We can write your teaching and learning resources and develop them to meet specific unit standard demands and requirements. We can use our own content experts or work alongside your experienced staff to take the material through our quality assurance and publishing processes.

This is a specialised service which needs to be customised to your needs so the best thing to do is get in touch and we will give you a call to organise a good time to discuss how we can best support your organisation.

Unit standard teaching, learning or training resources can take a range of different forms including Teaching or Training Guides for the teaching staff to use or learning guides and workbooks for our trainees or students to use.

Edbiz can design and write all of your unit standard assessments for you.

Whether these are Assessment Guides, Common Assessment Tasks and Assessment Schedules or Evidence and Judgement Guides we will work with you and your SSB formats, templates or requirements to make sure that we produce assessment material that will move through the moderation processes.

We will work alongside your staff to determine the most suitable context and format to help manage the assessments and the assessment process at your place.

It is not just about writing assessment material, it is also about making sure that the design, layout and format of the assessment material assists your Assessor to meet all of your QMS requirements and maximise opportunities for them to demonstrate best practice assessment within your organisation.

Contact Edbiz to discuss how we can support your organisation to develop teaching and assessment resources.

The Edbiz FreePhone for landlines is now  0508 4 Edbiz or 0508 4 33249.

This number is available for landlines only and if you are calling from a mobile please use the numbers on the Edbiz Contact page.

We have changed because 60 60 60 was too similar to the TelstraClear Freephone!

As there are unit standards and achievement standards within the New Zealand Qualifications Framework the NZQA website has incorporated all standards into a new directory referred to as the ‘ Directory of Assessment Standards ‘ or DAS. – Directory of Assessment Standards (DAS)

To quote NZQAs website;

” The term ‘accreditation’, when used in relation to DAS standards is being replaced by ‘consent to assess against standards’.  This terminology is being introduced gradually.  In the meantime, ‘NQF accreditation’ and ‘consent to assess against standards’ may both be used and have the same meaning.”

So shortly, when we apply to ‘offer’ standards, we will be granted consent to assess against those standards that we apply for, by providing an application that demonstrates that a Registered NZQA Provider can meet the criteria outlined in the relevant AMAP issued by the Standards Setting Body.

Edbiz can support you with our Advisory Services or you can contract us in to write your consent to assess against standards or accreditation applications for you.

Link to NZQA Website –  Directory of Assessment Standards (DAS)

Just like everyone else when we are out and about, I get asked the classic, “So what do you do?”, to which I reply, “I manage PTEs”.  This always starts a conversation about what a PTE is.

I am still surprised at how little people know about PTEs in NZ. I have been working in PTEs most of my working life so I am a raving fan of PTEs!

PTEs are Private Training Establishments and they are all around NZ.

In my opinion, PTEs provide a valuable contribution to the tertiary education system by providing opportunities for learning in niche areas of  foundation skills training, vocational or industry training and higher education. PTEs can provide short industry or staff training courses and NZQA approved Certificates, Diplomas and even Degrees to New Zealanders and international students.

In short, PTEs are charged with working alongside each other, employers and industry bodies, relevant organisations and associations and their communities to provide a pathways of study that lead to qualified graduates for the New Zealand workforce. PTEs are focused on responding quickly to a need or request to train people in specialised areas or provide training  for a specific group of people or within a specific context or environment.

Some PTE specialise in providing training and assessment for specific industries and are often owned and managed by people who have had significant experience in those particular industries who are passionate about passing their experience on to others and giving back to the industry that they worked in.

I will try and give you a bit of a background on how PTEs came about.

PTEs, or Private Training Establishments, is a term used for privately owned education and training businesses that have registered with the New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA).

These businesses have always existed and have been around in various forms until during 1989/1990 when the Education Act came into force. The act established the NZQA and made provision for private education and training business to register with NZQA as Private Training Establishments or PTEs.

PTEs apply to NZQA to have their own qualifications approved and can apply for accreditation to deliver and assess against NZQA unit standards and offer NZQA National Certificates. (This is now referred to as consent to assess against standards).  The qualifications can then be approved by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).

PTEs are can be small, 1 or 2 person businesses or can be multi site PTEs with hundreds of teaching staff with thousands of students each year.

I was trying to find out how many PTEs there are registered but didnt come across any public information. I did find a statement made by an old Minister of Education a few years ago which will give you an idea of the number of different tertiary education organisations there were at that time  “… with 8 Universities, 26 Polytechnics, 3 Wananga, 40 ITO’s and 800 odd PTE’s …”  Obviously the number of PTEs grows and shrinks depending on how many register or maintain their PTE Registration each year.

In 2009 there were 75,500 students who attended PTEs in NZ. (Education Counts #5)

PTEs are represented by PTE Peak Bodies such as NZAPEP and  ITI and many have their programmes approved to offer Student Loans and Allowances through Studylink.

