New Zealand Representative:
Founder and Career Strategist
August 2022 New Zealand Report
COVID and New Zealand generally
<span “>New Zealand remains at an Orange Traffic Light setting. It is winter now and influenza and Covid are everywhere with large numbers of people unwell in most communities. There are still issues for businesses unable to sustain adequate staff; many schools are struggling to stay open due to lack of well staff and people continue to die. Our boarders are fully open to visitors and students and our airports are busy again. This is great news to the tourism industry and the economy. Maritime borders have also opened to cruise ships, specialist and recreational vessels. There are major shortages of staff for the tourism and hospitality sectors and employers are struggling to recruit staff. The cost of living has increased by 7.4% with two main contributors being the cost of petrol and the ever-increasing cost of basic food supplies. Our Health system is struggling and there are long delays to see a General Practitioner. Surgeries are being postponed due to both work overload, and inadequate staff.
CDANZ Update
CDANZ’s AGM was held in early July – during her report, our President advised that:
“In the advocacy space, we have been very busy as we take on a higher profile role than had been asked of the National Executive Committee when CareersNZ existed. We are now invited on to the Advisory Panel as the norm, and I hope we can continue to grow in this space to have an impact for members and the people of Aotearoa”.
Direct Career Guidance Service
Many CDANZ career development professionals have contracts to provide this service across New Zealand. This service was originally planned and delivered in 2020 with the intention of being available for about a year to support New Zealanders during the stress and uncertainty of Covid.
The service was so successful that the delivery time has been extended and continues in 2022. The value of this service has been acknowledged by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). “Throughout 2022, TEC will be working closely with CDANZ and the sector to develop a national careers system strategy. The goal of this strategy will be to ensure everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand can access quality, professional careers information and advice, so they have the tools they need for a rewarding work and learning journey.”
As this report goes out to you, we have had two meetings of the National Career Systems Strategy Advisory Panel. We are agreed on the current state and the issues that affect it from being all it could be and have begun to imagine what we hope the future state could be. I am optimistic that there is an appetite for a collaborative approach that increases equity and better development resources.”
Personal Note
At the end of 2021 I retired from my role as a Secondary School Career Development Professional. My thoughts at the time were to “take a break” from full time work, however, I am enjoying retirement greatly and at our recent AGM, I also resigned from the National Executive Committee of CDANZ. I have greatly enjoyed being part of the APCDA group of Country Directors. Thank you for your friendship and for sharing so much information about your work and your country. CDANZ will be appointing a new person to the role of New Zealand Country Director at their next meeting.
May 2022 New Zealand Report
COVID
All of New Zealand is now in an Orange Traffic Light setting. We can do everyday activities but need to protect our vulnerable communities and our health system. Workplaces and schools are open – facemasks are encouraged inside. Covid cases are reported throughout the country and some businesses have so few staff that they have been forced to close temporarily. People continue to die with Covid but total reported number of deaths is still below 1000. Our boarders are starting to reopen. From 1 May vaccinated visitors from some countries can enter NZ and self-test on arrival. From July and October more options will be available for visitors.
RoVE (The Reform of Vocational Education)
Te Pukenga, (New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology), is being implemented to provide a unified, sustainable public network for vocational education. Bringing together New Zealand’s 16 existing Polytechnics, Institutes of Technology and Industry Training Organisations it is designed to create a learning environment which is accessible regionally and will deliver the skills that learners, employers and communities need. More information is available on the Tertiary Education Commission website:
Unemployment
The number of people unemployed is 94,000 and the unemployment rate as of 4 May 2022 is 3.2%. There are a lot of jobs being advertised, but employers are struggling to recruit staff. More information available at;> https://www.stats.govt.nz/.
February 2022 New Zealand Report
COVID-19
- The Omicron variant is present in New Zealand communities.
- The country is now functioning under a “Traffic Lights” protection framework – Red, Orange, Green. We are in RED which means we need to take action to protect our vulnerable communities and our health system.
- At Red, requirements and restrictions are in place for people with vaccination passes – gatherings are limited to 100 people for those with a Vaccine Pass – gatherings are limited to 25 people if people do not have a Vaccine Pass. At Cafés and restaurants, Vaccination Passes are required to enter and dine. Booster vaccinations are being encouraged. Children aged 5 and above are now able to be vaccinated.
