28 October 2011
The Tertiary Education Commission has published a revised edition of the Foundation Focused Training Opportunities (FFTO) Handbook on its website. It is effective from today.
The Focused Training Opportunities (FFTO) Handbook includes a number of changes and also clarifies the following attributes and requirements:
- Learners are still required to spend 30 hours per week in study, however the previous rules requiring that all of those 30 hours be spent in contact with a tutor has been revised, and the definition of “in study” has been clarified (page 4 ).
- Previously the maximum allowable time a learner could spend in workplace learning was four weeks. Exceptions to this rule are now permitted where a detailed and structured workplace learning/training plan is signed by the FFTO provider, learner and workplace learning provider (page 5 ).
- The 14 week course completion performance commitment is now measured independently of Labour Market Outcomes (LMOs). A learner does not have to ‘complete’ the course to have their employment and/or further education and training, and literacy and numeracy skills improvement outcomes counted (page 8 ).
- Work and Income referral documentation must be obtained for each enrolment event; learners have a total entitlement to participate in 26 weeks of FFTO study, regardless of how many TEOs they study with (pages 10 and 11 ).
- Clarification regarding the use of the Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Tool (pages 14 and 15 ).
- Collection and entry of both the learner SWN number and benefit type upon referral from Work and Income is now compulsory to be collected in ERS. (page 16 ).
- Two new learner result codes have been added to the Handbook (page 22 ) –
- OPT (other part time training), to enable the capture of part time further training results. Previously only full time training results could be captured.
- Training for Work, to capture the results for any FFTO learners moving on to MSD’s Training for Work programmes.
- Examples are now provided to show how results are linked to beneficiary job seeker obligations, and better defining what constitutes an “achieved” result for LMO results in relation to job seeker obligations (pages 24-25 ).
- Travel is now subject to a $75 per week reimbursement maximum, and must be based on an actual and reasonable approach, for example paying concession rates where possible (page 27)
- Travel wash-up requirements have been clarified (page 28 ).
- Learner travel and GST examples have been included to assist with understanding of GST implications (page 29 ).
Please contact our Service Centre on 0800 601 301 or send an e-mail to servicecentre@tec.govt.nz if you have any questions.