At the TEC, we gather a range of information about common issues through our monitoring activities. We’re committed to partnering with tertiary education organisations, and sharing learnings from our monitoring work to help the sector build capability so we can all achieve better outcomes for learners. 

Hardship Fund for Learners – extension of spending timeframe

The Hardship Fund for Learners (HAFL) was announced in May 2020 to help TEOs provide temporary financial assistance for their enrolled learners who faced hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funding was used to support initiatives from 23 March 2020 (the date the move to COVID-19 alert Level 4 was announced) until 31 December 2020 and was automatically allocated to all eligible TEOs.

An extension to spend the funds on learners in hardship was offered to those TEOs that had funds remaining as of October 2020. If you are a TEO that accepted the extension, please remember you now have until 30 June 2021 to use your HAFL funding.

For those TEOs that accepted the extension, we also remind you that we have added learner fees to the list of items that HAFL funding cannot be used for. This is because this funding is not to be used to subsidise services you provide to learners.

Refunds to Fees Free and Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund eligible learners

As a reminder to TEOs that deliver Fees Free and Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund (TTAF) programmes or qualifications, you cannot charge fees to an eligible student for eligible study.

Your obligations for receiving Fees Free and TTAF payments are set out in the SAC Level 3 and above and ITF funding conditions (PDF 1.8 MB) and your Fees Free and TTAF agreements. These conditions mean that if we have advised you that we will make payments to you for an eligible learner – you cannot charge that learner.

If a learner has paid fees and is entitled to a refund, as we have advised you that we will pay their fees, you must refund the learner as soon as possible. This includes refunds to any other party that may have paid the learner’s fees including fees covered by the Student Loan Scheme.

If you have any questions regarding refunds to Fees Free or TTAF learners, please contact the TEC Customer Contact Group on customerservice@tec.govt.nz or 0800 601 301.

Previously Completed Qualifications app

Through our monitoring activities, we have identified instances of TEOs enrolling learners in qualifications they have already achieved.

Our funding conditions specify that you must not seek funding for recognised prior learning credited to a student. This does not apply if the repeated learning or training is required to be undertaken periodically by an applicable quality assurance body.

To assist the sector to comply with this condition, the TEC has developed a new app called Previously Completed Qualifications. The app has been created to assist you, at the point of enrolment, to check whether a learner has previously completed a qualification or not. The app should supplement your existing engagement with a learner about their enrolment including checking their NZQA NZ Record of Achievement (NZRoA).

TEOs can enter a learner’s National Student Number (NSN) and qualification codes starting with ‘NZ’ into the app. The app then checks Single Data Return (SDR) data available from 2015 onwards to determine if the learner has previously completed the qualification.

The app will help to ensure fewer instances of repeated enrolments in the future and support the education of TEOs across the sector.

The app is available on Ngā Kete and further information can be found in the app’s quick reference guide (PDF 574 KB).

Expiring qualifications

A number of TEOs have qualifications that are closed off for new enrolments and about to expire. It is important that you ensure a replacement programme is in place for any qualifications you are delivering that are nearing expiry.

As a reminder, TEC cannot fund expired qualifications. Once the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) assigns an expiry date to a qualification, we will not fund any new students that you enroll after the last date for entry of that qualification (i.e. the last date a learner can be enrolled in a programme leading to this qualification).

These conditions apply if you are a wānanga, private training establishment, Te Pūkenga. As of TEC’s 2021 base funding conditions this also applies if you are a Transitional Industry Training Organisation (TITO).