- Schools are opening for the new year – and some are also having to close because of staff becoming infected or being required to isolate.
- There are concerns that supplies of food and provision of services will be severely affected by case numbers soon.
- Wearing a mask, physically distancing from others, and continuing to scan in and out wherever we go is required.
November 2021 New Zealand Report
COVID-19
At the time of my last report, New Zealand was at Alert Level 1 Lockdown – with the arrival of Delta, New Zealand went into an Alert Level 4 Lockdown on 17 August – this is the highest lockdown level. Since then, areas of New Zealand have been at split Lockdown Levels. Travel restrictions apply at borders of these areas.
New Zealand has experienced the highest daily cases numbers ever and sadly further deaths have occurred. Schools have been closed, opened, closed again, moved to online learning – all at a time of preparation for end of year exams. Tourism and Hospitality business are struggling and generally people are tired. The Health system is managing well – hospitalisations are manageable and the Government is encouraging all people to be fully vaccinated as soon as possible. To align with the recently announced COVID-19 Protection Framework, the Government will mandate vaccinations for workers at businesses where customers need to show COVID-19 Vaccination Certificates, such as hospitality and close-contact businesses.
CDANZ New Staff
As CDANZ activities and membership grow, operational and governance demands of the association were becoming a risk to our continued sustainability.
The 2022 budget included a new role of National Manager, which will support the continuity and growth of the association while reducing the load the CDANZ National Executive Committee is currently shouldering. We welcome Kris Andersen to the role of General Manager. Also this year, we welcome Julie Pope to the role of CDANZ National Membership Administrator.
CDANZ Mentoring Programme
This free programme was offered for six months. All CDANZ members were eligible to apply to be mentees. Mentees provided details on their sector, job title and what they wished to gain from the programme. CDANZ then called for Mentors and matched Mentees with Mentors. The programme ran successfully over six months. Feedback was positive and several participants indicated they would like to continue further.
Direct Career Services
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is partnering with Ministry for Social Development (MSD) and Career Development Association of New Zealand (CDANZ) to extend the face to face service provision of the Direct Career Services (DCS) until 28 June 2022. TEC has worked closely with MSD to create this valuable one-stop-solution for jobseekers, an end-to-end service delivery model that directly supports jobseekers within the MSD Connected sites throughout Aotearoa.
August 2021 New Zealand Report
COVID-19
All of New Zealand remains at Alert Level 1 lockdown. Alert Level 1 means we all need to be ready in case COVID-19 reappears in our community. We must wear face coverings on public transport, be careful about hygiene and wash our hands a lot, keep a record of when and where we have been, and keep our distance. If we are unwell, we are asked to stay at home until we are well again.
There are restrictions at our boarders, but on Monday 9 August, a container ship, came into the Port of Tauranga with 11 of their 21 crew testing positive for COVID-19. As a precaution, around 100 New Zealand port workers who as part of their work, spent time on the vessel while it was in port have been tested and stood down until a negative result is returned.
Te Tiriti ō Waitangi
Our June National Executive Committee meeting focused on how well we are meeting our culture and diversity competencies. This was a wonderful weekend giving us the opportunity to “step aside” from our usual tasks and focus on where we are currently at and to identify areas for action. We worked with a consultant and identified four focus areas:
- Raising the profile of CDANZ and increasing its membership
- Renovating the foundations of our whare (whare = house)
- Strategic Influencing
- Building Māori Cultural Competencies across the Executive and the profession
Work will continue on this long term project, towards becoming a committed Te Tiriti ō Waitangi organisation, at our next face to face meeting in October.
Our AGM on 7 July was again successfully held by Zoom. At the AGM, our President, Heather Lowery-Kappes said:“CDANZ National Executive Committee are advocating for cross-ministerial co-operation to establish a National Strategy for Careers and Employability so that we can achieve our vision of excellence in career development for everyone in Aotearoa.”
The following is of note in this respect:
Direct Career Service
Initially this service was short term, but the service is now funded for another year. Seventy-five (75) CDANZ members have worked across New Zealand providing Direct Career Services under contract to the Tertiary Education Commission.
