Ray Lind, the Careerforce chief executive, said the ITO had received the highest possible ratings in the routine NZQA External Evaluation and Review (EER). NZQA gave Careerforce a “Highly Confident” rating for both its educational performance and its self-assessment – up from a rating of “confident” in the last review in 2013.

“This report is the result of a huge team effort by staff, with the guidance of a superb board,” said Lind. “But also the active support and contribution of our 1100 employer partners and our 17,000 trainees currently enrolled with us”.

Careerforce has experienced significant growth since the last review, with an associated increase in Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) funding of 30%, but has also achieved an increased cash contribution from employers, from 27% in 2015 to 37% in 2016

Careerforce is the industry training organisation (ITO) for the health, mental health, youth work, disability, social services and cleaning sectors.

All non-university tertiary education organisations (TEOs) are subject to periodic EERs, the purpose of which is to provide an independent judgement of their educational performance and capability in self-assessment.