I bet, that if you asked around your families and networks you will know someone who can connect their current employment position or a job they have had to having completed a course or qualification offered by a PTE somewhere in NZ.

Like I said, I have been managing PTEs for over 15 years and believe that PTEs make significant contributions to NZ Tertiary Education and offer great value and experiences to their students.

Edbiz was founded to support educators like PTEs with our Consultancy and Advisory Services so that they can make an even greater difference in their communities and spend more time with their students.

Here is a list of ITOs in NZ sorted alphabetically. If we have left one out let me know…

My immediate response was to ask them why they have asked specifically for NZQA Consultancy Services and what it was that wanted help with.

In short, they needed advice on whether the changes they had made to their quality assurance systems recently would meet the NZQA Policies and Criteria for Ongoing Registration.

In particular they needed some independent input to see if they would meet the new criteria to have an evaluative approach to quality assurance with a focus on improving the outcomes of their learners and stakeholders.

And yes, they were also concerned about whether their approach to Self Assessment would collect and collate the required evidence to let them make informed decisions and improvements to the key processes that contributed to their outcomes.

All of this was obviously important to them but providing the assurances that they were looking for required an in depth understanding of their organisation and a bit of ongoing support for the key person who would be ’the champion’ for the new processes.

We have been helping a few PTEs make the transition to the new PTE requirements but I just wasn’t prepared for someone to refer to us as NZQA Consultants.

That is still a term that in my frames of reference implies that Edbiz consults to NZQA …

… Anyway, the main reason for the post is to let everyone know that we will be writing a series of posts about, ” What is Evaluative Quality Assurance”, and this will naturally lead into Self Assessment and the NZQA External Evaluation and Review.

The intent of the series is to capture the transition that all NZQA Providers are moving or have moved through and offer some of our thoughts on what NZQA Providers have been doing that naturally lends itself to inclusion in their approach to evaluative quality assurance and self assessment processes.

So what does Edbiz do?

Edbiz specialises in providing management services, support and advice to NZQA Providers. Our Advisory Services are based on years of experience working with PTEs funded by the TEC and non funded NZQA Providers around NZ.

Our Associates have been or still are, involved in the management of multi site NZQA Providers and we pride ourselves on keeping up to date with any changes in the tertiary sector and offering advise on how those changes may impact on an NZQA Providers strategic direction and operations.

We have been offering our PTE Consultancy Services to the Owners and Managers of PTEs  since 2006.

We are passionate about providing practical advice and support to develop and empower the managers and teaching staff that make it happen.

We offer public courses; or we can come to your workplace and train your staff, integrating your QMS processes and procedures into a customised course; or, if you only have 1 person who needs the training, we offer a 1 on 1 coaching package that utilises our online resources and the expertise of one of our Assessor Trainers.

We provide Assessor Training which offer NZQA Unit Standards 4098, and 11281 if required. We also offer  our Assessment Designer Training ( US 11.552) and our Moderator Training all available through a range of different delivery options.

We also offer training in Tauranga through the Pacific Coast Technical Institute for those based in the Bay.

Take a look at our Assessor Training Website.

Mark, Fiona and the team put on a great morning and the building was opened with a  ’cutting of the timber’ using a chainsaw by Max Mason, CEO of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce.

The PCTI industry training partners;

AMS Driver Training, Mahurangi Technical Institute, Plant and Food Research, Edbiz,  International College of Auckland and Tenax were all there to discuss ideas with the industry and business leaders about how they could support them with the range of  industry training courses that will be offered by the PCTI at their Mount Maunganui training centre our within businesses and their workplaces.

The morning was a great launch of a great brand and an exciting vision for industry training for the Bay.

Here is what the Bay of Plenty Times had to say about the launch…

Bay of Plenty Article

I recommend getting in touch with PCTI to organise your industry training.

Update:

Here is what Sun Live published.

Edbiz is proud to offer our adult education and training courses alongside a range of other short industry courses offered through the Pacific Coast Technical Institute (PCTI) at Mount Maunganui.

PCTI has gathered a group of quality trainers together under one roof to help build capability, productivity and performance for local industry in the Bay.

This is an excellent model for industry training where businesses can access the training they need in one place, which can be delivered at their place or at the PCTI industry training centre.

Edbiz will be offering our Assessor Training, Train the Trainer, Workplace Trainer, Moderator Training and Assessment Designer Courses at PCTI. We will be scheduling these courses to meet industry demand and PCTI will become the main delivery site for our public courses as well.

Businesses can contact PCTI to book their staff into the block courses or we can come to your workplace to deliver custom designed training for your business.

Mark Hellyer and Fiona Morris the owners of Pacific Coast Technical Institute have a great vision for industry training in the Bay and we encourage local business to get in touch with them and arrange the training they need for an effective workforce.

I would keep an eye on the PCTI website for further developments as they build up the number of industry training partners that will be offering industry training.