Open Government Partnership New Zealand National Action Plan 2018-2020
Progress report for: June 2018 – January 2019
Commitment 3 progress report: June 2018 to January 2019
Commitment 3:
Lead agency: Ministry of Education
Objective: To develop a Schools Leavers’ Toolkit (Toolkit), comprising a suite of tools, resources and curriculum supports making it much simpler for schools to:
- Understand and respond to learners’ levels of civic and financial literacy, and work readiness
- Integrate civics, financial literacy and workplace competencies into their local curriculum across years 7 - 11
- Effectively teach civics, financial literacy and workplace competencies.
Civics education, and an understanding of how government and the democratic process works, is an important element in developing young people who are confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners.
The Toolkit will also provide a vehicle for increasing young people’s access to other Plan commitments, such as the information products being developed by the Office of the Clerk, and the Youth Parliament programme, delivered by the Ministry of Youth Development and the Office of the Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives.
Ambition: Every young person can access the civic and financial literacy, and workplace skills, they need to succeed, before they leave schooling.
OGP values: Public Participation
Milestones
Milestone 1
Stocktake of existing Toolkit resources complete.
Start/End dates: June 2018 – September 2018
Progress: Completed
Milestone 2
Ministers consider Ministry of Education analysis of opportunities to support expanded access to Toolkit opportunities.
Start/End dates: September 2018 – December 2018
Progress: Underway
Milestone 3
Exploratory co-design phase concludes and is used to inform resource development and a detailed implementation support plan.
Start/End dates: June 2018 – February 2019
Progress: Underway
Milestone 4
Pilot implementation reporting and evaluation complete.
Start/End dates: February 2019 – November 2019
Progress: Underway
What we have been doing
- In December last year we completed our initial Toolkit engagement. During the engagement period we held a range of workshops across the country involving 75 students, 24 school and kura staff and 30 employers.
- We have completed a stocktake of the English medium programmes and resources currently available to support Toolkit learning and are now working through the gaps in provision to identify development priorities. A stocktake of Māori medium programmes and resources will be carried out as part of a comprehensive engagement and co-design process between February and August 2019. Māori medium resource development will then follow.
To support the civics education component of the Toolkit, we have set up a civics working group, bringing together representatives from government agencies, resource providers, civil society, organisations and experts. The aim of this group is to define the scope of civics education in the context of the Toolkit and to oversee development of any new resources. The group met for the first time on 28 January and successfully achieved its objectives of:
- Agreeing on the priorities for civics education for the School Leaver’s Toolkit.
- Add to the stocktake of existing resources and support.
- Connecting for future collaboration and conversation.
We are underway with development of the School Leavers’ Toolkit schools-facing and student-facing websites. The student facing website will be available in English and te reo Māori.
How we are including diverse voices
- In 2019 we will build on the work done in 2018 by increasing our engagement with parents, whānau, and the wider community. We will also extend our engagement with young people to include recent school leavers in work, education and not in education, employment or training (NEET).
- In late March we will hold a Capstone Hui in Auckland, bringing together employers, parents, tertiary education organisations and students aged 16-24 to reflect on the engagement findings to date, define what a successful Toolkit will look like for each user group, and come up with ideas for how various users could work together to support these aims.
How we are keeping diverse communities informed
- We have developed a communications plan to ensure that stakeholders are kept informed. Updates on the progress of the Toolkit’s development will be available on the schools-facing website (publically accessible) from February.
What's next?
- In February, work begins on the design of the Māori Medium Toolkit framework, stocktake of resources, gap analysis and co-design of implementation models. This will be carried out in partnership with ākonga Māori, kaiako and whānau in a range of education settings.
- We have identified two schools, and are in the process of identifying two more, who we will work with during 2019 to document Toolkit case studies and test prototypes. This co-design work with schools will inform the development of resources, guidelines and curriculum support tools which will be shared on the schools-facing Toolkit website as they become available.
- We will build on the work of the civics education working group to develop a framework for delivering civics education in schools from year 7. The group will meet again in the middle of the year to review progress.
Links – Evidence of progress and milestones achieved
- School Leavers’ Toolkit Phase One Engagement Report (attached)
- Stocktake of existing Toolkit resources (attached)