Youth Guarantee
The Youth Guarantee is a new tertiary education initiative
announced as part of Budget 2009.
Youth Guarantee focusses on improving the educational achievements
of targeted 16 and 17 year olds by providing them with an
opportunity to participate in a range of vocational courses free of
charge.
Programme objectives
The objectives of the Youth Guarantee initiative are to:
* increase the educational achievement of
targeted 16 and 17 year olds not currently
engaged in education by
providing them with improved access to study towards
qualifications at levels 1 to
3 on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in tertiary
education
* improve transitions between school, tertiary
education and work.
Background information
The TEC has provided some further background information for
organisations about Youth Guarantee including frequently asked questions about the
implementation of Youth Guarantee.
Learner eligibility
The target group for the Youth Guarantee initiative is students
aged 16 and 17, who have achieved NCEA Level 1 or less and for whom
a vocational pathway would be a preferred choice.
It is expected that demand may exceed the number of places that
can be funded in 2010. Youth Guarantee providers will need to
apply the following criteria to determine student
eligibility:
* Age: students must not turn 18 years of age
within three months of starting study
under the Youth Guarantee
* School level: students must have completed
Year 11 and be ready to move beyond
school
* New students: students must be new to
tertiary education i.e. not previously or
currently enrolled in a
Student Achievement Component (SAC) funded course
* Full time: students must be enrolled
full-time
* Full year: students must enrol in a minimum
of a full year?s worth of study (the
equivalent of 0.8
EFTS).
Students enrolled in Youth Guarantee will not be eligible for
Student Loans administered by StudyLink. Providers will be
responsible for ensuring their enrolled Youth Guarantee students
are not claiming any type of Student Loan through StudyLink.
Provider eligibility
To be eligible to provide Youth Guarantee, tertiary education
organisations (TEOs) must:
* already deliver Student Achievement Component
(SAC) funded courses
* have a track record for delivering NQF Level
1 to 3 courses targeted at youth that lead
to successful outcomes e.g. numbers
of students that achieve positive outcomes are
above the national average (either
successful course completions or retention) or
demonstrate its capability to
deliver to this age group
* have pastoral care capability, including
delivery in culturally appropriate contexts
* have developed the capability to deliver
embedded literacy, language and numeracy
and can deliver such courses
(or have a credible plan to do so during 2010) to Youth
Guarantee recipients
* have capacity to deliver extra EFTS or can
scale up for 2010
* demonstrate capability in catering to the
needs of Māori and Pacific students
* be able to provide students, through the
course content, knowledge and information on
pathways into higher level
qualifications and vocational training
* be prepared to submit manual reports to the
TEC at regular intervals.
Process for provider selection
The Youth Guarantee is open to institutes of technology and
polytechnics, wānanga, private training establishments and other
tertiary education providers. However, as 2010 is the first
year of implementation, only selected organisations will be
approached by the TEC and invited to submit proposals.
Approximately 2,000 Youth Guarantee equivalent full-time students
(EFTS) are likely to be available for allocation in 2010 throughout
New Zealand.
Successful selection will be based on providers operating in areas
of high need (i.e. greatest number of youth unemployed), and how
well their proposal meets the programme?s objectives. Funding
decisions will be made as part of the Investment Plan
process.
Delivery model
A Youth Guarantee programme will consist of courses that meet the
objectives of the initiative and are suitable to the target
group.
The courses offered as part of the Youth Guarantee must be
vocationally focussed, with clear pathways into higher levels of
training integrated into the course content. The courses do not
need to be restricted to Youth Guarantee students.
Courses offered through Youth Guarantee must:
* be linked to Levels 1-3 qualifications
registered on the NQF
* have embedded literacy, language and numeracy
in the course content (or have a
credible plan to do so during
2010)
* provide students with knowledge and
information on vocational pathways
* contain a mix of practical, specific and
generic skill development
* be delivered face-to-face (i.e. not distance
learning)
* not be a direct substitute for school-based
learning.
The TEC expects to invest in a range of vocational courses for
Youth Guarantee students. Preference will be given to the
following New Zealand Standard Classification of Education (NZSCED)
classifications:
* Engineering and Technology
* Business, Accountancy, Office
Systems/Secretarial, Management
* Agriculture and Horticulture
* Trades 2.
This does not exclude providers offering programmes within other
course categories, but they would need to clearly demonstrate to
the TEC that the courses have clear vocational links and
progression into higher level qualifications.
Funding
For every Youth Guarantee student enrolled in an identified Youth
Guarantee course, the provider will be paid a Youth Guarantee
Payment of $4,500, in addition to their SAC and TEO Component
funding, to cover student fees and pastoral care
arrangements. Courses must be provided free of charge to
Youth Guarantee enrolled students.
$4,500 is no higher than the relevant Fee Course Cost Maxima
(FCCM), and will be paid to providers as part of the monthly SAC
allocation. SAC funding will be subject to a ?wash up? at the
end of the year for under-delivery below 97%.
Youth Guarantee students enrolled in courses with embedded
literacy and numeracy will not incur the additional SAC ?top up?
payment for certificate levels 1-3 courses.
Pastoral Care
The Youth Guarantee Payment includes provision for pastoral care
services for Youth Guarantee students. Pastoral care may
include a range of services tailored towards the needs, including
cultural, of the individual student. This may include:
providing career planning and advice, learning support,
extra-curricular activities, an orientation programme, regular form
classes or counselling.
Performance
monitoring
The TEC expects a high level of performance from Youth Guarantee
courses. This would include a similar or higher level of
achievement by Youth Guarantee students compared to other students
enrolled in the same course.
Fund requirements will be in place to measure the performance of
Youth
* Retention: providers will report on how many
Youth Guarantee students complete their enrolled courses
* Successful completions: providers will report
on how many Youth Guarantee students successfully complete their
enrolled courses
* Progression: providers will report on how
many Youth Guarantee students progress into further education or
training or employment
* Literacy Language and Numeracy: providers
will report the extent to which Youth Guarantee students improve
their literacy and numeracy skills as measured against the Adult
Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions.
Upon expansion of the programme beyond 2010, the TEC would expect
providers to set key performance indicators within their Investment
Plans based on the measures above.
Dependent on the availability of funding, additional providers
will be eligible to offer Youth Guarantee as the programme expands.
Performance in meeting the programme's objectives will be
considered in determining any future allocations.
Reporting
The TEC intends to monitor Youth Guarantee students using the
Single Data Return (SDR) system. Providers will need to
identify these students in their SDR returns using the new code
provided for this purpose in the "Source of Funding" field.
Providers may also need to provide some additional manual
reporting against fund requirements. A template and timeline
for this reporting will be provided at a later date if
required.
Providers are responsible for ensuring their enrolled Youth
Guarantee students are not claiming any type of Student Loan
through StudyLink and will be required to check this.
Administration
The Youth Guarantee delivery and administration will form part of
a provider's Investment Plan. Successful providers will be
allocated a number of EFTS that will be itemised in their Mix of
Provision section of the Investment Plan.
Those providers with Investment Plans already in place for 2010
will receive notification of the additional funding in a
confirmation letter as soon as practical.
* Youth Guarantee information released on
website - early August
* Selected TEOs invited to submit proposals -
early August
* Proposals submitted to the TEC - 28
August
* TEC assesses proposals - September
* Indicative allocations advised to TEOs -
September
* Board of Commissioners approves allocations -
November
* Notification letters sent - November
* Youth Guarantee commences - January
2010
