Ō Mātou Ākonga Learners and Providers

• Many ākonga (learners) for the Nursery, Turf and Gardening industry group are undertaking qualifications that are relevant to multiple industries, particularly within horticulture. The number of ākonga has seen an overall growth over the last five years, peaking in 2021.
• A large proportion of ākonga are enrolled in the New Zealand Certificate in Horticulture (General) (Level 3). Industry has indicated that this is not a qualification they use, and this growth is likely to be driven by hobbyists rather than those working in industry.
• The number of ākonga enrolled in the New Zealand Certificate in Horticulture Production (Level 4) has steadily increased. This equips people with existing experience in the industry with the skills and knowledge to supervise day to day operations in horticulture production.
• There has been strong growth in the uptake of complex apprenticeships (NZA) across the Nursery, Amenity and Sports Turf areas. The rise could be due to a government initiative aimed at increasing apprenticeships across all industries.

How did we get here? 

In this section, we show qualifications that fall within Muka Tangata’s responsibility. We have matched these to each of our industry groups. We have also matched relevant micro-credentials, not necessarily developed by Muka Tangata, to our industry groups. Some qualifications or micro-credentials appear in more than one industry group as they could be useful to that industry, regardless of whether they are currently being used.

Complex apprenticeships consist of multiple programme enrolments. We have matched the main programmes to their relevant industry groups as we do not have the information for the target qualifications. As the data we have only included enrolments in current qualifications and micro-credentials, a full picture of historical trends of all learners in the industry is not reported here.

Qualification strand information is available for ākonga undertaking work-based training (apprentices and trainees). However, due to the limitations of our data for provider-based learners, we cannot separate enrolments into specific strands. For this reason, we have only reported enrolment data at the qualification level. We continue to work on ways to improve the data available to us.

Quality of programmes delivered by training providers

Muka Tangata independently checks assessment material that providers have developed, as well as their assessors’ decisions. This is called moderation – its similar to an audit.

Moderation ensures training carried out by providers is robust. It improves provider practices, and ensures graduates have the skills they need.

The reports provide employers and industry with detail on our activities, the quality of provider assessment, performance of programmes and number of new programmes developed in the past 12 months.