Ministry of Education Guidelines Review 2009
The Ministry of Education acknowledges the value of career guidance and there is a potential opportunity for CDANZ and CATE (Career and Transition Education) to be part of the consultation on the integration of career education within and across the NZ curriculum.
Customer Relations Management System
Preparations have taken a lot longer than expected mostly because of the way our membership is structured and the way we have our continuing professional development records submitted. But it all seems to be ready now and we are hopeful that our new CRM will go live this week.
May 2021 New Zealand Report
COVID-19
New Zealand has been at Alert Level 1 lockdown this year apart from a seven day change to Alert Level 3 lockdown for Auckland and a move for the rest of New Zealand to Alert Level 2 on February 28.
CareerX
- This successful one-day event, designed for all career practitioners regardless of their client focus, was held on Friday 9 April at Unitec in Auckland. Preparations for this event were made to comply with any change in Alert Level, but thankfully on the day members were able to attend in person and via the livestream.
- Keynote Speakers included a Senior researcher – “The workplace disrupted. Five elements shaping the future of work and skills”: and an Academic Advisor from Auckland University of Technology – “Mana Tiriti – Wayfinding the Tiriti Channel”.
- Other programme highlights included: a panel response from representatives of employers and recruiters; a panel discussion on Psychometric Testing and its current application in recruitment, retention, organisational development; presentations on practice and compliance matters; professional networking and peer conversation.
New Client Relationship Management (CRM) Preparations continue towards going live with our new CRM software and website.
Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) Liaison Update
ACC’s vision is “to create a unique partnership with every New Zealander, improving their quality of life by minimising the incidence and impact of injury.” They have a significant role in our public “health insurance” system and require people working in Vocational Rehabilitation to be members of CDANZ. Approximately 30% of our members are members of CDANZ because they must be to do this work for ACC. Ten CDANZ members provided feedback on ACC’s “Back to Work Service” which went live on March 1. A CDANZ Liaison Team presented this feedback to ACC at their liaison meeting. ACC have pledged to respond by the end of April.
October 2020 New Zealand Country Report
by Jennie Miller, Career Development Association of New Zealand Career (NZCDA) President
NZ has now been through two lockdowns, with the first affecting the whole country, and the second largely Auckland focussed. As you may be aware we are incredibly fortunate in NZ and are one of the top 4 countries in dealing with the pandemic. The main activities for us currently are as follows:
THE BIG NEWS! Government Advocacy work reaps results:
CDANZ and TEC (the Tertiary Education Commission whose mandate is to support the career development of all NZ’ers) have partnered to provide a Direct Career Guidance service to those whose employment has been impacted by Covid-19, as well as others who have career issues – any age, any stage.
The service is being provided by CDANZ Associate and Professional members, and includes a national online service (with people directed from a triage service to local practitioners where possible), and a set of “pop-up” services in libraries and other locations around the country that are considered vulnerable (10 locations in total). The service will be available for 6 months and a review may see it continue.
This is especially exciting for three reasons:
TEC previously did not have a mandate to provide direct services so this needed to be addressed.
We now have a semi-regulated service by partnering with government, whereby only members of CDANZ can be involved. This had to go through an approval process to show that no-one else was as equipped to provide services.
TEC agreed to contract our practitioners directly rather than go through one supplier who would take a large chunk of the budget/revenue.
Here’s a link to the TEC announcement to give you an idea:
New Membership Association software and website
We have now signed with a provider for our new Client Relationship Management (CRM) software and website development. The work is just beginning on scoping the transfer of data to the new application.
We are very happy that our thorough work carried out prior will pay dividends and looking forward to bringing the amazing new functionality to our members. This is a very exciting project for us, as our old system “broke” a couple of years ago and our membership database and management system has literally been a spreadsheet.
CDANZ/CDAA collaboration – MOU just signed
It was announced to our members today (29/10) that CDANZ and CDAA will provide benefit to both organisations by offering equivalent member rates for professional development. This is one part of the 4 projects we are continuing to work on with CDAA with the intention to collaborate where it is of benefit to both memberships. All four project plans have now been approved.
