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Components of the Vocational Education and Training System

What is Vocational Education and Training

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is education and training that helps people gain the skills needed to do a job – or do it better.

Who is Muka Tangata?

Muka Tangata is the Workforce Development Council (WDC) for People, Food and Fibre. View the complete list of industry groups that we represent: Our industries.

There are six WDCs which are responsible for:

  • setting standards,
  • developing qualifications,
  • moderate assessments against industry standards,
  • endorse programmes (delivery) that lead to vocational qualification,
  • provide advice to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) on investment in vocational education.

We work with employers and industry groups across food and fibre to identify skills gaps and ensure qualifications and training programmes reflect what’s actually needed.

We don’t deliver training, but we help shape what good training looks like and push for options that work better for employers and workers alike.

What’s changing in 2026?

Changes to the VET system will come into effect on 1 January 2026.

Read more, and stay informed about the future of vocational education and training here ›

Who’s involved in the VET system?

  • Industry: That’s you – helping shape what’s needed and supporting learners in the workplace.
  • Learner/Akonga: These are your current or future employees who are upskilling in training to work competently in your industry.
  • Providers: Deliver vocational education and training to learners. Provders covers Te Pūkenga and its subsidiaries, Wānaga and private training establishments (PTEs).
  • Tertiary Education Commission (TEC): Provides funding and monitors provider performance.
  • New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA): Makes sure training and assessment meet national standards.

How can I have my say?

We want to hear what’s working, what’s not, what your skill needs are, and what barriers exist for you.

Your feedback will help shape the future of skills development, and the qualifications that support that development.

Submit your feedback here ›

Key terms and areas of responsibility

  • A qualification is a nationally-recognised, quality-assured achievement and is listed on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework.
  • The qualification document sets out a series of formal expectations. IT indicates clearly through the graduate profile outcomes what graduates of the qualification are expected to know, be, and do, as well as outlining the educational and employment pathway, and any conditions relevant to the qualification.
  • A qualification must be at least 40 credits in size.

  • A micro-credential is a nationally-recognised, quality-assured achievement and is listed on the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework.
  • Micro-credentials are designed to provide formal recognition of a specific group of skills (for upskilling) or to respond to an urgent need for which developing a full qualification would take too long.
  • Micro-credentials are limited to a maximum of 40 credits and are not themselves qualifications, but in some circumstances can contribute to achieving a qualifcation.

  • Skill Standards relate to the skills and knowledge that lie behind processes and activities. They specify the standards for training, and the performance expected of people who are receiving the training.
  • Unit Standards are small, specific units of learning, and typically relate to completing a process or activity. They supply the criteria that allow an assessor to determine whether a learner is competent.
  • Over the next five years, Skill Standards will replace Unit Standards, and so both types of standard will coexist during that period.\

  • A programme specifies learning and assessment events that will be used to meet the qualification requirements. It is developed by a provider to meet the requirements of the graduate profile outcomes specified in the qualification.
  • Depending on the provider, the programme might be constructed from standards or from ‘modules’ (which are courses of study developed by the provider).
  • The provider also develops the learning resources that learners will use during the programme delivery, and the assessment tasks that learners will need to complete successfully to be awarded the qualification.

  • An apprenticeship is a formal programme where someone works and learns over 2-3 years, usually gaining a Level 3 or 4 qualification.
  • Managed training is less formal – usually a short programme or group of unit standards delivered with some workplace and provider support.

  • ‘Level‘ relates to the complexity of the skill or knowledge expected of the learner. Expectations around level are set by NZQA.
  • ‘Credits‘ relate to the amount of time it is expected that an average learner will take to learn, practice and be assessed for a particular stanrdard, micro-credential, or qualifications. 1 credit is equivalent to approximately 10 hours.