Tertiary

2011 NOTICES
2010 NOTICES
Immigration Bill
Response from TEC on award of outcomes and need for low-level PTE ESOL courses
NZQA National Certificates in ESOL
Reports and Meetings

Tertiary SIG Co-ordinator: Moyra Sweetnam Evans email

2011 NOTICES

New English for Academic Purposes (ESOL) standards & UE Literacy Proposals

Information on these proposals can be found here.

What is happening with national ESOL qualifications?

In November 2010, the NZQA National Qualifications Services (NQS) team gained agreement from the sector to lead the development of nationally recognised NZ ESOL qualifications, in collaboration with ESOL providers and peak body organisations.

On 16 February 2011 NQS convened a meeting with the Ministry of Social Development, Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), Ministry of Education (MoE) and Department of Labour (DoL) to discuss cross-agency Government strategies aligned to ESOL provision, and how a framework of NZ ESOL qualifications could provide support to these strategies.

NQS has also established a NZ ESOL Qualifications Project Advisory Group (PAG). The Terms of Reference for the PAG is to provide governance to the project; develop a framework for the qualifications; and provide a brief to the qualifications development panel who will be drafting the qualifications. The PAG is representative across provider types including, Wānanga, Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics, Private Training Establishments, Industry Training Organisations and Secondary Schools.

The PAG met on two occasions in March and has completed a provisional framework and the brief. In completing these, the PAG has considered the needs of:

learners (international students, migrants, refugees, and secondary students)
education organisations (secondary schools, polytechnics, private training establishments, universities)
overseas educational institutions
employers
New Zealand government agencies.

The PAG also took into account the varying purposes for learning English (for everyday, academic or employment purposes).

A qualifications development panel has been selected from across the sector and will be tasked with drafting the qualifications under the new NZ Qualification Framework (NZQF) qualification listing requirements. The panel’s first meeting will be in April.

Once the suite of qualifications has been drafted and confirmed by the sector, NQS will complete a Review report and recommendations for qualifications to NZQA’s Service Delivery unit for approval. Upon approval of the recommendations, NQS can go ahead and complete development of the qualifications. The final drafts will be consulted on and confirmed before they are submitted for listing on the NZQF.

NQS will provide updates at significant development stages. For updates go to http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/consultations-and-reviews/, or for enquiries, please contact Annie Chan at annie.chan@nzqa.govt.nz

2010 NOTICES
For Tertiary SIG members to keep in touch and up-to-date with what is happening in the sector, we have an email discussion list where issues of interest to the SIG are raised, discussed and debated. The list is hosted by the University of Otago and run by Moyra Sweetnam Evans, a staff member at Otago. More information on the list is available at:
http://lists.otago.ac.nz/listinfo/tesol-tertiary-interest-group
You will not be inundated with emails and you do not have to engage in any on-line activity or chats. You can set how often you want to receive emails from the list. For example, you can receive an email every time someone sends an email to the list (the listserver then forwards this on automatically to all subscribers), or you can opt to receive digests weekly or monthly. The list activity depends entirely on the SIG members. If no-one sends an email to the list (for all to read and respond to if they choose to do so), then nothing happens.
To subscribe to the list, fill in the relevant information on this website or send an email to the list owner, Moyra Sweetnam Evans at
moyra.sweetnam@stonebow.otago.ac.nz
To get an idea of what is discussed on the list, visit the archives at:
http://lists.otago.ac.nz/pipermail/tesol-tertiary-interest-group/
NZQA ESOL Level 4 Assessment Resources
Request for Proposal

There has recently been a debate on the issue of whether work permit holders should have eligibility for subsided ESOL programmes. Jo de Lisle has written the following article in support of the proposal.

Student Work Permit Holders - a Missed Opportunity