Free online PD offerings
these have been incredibly well received by our members and are continuing, regardless of what happens post-Covid. As with other countries the uplift in tech knowledge means many more people are able to access and enjoy these opportunities.
AGM held in July by Zoom,
or 2 reasons: accessibility for members to “attend” in a particularly important year for voting, and to release this from the national event – it’s great there is something we can keep in place! This was extremely fortuitous as we could not have held the AGM in person – it was an incredibly successful event much appreciated by our members. Highly recommend if you’re thinking about it – we did prepare well and had several practices at working together online as an Executive team.
New CPD Process
membership now utilising new Competency Framework to plan and report their CPD
April 2020 Country report
by Jennie Miller, Career Development Association of New Zealand Career (NZCDA) President
- CDANZ Executive team met F2F with the CDAA Executive team in Auckland, New Zealand over the weekend of 7-8 March. The purpose of the meeting was to consider ways we could collaborate for the benefit of our national memberships. With intense focus on our intention we held a Zoom intro meeting some weeks prior for both teams, discussed agenda items and started to get to know each other. From several facilitated workshops we have 4 key projects to work on, each with a team lead. We are now awaiting all project plans and look forward to these collaborative efforts.
- Cancelled our visit from Prof Deirdre Hughes at the completion of her Australian tour with CDAA – waiting to hear whether the government arm responsible for NZ’s Careers System Strategy will wish to utilise her expertise in some manner in relation to our Inspiring the Future initiative she has been involved with in the UK.
- AGM to be held in July 2020 by Zoom, for 2 reasons: accessibility for members to “attend” in a particularly important year for voting, and to release this from the national event – it’s great there is something we can keep in place!
- 2 Day PD event to be held in Aug/Sep: Cancelled – to be held in
- New CPD Process – membership now utilising new Competency Framework to plan and report their CPD.
- Free PD offerings during Covid19 – Using our new Competency Framework to format our new programme of free PD and resources during Covid-19, an initiative rolled out last week to support our members in PD and networking. Includes Career Talk, webinars with experts, chat rooms to connect weekly, and a variety of recommended resources. It will be constantly updated with suggestions and new offerings we come across, and from our members.
- New membership framework proposal: Entry Level Quals and Member Pathways. Having consulted throughout Nov – Mar with our members over a variety of formats, face-to-face around the country, webinars, workstream online discussions, and so on, we have decided our July AGM is no longer the right time to remit on this major potential change for our organisation. This is not a priority for our members at this time and we will reinstate the consultation process when the main threat of Covid-19 is over. We plan to hold a Special Meeting of members, perhaps later in the year.
- New Membership Association software and website Our other major project through 2020 was necessitated by the breakdown of our previous CRM system and the fact our current website is apparently getting past its use-by date. We are now down to two providers and hope to make a decision soon – this will be a sizeable financial burden to be borne by the association, with investment in both time and money.
- Government Advocacy Government initiatives have slowed, but not ended. As a member of a Reference Group to the govt department responsible for the Career System Strategy, we will now be meeting via Zoom. The key initiative they were undertaking is the Inspiring the Future project, which can no longer continue whilst we are under the influence of Covid-19 as it involves primary schools and volunteers. Our schools are all closed, and all but necessary workers at home. The other key project revolves around a new website to replace careers.govt.nz, which is aimed first and foremost at secondary schools, although govt insists their focus in on a lifelong career strategy.
November 2019 Country report
by Jennie Miller, Career Development Association of New Zealand Career (NZCDA) President
•New membership framework proposal: Entry Level Quals and Member Pathways.
In June 2019 the CDANZ Exec Committee was presented with a proposal from our Professionalism Project team to make some changes to our membership structure in line with other countries, and to make membership more accessible to practitioners operating in our field. Currently we require quals which are specifically career development related, which is not representative of the people operating. We are therefore not representing many of those in our field. There are many who have the competencies required for our work, but do not hold career specific qualifications. The new Professional Standards that have been developed over several years have culminated in our ability to offer membership to people who can provide evidence of competency alongside a relevant qualification. We have taken our lead largely from CICA, CDAA, and NCDA. The proposal was confirmed by our Executive and taken to our members as a proposal only at this year’s AGM in September. Through the next several months we will be running consultation workshops and webinars with our members to gather feedback. Some of these are occurring over the next couple of weeks and we look forward to hearing what our members have to say. We are sure there will be many questions! We hope to take a remit on this to our AGM in July.
