New quality Assurance Standard for ITOs

This year the first audits of Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) against a newly developed quality assurance standard, QA Standard for ITOs, will take place.

The standard has been developed in consultation with ITOs and a trial was carried out with four ITOs last year.

Pieter Burghout, Chairperson of the Industry Training Federation (ITF) and head of the Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation, (one of the ITOs involved in the trial), says the development of a quality assurance standard has been welcomed.

"ITOs have been comfortable with both the intent and the implementation of the standard," he said.

The development and consultation process on the standard resulted in a number of suggestions and recommendations that were incorporated in the final version of the standard.

"The ITF was very keen to see the standard end up being as outcome oriented as possible because we felt that delivering the outcome was the most important thing – more important than the steps taken to get to that point," Mr Burghout said.

"The joint negotiation between the NZQA consultative committee and the Industry Training Federation has resulted in a QA Standard that ITOs are very happy with," Mr Burghout said.

Eva Durrant, Chief Executive of the Joinery ITO (JITO), one of the smaller ITOs that took part in the trial audit, said the process went smoothly for JITO.

Her advice to other smaller ITOs is to take advantage of a pre-audit discussion with NZQA, which is part of the process.

"This is a good chance for smaller ITOs to express their particular differences to NZQA and say how they do things that might be different from other ITOs."

"It is also a good idea to be really clear about what documentation you need to come up with right from the beginning."

"I didn't find the process stressful, even though it did take time. The auditors were patient and asked sensible questions," Ms Durrant said.

"A really positive outcome of passing the standard for a smaller ITO like ours is that I can say to my members that we are doing it as well as anyone else out there."

Linda Glogau, manager Tertiary Assessment and Moderation at NZQA, says the Authority has worked hard to streamline the process for ITOs.

"As part of the streamlining process the NZQA audit cycle has been aligned with the TEC five-yearly audit cycle. Wherever possible evidence that satisfies one agency will also be taken as satisfactory by NZQA," Ms Glogau said.

The first audits against the new standard will be carried out from mid-2005. NZQA expects that eight audits will be carried out each year. Audits will be done on a cost recovery basis.