Government agencies
- Tertiary Education Commission
- Department of Labour
- Ministry of Social Development
- Ministry of Education
- Department of Corrections
- Te Puni Kōkiri
- Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
- NZQA
Tertiary Education Commission
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) Te Amorangi Matauranga Matua is responsible for leading the government's relationship with the tertiary education sector, and for policy development and implementation.
The TEC is responsible for funding the government’s contribution to tertiary education and training offered by universities, polytechnics, wananga, private training establishments, industry training organisations and adult and community education providers. The long-term desired outcome is a well-performing network of provision that produces quality outcomes for learners and stakeholders.
Raising the literacy and numeracy skills of the workforce is also the responsibility of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). The focus is on achieving a common understanding about what is meant by literacy and numeracy and how organisations can successfully integrate these underpinning skills into existing qualifications, programmes and courses.
This is being achieved through the development of a nationally coherent adult literacy and numeracy infrastructure, which includes streamlined options for funding, a whole-of-organisation response to literacy and numeracy development, ongoing professional development and qualifications for educators, resources for teaching and learning and a national assessment tool.
Department of Labour
The Department of Labour’s interest is in how literacy, language and numeracy skills underpin people’s participation in work and further skill development and in the contribution of increased skill levels to positive workplace outcomes and higher productivity.
The Department is currently undertaking the following activities:
- the Skills Highway website, which helps employers improve their employees' literacy and numeracy skills.
- An employer champion forum, which promotes the value of workplace literacy and numeracy training to other employers.
The Department also has responsibility for co-ordinating government research, monitoring and evaluation in this area and for providing policy advice to government on workforce and workplace aspects of literacy and numeracy.
Ministry of Social Development
The vision of an inclusive New Zealand where all people are able to participate in the social and economic life of their communities means working towards overcoming the barriers that some New Zealanders experience in finding fulfilling employment and participating fully in community life.
For this reason the Ministry of Social Development has a vested interest in the skills development of adult New Zealanders including the range of current developments underway in adult literacy and numeracy.
Ministry of Education
The Ministry of Education advises the Government on policy and strategy for tertiary education. It undertakes monitoring, analysis and research into tertiary education to inform policy and provide information to the public on the overall performance of tertiary education. A current monitoring and evaluation programme for adult literacy, language and numeracy is gathering evidence on:
- the literacy and numeracy skills that learners gain from programmes,
- the educational and employment outcomes they achieve subsequently, and
- the cost effectiveness of different approaches for various groups of learners.
- Visit the Ministry of Education website.
Department of Corrections
Government policy is to expand literacy and numeracy programmes so that prisoners have better literacy and numeracy skills on release. This Government goal is being pursued as a key element of the Prisoner Skills and Employment Strategy 2009-2012.
Initial screening of literacy and numeracy skill among prisoners indicates a high level of need, with even higher levels of need among Māori prisoners compared with other ethnicities. Improved literacy and numeracy provides direct benefits for prisoners, assists them to undertake other education and employment training, and improves their ability to participate in rehabilitation programmes.
The Department of Corrections provides intensive classroom-based literacy and numeracy education across all prisons through an external provider on contract to the Department. In addition, Corrections employment instructors are being up-skilled by undertaking training in teaching literacy and numeracy to adults. As a result, many of our employment instructors are now embedding literacy and numeracy into vocational and on-job training.
Te Puni Kōkiri
Te Puni Kōkiri is ardently interested in supporting Māori workplace literacy programmes that evidence demonstrates work for Māori and will significantly raise literacy levels to level 3 or above (as an interim step) for all Māori. Te Puni Kōkiri encourages and influences – through networks consisting of a range of Māori communities, providers and agencies – to develop literacy initiatives for Māori that align with a Māori potential, strengths-based approach that will galvanise and further accelerate Māori development.Te Puni Kōkiri is keen to maximise the leverage from the transformative power of education in the workplace and has dedicated itself to ensure the sector understands the challenges and opportunities for Māori. To do that, a strong base platform of literacy and numeracy skills must be the foundation for every Māori worker. Te Puni Kōkiri’s strategic vision is for all Māori to realise their full potential.
Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
Our interest in this work is quite evident, noting that the median age of Pacific peoples in New Zealand in 2006 was 21.1 years – considerably lower than the median age of the New Zealand population overall at 35.9 years (Census 2006).
It is this youthful Pacific population that will be expected to provide increased support for New Zealand’s future economy, and we are at a critical juncture in the development of the future workforce. Current educational and upskilling strategies have had, at best, limited success with respect to Pacific communities, an issue that we believe is being addressed with this work. This is where our involvement in this work programme comes into play – it is to ensure that what is on offer in the literacy and numeracy work programme is responsive to the needs and aspirations of Pacific peoples.
NZQA
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority is supporting the literacy and numeracy strategy by its development of: National Qualifications in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education; unit standards in Adult Literacy and Numeracy Education at levels 4-6 of the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF); a suite of literacy and numeracy unit standards at level 1 of the NZQF.
The level 1 literacy and numeracy unit standards have been designed for assessment in both the secondary and tertiary sectors. The understanding of numeracy and literacy that underpins these standards is based on people being able to operate effectively in their everyday lives. These unit standards are supported by a guidance document and freely available assessment support material. The unit standards are also one way for students to meet the reviewed Level 1 National Certificate in Educational Achievement (NCEA) literacy and numeracy requirement in place from 2011 onwards. NZQA works closely with all government agencies in supporting the improvement of literacy and numeracy skills of school and adult learners.