This page provides NPLA assessors with key information and resources.

NPLA Assessor Toolkit

Credit Report Pads

New Credit Reporting pads are now available from Skills Active. Return your old Credit Report Pads to us and we will send you an updated version or call 0508 4 SKILLS (0508 475 4557) and we will post one to you.

Public Courses

Skills Active has occasionally allowed an industry exemption for these units to be assessed via 'public' courses to ensure a supply of qualified lifeguards for facilities. Unfortunately some facilities/assessors have seen this as an opportunity to profit from this exemption. Examples include large numbers of school students being 'trained' and then a Lifeguard assessor being approached to 'assess' and award the NPLA. Other groups have also approached aquatics facilities to train and assess people as lifeguards where they may have activities involving not only pools but also rivers and other aquatic environments. In most of these cases the intent, while worthy, has been to give someone the NPLA as a qualification rather than for employment purposes. This practice dilutes the purpose of the award and means people will hold the qualification but not actually be lifeguards. A lifeguard assessor may also feel pressured to award the qualification because the facility/assessor has been 'paid' for this.

Gateway Opportunities

The government has increased access to a programme called Gateway which is a transition work experience initiative for year 11 & 12 school students. This is a formalised arrangement between workplaces and the school where there is a commitment for the student to complete some 'on-job' training with 10 credits or more of unit standards. There is funding available for Gateway. NZRA and Skills Active believe this initiative is a great opportunity for facilities to work with their local schools to increase the available employment pool. 

This has to be managed well for the same reasons outlined above under Public Courses. The main questions NZRA and Skills Active will ask are around intention, motivation and scale of activity. If a fee is involved - it should not be about purchasing a qualification for a qualification's sake. It should be to give real skills to a young person to increase their employment possibilities. It is not appropriate for large numbers of people who are not actively employed, or intend to be employed, in the aquatics industry to hold an industry qualification.

If you are a Skills Active Registered Assessor and you want to assess a candidate who is not employed by a Skills Active Registered Workplace you MUST discuss this with your Relationship Manager first.