Gateway Funding

Gateway funding enables secondary schools to give senior students access to structured workplace learning integrated with school-based learning. Students’ learning is assessed in the workplace and they can achieve credits on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) towards their National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA).

Gateway is designed to support school students’ transition into the workforce by offering them workplace learning while at secondary school. This should include a formal agreement (like an individualised learning plan) between the school, the student and the workplace.

The workplace learning should include:

• set unit standards for the student to work towards and achieve
• specific assessment methods.

October 2022 changes

We have made changes to the way Gateway funding is allocated and recovered. The changes have been made in response to feedback from schools, the Careers and Transition Education Association New Zealand (CATENZ) and the Career Development Association of New Zealand (CDANZ).

These changes will support the growth of our high-quality Gateway programme by reducing the financial risk schools are exposed to through our recovery and allocation approaches. The intent is to support schools to focus on learner-centred programme delivery and reduce enrolment barriers for learners who may have struggled to achieve 20 credits.

Definition of delivery

We are expanding the definition of delivery. This will have an impact on any 2022 recoveries. Delivery is currently defined as occurring when a work placement is completed and reported. A work placement should be for a sustained period of time to ensure planned learning goals are met. 

The delivery definition now also includes:

• A learner withdrew from a Gateway programme after 1 month enrolment; or
• A learner is impacted by an employer withdrawing from an arranged work placement within 3 months of the anticipated placement’s start date. 

Change impacts to definition of delivery

The impact of this change is:

1. There will likely be less recovery of funding from schools that have previously under-delivered due to the circumstances covered under the expanded definition.
2. The 2022 Reporting Templates will be updated to support this change and will be provisioned to your WorkSpace2 on 31 October 2022.
3. Please note, as part of the funding conditions, each school must attest to integrity of the data it reports and that this may be audited.

Funding allocation methodology

When calculating your indicative allocation of learner numbers each year, adjustments are made based on past performance (credit achievement). (Please note, due to the impacts of COVID-19, these adjustments were not carried out on your 2022 and 2023 indicative allocations.)

Currently when the average credit achievement per learner falls below thresholds, we adjust allocations as follows:

• 20-18 credits = 5% reduction,
• 18-10 credits = 15% reduction,
• Less than 10 credits = 25% reduction.

Change impacts to funding allocation methodology

From 2024 onwards we are reducing the use of credit achievement adjustments in the calculation of your indicative allocation. For you this means that:

• We will only be retaining the threshold when the average credit achievement per learner is less than 10 credits. A 25% reduction in funding will be applied.
• A learner who withdraws from a Gateway programme after 1 month enrolment will be excluded from your average credit per learner calculation.
• As a result of this change, we will likely make fewer reductions to each school’s future allocation based on average credit achievement per learner calculations.