Update from ITPNZ
Here's a quick weekly update from ITP CEO Paul Matthews
Another short week this week, meaning many of us trying to cram 5 days' of work into 4 days and it certainly felt like it!
At ITP we're continuing to work from home in Level-3 and the team is doing well. This week's Friday Live webinar focuses on keeping things that way for all of us - wellness from a leadership perspective. How do we ensure our teams and ourselves are doing the best we can be? A really important topic - check it out below.
Heaps of other things happening this week, including progressing the Workforce Development Council (WDC) part of the bigger changes in the vocational education sector. We're deeply involved from a tech profession perspective. Plus, want to get involved in our Professional Guidance Working Group? We'd love to have you.
4pm today: Friday Live webinar on leading Wellness
Each Friday of Level 3 and 4 lockdown ITP we are hosting the new ITP Friday Live webinar, with the techblog crew giving an update plus a special guest speaker and Q&A.
This week's session features a tech news roundup with the TechBlog team, followed by a great talk and Q&A session from clinical psychologist Gaynor Parkin, talking about leading wellbeing in these uncertain times. Mental health is a hugely important topic.
Gaynor will talk about wellbeing and especially from the context of a team - how do you ensure your, your colleagues' and your teams' wellbeing and mental health is front of mind? Plus help you gauge where you and your team are at.
So grab a beer, wine or juice and finish your week off right with this informative and entertaining session, delivered live online nationwide!
Next week: Privacy Commissioner John Edwards
Next week we're pleased to welcome NZ Privacy Commissioner John Edwards to talk about privacy in the days of Covid-19, and answer your questions. As always, we also feature a tech news roundup with the TechBlog team and heaps of Q&A with our speaker.
Also, don't forget Tech Chat Tuesday - Tuesday 2pm, grab yourself a cuppa and come and have a chat with other tech folks across New Zealand.
Professional Guidance Working Group - want to get involved?
One of the roles of a professional body is providing guidance to IT Professionals about professional practice. In our case, this takes the form of the Code of Ethics, as well as a broader Code of Practice and Professional Knowledge Curriculum.
The Working Group will focus on reviewing these documents for currency and clarity, plus looking at what other guidance we, as an organisation, should provide. It's a great opportunity to "give back" to the profession and looks great on your CV.
The time commitment for the Working Group is around 2-3 hours a month plus meetings, with most meetings happening online for the moment.
If you're interested in getting involved, flick a note through to [email protected] with your CV (or a link to LinkedIn). It'll be fun!
Workforce Development Council design process underway
I spent most of Thursday this week in the first meeting of the WDC Reference Group - the group providing input into the structure and design of the new Workforce Development Councils (WDCs), part of the Review of Vocational Education (RoVE).
RoVE is the big education review where all polytechs and institutes of technology are being merged and the whole sub-degree qualification and education space is being changed hugely. The WDCs are a core component of this; the standard/qualification setting part and the primary point of engagement with industry.
It was certainly an interesting experience taking on an all-day Zoom meeting of 40 people from a whole bunch of diverse industries (I was representing the tech sector of course). This was organised and chaired by the Tertiary Education Commission and they did a good job of pulling it together, albeit they're clearly new to digital collaboration.
While there is a significant amount of "process" and committees around the whole RoVE establishment, it was great to see TEC moving forward with the WDC design component even though we're in lockdown.
Separate from the design process, we're still in discussions with other industries, TEC, and the Minister of Education about the makeup of the WDCs and specifically where IT/Tech should sit. I also met with the Heads of School for IT across the polytech sector this week, and the Business heads last week, to help determine a way forwards. There's been some good positive progress and hopefully there'll be some more to report soon.
Govt's Cloud Marketplace currently offline
Some of you may be aware that the Govt's Marketplace is currently offline following a vulnerability being uncovered. This was originally called the "Cloud Marketplace" and while expanded to include other areas now, started with mainly Cloud-related services.
We're in direct contact with GCDO about this and, to be honest, we're impressed with how they've managed the situation. The issue was in a very specific use case and impacted one set of validated providers only, however they have done the right thing in investigating fully and pulling the Marketplace until it has been resolved.
They've been open and transparent about the situation and have assured us it will be back up as soon as they have confidence the issue is resolved.
ITP Board Meeting focuses on Covid-19 disruption
Last week the National Board of ITP met to work through both Covid-19 and "business as usual" items. As with most organisations across New Zealand, ITP itself has been significantly impacted operationally by Covid-19 and the lockdown.
The good news is that ITP is on solid footing and is not currently at risk. We're in a good position to weather the storm. Internally, we've implemented a "Covid-19" budget and made a number of changes, and externally we're busier than ever across a big range of projects. Our team are all working very effectively from home and in good spirits.
Amongst other things, there were also some significant decisions made by the Board about Branch Elections and Degree Accreditation renewals this year. I'll outline both of these next week once those affected have been brought up to speed.
Another issue impacted by Covid-19 is ITP's 60th Anniversary celebration, intended for later this year. Originally established in 1960, we're very proud of our 60 year history and had been intending to celebrate this significant milestone at ITx 2020. With the conference being postponed to 2021, we need to think again about how we mark this anniversary.
It's now unlikely that we will have an event or series of events to celebrate the 60th Anniversary however we also don't want to let it pass without recognition. So we will be marking the milestone and you'll see more about this in the coming months.
And lastly, the AGM date has been set down as June 25th. This year the AGM will be held completely online, even if we're out of lockdown. More info, including the formal notice, will be provided in due course.
Discount on ITP Short Courses
Given the current Covid-19 lockdown, we've made all of our courses available online, bumped up their availability heaps over the next month, and are providing an additional 20% discount for everyone.
With at least 2 different courses available every week, all delivered live and interactive online, here's a great opportunity to use this time to upskill you and your team. Pick and choose the courses that suit you.
Use the discount code covid19 to receive an additional 20% discount on all course registrations during Covid alert level 4 and level 3. This is off the listed price and is in addition to discounts for members and staff of Corporate Partners.
The current courses are listed below and we'll be adding more regularly. Let us know if there's another topic you'd like to see included and we'll do our best to bring it to you.
Comments
You must be logged in in order to post comments. Log In
