AE Awards:

Foundation Skills Award (Level 1)

Certificate in Transition Skills (Level 2)

Building skills for participation

  Information for learners, whanau and caregivers

Interview with whanau/caregiver:

• What are some of the things that your son/daughter does well or enjoys doing?
• What skills do you think will be most important for your son/daughter to work on while they are here with us?
• Do you have any special worries or concerns with them at the moment?
• What are some ways we could work together to support their involvement here?

What are the AE Awards?

The AE Awards are qualifications are designed to build skills for participation in employment and further training. They are based on an assessment of strengths and needs in each learner and aim to help them build on what they are good at and get extra support in areas they need to work on.

The AE Awards look at the whole of life from academic skills to relationships and practical life skills.

The AE Awards are unit standards based, they are recognised by the NZ Qualifications Authority and build into credits for life long learning.

Who is it run by?

Learning and assessment for the AE Awards are completed by your local education provider (see details in the front cover). Each student remains on the role of the school or course they are part they are part of, and completes a further enrolment with Praxis, an NZQA approved training provider which provides courses to university level in New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Australia.

Praxis is responsible for monitoring the quality of learning and assessment through a partnership with your local provider. Praxis will report results to NZQA and provide a quarterly summary of each student’s academic progress (a Record of Achievement) to the provider.

AE Awards offers two qualifications:

                               Foundation Skills Award (level 1)

Target Group:

                               Certificate in Transition Skills (level 2)

 Target Group: 

NCEA equivalency:

Students who achieve 8 credits in literacy and 8 in numeracy as part of completing both awards (total of 80 credits) have met the requirements for NCEA level 1. You can use the selected studies section to make sure you can meet the 8 credit total for each area.

What subjects are taught?

Each qualification teaches and assesses learning in six areas:

• Literacy and Numeracy
• Life Skills
• Social Skills
• Employment Skills
• Identity and Belonging
• Health and Safety

Within each of these areas are a range of individual subjects. There is flexibility within the qualifications for each student to build on their strengths, respond to needs and pursue areas of interest.

How much does it cost?

There is a small enrolment fee and a cost for teaching materials, these are normally both covered by your local provider.

How do I find out more information?

Contact your local provider in the first case (see details inside the front cover).

How do I give feedback?

We believe that whanau and caregivers are important partners in helping each student achieve success. We welcome your involvement in and support of their learning.

As part of their agreenment with Praxis your provider is required to directly seek your input and feedback twice each year. This will normally be held at an event for whanau, learners and other stakeholders to talk to an independent person and tell us how we are doing on keeping our six promises (see below), and anything else you want to talk through about the programme.

Our five promises (we will ask you for feedback on how we do!)

For your son or daughter:

• This is a safe place to learn
• They get the help and resources they need to do their work
• They get good support and encouragement from the staff
• The stuff they are learning about is relevant to them
• I (as parent or caregiver) get good feedback on how they are going

What if I switch to another provider?

Even if you don’t finish the whole qualification, all of the unit standards that you have pass are reported to NZQA –they form part of your permanent learning record, and you can use your NZQA number to check this record anytime.

If you go to a new provider which is part of the Praxis network, we will simply continue your Record of Achievement from wherever you are up to (you may need to sign a new Learning Agreement).

How is learning assessed?

The AE Awards are based on unit standards. These are external standards that must each be fully met before we can award credit.

Each student will sit assessments for each unit standard when we (and they) feel ready. Some of the assessments involve written work (a test) and for others we will observe your practical work.

Before you sit an assessment, your provider should make you aware of

1. What standard you are being assessed for.

2. How you are going to be assessed.

3. What standard you have to reach to pass.

After the assessment your provider should inform you about your results as soon as possible afterwards. Your results for each assessment will be one of the following:

NYC  Not Yet Complete (some more work needed)

C  Complete (all requirements are met)

M Complete with Merit (all requirements are met and some are exceeded)

If you have achieved a C or M pass, your results will be reported to Praxis, and then on to NZQA. NOTE: results will only be reported to NZQA as complete or not complete (merit is recorded by NZQA as complete).

If you get a NYC grade your assessor will sit down with you and explain their decision, work out what you need to do some more work on, and work out a time to re-sit the asssessment when they and you feel ready to try again.

Copies of your assessment work may be kept on file by Praxis for moderation –a process we use to check that each assessor is marking fairly and consistently.

If you believe that an assessment has not been marked fairly you can use the complaints procedure outlined in the back of this booklet.

All assessments can be re-sat, as many times as needed, although the re-scheduling for this will be up to your provider. Most appeals against a grading will be dealt with by arranging for a re-sit (possibly with a different assessor).

Four principles guide our assessment practice:

• It is FAIR to you in the way it is being assessed?
• Is it TRANSPARENT –do you know what you have to do and how you will be graded?
• Is it VALID –have you genuinely learnt the skill being assessed?
• Is it RELIABLE –could you perform this skill in another situation?

What if I can already do some of the subjects?

If you have already completed some of the subjects in your qualification (for example at another school or provider), you can do one of these two things:

Bring along some evidence to show your provider what you have already done (for example bring your Record of Learning or a Certificate that shows what you have done).

OR

Arrange to sit the assessment straight away to show that you can do it.

What if I have a complaint or a concern?

If you have a concern, or feel that you have been unfairly treated, you should follow this process:

1. Take the matter up with your local provider (their details are on the inside front cover).

If that doesn’t resolve it

2. Contact Praxis (our details are on the inside front cover).

We promise to respond promptly and keep you informed.

We may follow any of these courses of action:

• We may refer the issue back to the school or governing body of your local provider –especially if it doesn’t directly affect your enrolment in the AE Awards.
• We may ask a local (independent) person to investigate the problem and report back to you and us.
• We may ask a mediator (a local person who is agreeable to you and your local provider) to come and listen to both sides of the story and help reach an agreement.
• We may directly involve the police or other authorites ourselves.

If that doesn’t resolve it

3. You can contact any of the following agencies:

• The Ministry of Education (0800 832 246)
• The Human Rights Commission (0800 496 877)
• Your local Police.