Supplying and Developing
the Workforce

Workforce supply is potentially seeing the greatest game changer ever as COVID-19 redefines employment and gives visibility and value to essential workforces including Kaiāwhina. Also new on the horizon are the education and training opportunities that could be realised as part of the Review of Vocational Education. This priority also acknowledges the diversity of communities in Aotearoa and the desire to have a workforce that can support and where possible reflect them. The challenge for this priority is to move quickly but also in time with employer and stakeholder needs, recognising demands on resources and competing priorities.

Reimagine attraction, recruitment, induction, training and retention

• Facilitate, with sector stakeholders, the development and implementation of an attraction, recruitment, induction, training, retraining and retention action plan, including:
• increasing visibility about Kaiāwhina roles and rewards;
• working with e.g. MoH, ACC, MSD, TPK, MPP and MBIE on national recruitment initiatives;
• matching orientation/induction to qualifications; and
• identifying nimble systems and just in time learning resources to assist redeployment
• Utilise the Reform of Vocational Education (RoVE) to build a system that accelerates workforce capability and capacity to respond to new and emerging roles and services
• Work with Te Pūkenga and other relevant organisations to implement new pre-employment and in-work training approaches
• Value and enable ongoing professional and interprofessional development opportunities for Kaiāwhina
• Engage with consumers, whānau and Kaiāwhina to ensure training content is informed by them and where possible includes their voices as part of the training delivery.

Grow the workforce to support diversity

• Seek and support attraction, recruitment, induction and training/retraining initiatives that grow the diversity of the workforce
• Realise opportunities to increase Kaiāwhina cultural confidence and competence, learning from and building on successful community and employer developed initiatives
• Initiate opportunities to recognise that NZ Sign Language is New Zealand’s third official language.

Establish pathways and expand skill sets

• Identify agile education and training approaches to respond to sector workforce demand and supply and increasingly complex consumer needs
• Partner with Ministry of Education (MoE), New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA), and Te Pūkenga  to establish pathways for the workforce including from school to work, the unemployed and for those already in work
• Identify barriers and solutions to achieving pathways into registered roles
• Utilise initiatives like the Calderdale Framework to expand the skill sets of Kaiāwhina to support more integrated care and better respond to the needs of whānau and communities
• Provide opportunities for Kaiāwhina to increase their role in prevention and early intervention activities.