At the TEC, we gather a range of information about common issues through our monitoring activities. We’re committed to partnering with tertiary education organisations, and sharing learnings from our monitoring work to help the sector build capability so we can all achieve better outcomes for learners.

Using correct source of funding codes

Recently instances have been identified of tertiary education organisations reporting an incorrect source of funding code in the first instance and then amending this once study has commenced.

As a reminder, it is important that you are reporting the correct source of funding code at the time of a learner’s enrolment.

The TEC uses source of funding codes to categorise funding to you and to plan our ongoing investment in tertiary education. StudyLink also administers the Student Support schemes as part of this funding. Different funding codes may offer varying access to student support and changing a funding code once study has started may alter or cease a learner’s entitlement to Student Loan and/or Student Allowance, resulting in a debt to the Crown that will need to be recovered.

To ensure that you are complying with your obligations and to avoid potential issues for you and your learners, please ensure you have appropriate processes in place to correctly determine the relevant source of funding code at the point of a learner’s enrolment.

The Privacy Act 2020

New Zealand has a new Privacy Act which will come into effect on 1 December 2020. Now is a good time for your organisation to review the key changes in the new Act and identify those that are relevant to you.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has developed a number of resources to help everyone get ready for the new Act. We recommend you take some time to review the main changes to ensure you are compliant with the new Act when this comes into force.

Reporting and monitoring of the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund

The Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund (TTAF) helps learners to undertake vocational education and training in targeted areas without fees.

TTAF covers fees from 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2022 and is paid directly to TEOs to enable learners to enrol in a range of training and apprenticeship programmes at sub-degree level for free.

In most instances, the TEC will use existing reporting channels to calculate, report on, and pay TTAF. We will also use our existing auditing processes to help you ensure you are meeting the terms and conditions outlined in your funding agreement.

We also intend to undertake TTAF specific audits to further support the sector with implementation of the new fund and to inform improvements where possible. We will contact you to make the appropriate arrangements if you are selected for one of these audits.

For the full reporting and monitoring conditions, please see the TTAF conditions on the TEC’s website.