achievement of employment and further training outcomes by learners
- the achievement of Maori and Pacific learners compared to other groups of learners
- the extent to which the outcomes achieved by learners match the aim of the programme
- provision of reports to the TEC
- any other matter or aspect of the Skill Enhancement programmes that the TEC reasonably considers relevant.
Condition TRA020:Tertiary education organisations receiving Skill Enhancement funding must make the following information available to the Tertiary Education Commission upon request:
- The daily record of learner attendance
- All relevant enrolment and supporting documentation required to verify an individual learner’s eligibility to undertake training
- Assessment and credit achievement results for each learner
- The learning plans and records of workplace learning placements for each learner
- All other relevant documentation as detailed in the Targeted Training Handbook
- All relevant documentation on learner labour market outcomes and employer contact details.
Payments
TEOs will be paid every 28 days amounts up to but not exceeding the amount(s) advised by the TEC.
Payments comprise a weekly fee, paid four weekly in arrears, and will be calculated per learner, based on the number of learners enrolled and attending training at any one time, up to the maximum number of places advised by the TEC.
Rule TRA036: In either of the following circumstances the Tertiary Education Commission may either pay the weekly fee based on the number of learners enrolled, renegotiate the number of agreed training places and the weekly fee, or elect not to purchase the services provided by a teriary education organisation in respect of the Skill Enhancement programme:
- The agreed training places are not filled within a month of the date training commences
- The number of learners enrolled in full-time training is less than the number equal to 80% of the agreed training places.
Skill Enhancement resources
Forms
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