•New Membership Association software and website
Our other major project through 2020 was necessitated by the breakdown of our previous CRM system – we have now been operating from a large spreadsheet for far too long! And we have also been informed our website is becoming somewhat aged and creaky. Our CRM team prepared a thorough brief in 2019 and we are now assessing a handful of remaining systems against the brief. We would love to hear from any countries who may recently have been through this process – it is a huge responsibility.
•Government Advocacy
Support and funding for our sector has been on the wane for some years and, although much lip service is being paid, does not appear to be improving substantially. Our govt no longer employs career development practitioners, let alone industry experts, to support their two main policy thrusts: The Career Action Plan for schools being prepared by our Ministry of Education (over two years in the making and counting…), and the Careers System Strategy from the Tertiary Education Commission, the organisation Careers NZ was merged into some two years ago. Almost the entire team from Careers NZ were made redundant and now there is almost no internal expertise to support or guide the strategy. The new team have come out of commerce. They have, however, been more consultative of late, and I was recently invited (as CDANZ President and Advocacy Lead for CDANZ) to join a small Steering Committee of 6 people across ministries to provide some level of governance and insight as the action plan is rolled out nationally. Our first meeting is in mid-December, a briefing session.
New Zealand Country Report- April 2014
by Julie Urbahn
New Zealand is of a similar geographical size to Japan, with its closer neighbor being Australia 2,230 kilometers away. It is highly dependent on the primary sector, with exports of goods and services accounting for around one-third of its gross domestic product (GDP). It has a small population of 4½ million, with young people aged 12-24 years old representing 20% of the total population. Ethnic diversity is increasing, with Maori, the indigenous people, making up nearly 700,000. The five largest ethnic groups are New Zealand European, Maori, Chinese, Samoan and Indian.
The New Zealand Government has set 10 challenging goals for the public sector to achieve over the next five years. These goals sit under 5 broad headings: Reducing long-term welfare dependence, Supporting vulnerable children, Boosting skills and employment, Reducing crime and Improving interaction with government. For more information, see .
It is also important to mention that New Zealand is legislated to provide culturally appropriate career services to Maori. This legislation is based on the founding document Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed in 1840 between the British Crown and Maori. The treaty is based on three key principles; protection, participation and partnership. In 2008 the Ministry of Education outlined its Maori Education Strategy, Ka Hikitia. Throughout the strategy the focus is on “supporting local solutions for local change, by local communities” and providing activities to raise awareness, provide support and seek contributions from students, parents, whanau (family and wider families), hapu (sub-tribe), iwi (tribe), Maori organizations, communities and business.
Career service in New Zealand is provided in a range of ways; public, private and through community organizations. Careers New Zealand is the government funded provider and is seen as the government’s center of careers expertise. Generally the services are not age segmented. However, there is an important focus on developing the career education and career management skills of young people early during their schooling and transition to work. This focus results in the delivery of programs that are targeted to young people, particularly Maori and Pasifika youth. The Government sees Careers NZ’s role as helping to lift educational achievement and employment outcomes for these specific ethno-cultural groups who are seen to have been disadvantaged by previous systems.
Careers NZ’s services and products include:
- website and online tools ( www.careers.govt.nz)
- programs to build career management capability in the community
- career education supporting services, using the suite of benchmarks for career education
- regional events and a wide range of local initiatives
- technology-enabled advice and guidance services such as
- ensure that the career education and guidance needs of all students and the aspirations of their communities are reflected in the school’s strategic planning and reporting
- ensure that the school’s community, in particular Maori and Pasifika, have opportunities to contribute to career education and guidance strategies
- ensure there is an appropriate level of funding and resources to meet the career education needs of the students
- encourage a whole-school approach to career education.
- Auckland University of Technology (AUT)
- Graduate Certificate in Career Development (Level 7)
- Graduate Diploma in Career Development (Level 7)
- Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT)
- Diploma in Career Guidance (Level 6)
- Otago Polytechnic