FRAMING THE FUTURE
Proposal Paper from the Health Science and Technical Workforces
Working Group (Phase 2) June 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
There is no question that the health care environment is changing constantly, and often rapidly. It
is important to ensure that New Zealand has a health science and technical workforce with the
skills and capabilities we need now and one that is equipped to adapt to the changes that arise
with new technologies and models of care.
To achieve this, we need an education framework that:
 assists workforce planners to identify future local, regional and national workforce
needs
 gives employers confidence that approved education and training programmes provide
science and technical professionals who are work-ready, and who will be able to
adapt to new technologies and models of care
 enables individuals to build on their skills and experience to meet the changing
environment, or to support career change, as efficiently and effectively as possible.
The education framework proposed in this paper is designed to enable progression up through
an occupational domain (a group of professions related by requisite information and skills) as
well as movement across occupational domains, whilst recognising existing knowledge, skills and
capabilities, and building on those or adding new competencies that may be required.
Just as the way health technology and models of care are changing, so is the way we learn and
teach. Health science and technical education and training must incorporate e-learning and
blended learning modes to ensure that programmes of study are more accessible across
the country and engage learners in contemporary and meaningful ways.
Framing the Future outlines a proposed education framework and provides examples of how the
proposed framework will enable coordination, flexibility and adaptability in the health science and
technical workforce, across technician to scientist, and from certificate and undergraduate
programmes to postgraduate degrees.
FRAMING THE FUTURE: AN INTRODUCTION
Requirements of an education framework for the Allied Health, Health Science and
Technical workforces
The provision of future patient-centred sustainable health care is dependent on a health
workforce equipped with the skills and knowledge to provide effective and efficient services in a
constantly changing environment. To achieve this, we need an education framework for the allied
health, health science and technical sectors that is adaptable and which enables flexibility in
current and future career choices.
The new education framework must also provide new entrants and future employees in the allied
health, science and technical health workforces with the chance to choose an education entry
point for their chosen occupation.
In addition, a new education framework must be flexible enough to adapt to emerging
technologies, changing modalities and career shifts.
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The Proposed Education Framework
The education framework for the allied health, health science and technical workforces proposed
here supports those entering the workforce for the first time by providing them with a
qualification which includes core skills and competencies, occupational domain skills and
competencies, and discipline-specific skills and competencies.
Under the proposed education framework, having completed an initial qualification in health
sciences and/or technology, a person can change their career direction by completing the
required occupational domain skills and/or specialist competency requirements without
necessarily having to undertake a whole new qualification. If a person does need to undertake a
new qualification, then recognition of prior learning will apply to the new programme of study.
What this means for current and future health science and technology professionals is that,
following their initial qualification, they will be able to upskill or change their career direction in
more efficient, effective and authentic ways.
For employers, the framework has been designed to achieve a more flexible, fit-for-purpose,
future-focused workforce, with reduced costs associated with education and training.
BACKGROUND
Health Workforce New Zealand (HWNZ) was established by the New Zealand Government with
a mandate to lead and co-ordinate the planning and development of New Zealand’s health and
disability workforce. HWNZ aims to ensure that we have a fit-for-purpose, high quality and
motivated health workforce that keeps pace with clinical innovations and the growing needs and
expectations of the New Zealand public.
The science and technical workforce is an integral part of our health workforce. There are over
20 health-related science and technical professions in New Zealand’s health sector, comprising
around five percent of our health workforce. Many of the science and technical professions are
small in number, often working in isolation from each other and from other health workforces.
In August 2011, HWNZ established a working group to report on what we want our science and
technical workforce to look like in the future.
HWNZ established the Phase 2 Health Science and Technical Workforces Working Group (the
Working Group) in October 2013 to develop at least one multi-disciplinary education
framework and to populate it using several example health science and technical professions to
show how the framework would work.
BUILDING THE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK
The Education and Workforce Contexts
The submissions analysis in Health Sciences and Technical Workforces Working Group
Report to Health Workforce New Zealand indicated that, across the health science and
technical workforce, there is a need for better alignment between service providers and
education/training providers and that a more coordinated approach to workforce planning
was required. Toward this objective, the report determined that consideration should be
given to developing an education, training and workforce framework to ensure New Zealand has
a health science and technical workforce that is fit-for-purpose; able to adapt to changing
technologies and models of care, and sustainable into the future.
Currently, there is a wide and varied range of education and training opportunities for those in,
or entering, the allied health, health, health science and technology workforces. These
learning opportunities are offered in universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics, and
by private training providers; as well as in the workplace. Most of the education opportunities
have been developed, and are offered, in isolation from one another with little collaboration,
shared learning or credit transfer arrangements; and with limited coordination across the sector.
There are also shifting roles and occupations within the allied health, health science and
technical sectors as new technologies and modalities are developed and implemented or as
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people make career changes. Sometimes these shifts are not communicated to, or adopted by,
education and training providers in timely ways so education can lag behind developments in the
workplace.
The size of many of the allied health, health science and technical workforce disciplines creates
challenges for providing viable education and training programmes acceptable to the wider
health sector.
Further, there is no single coordinating entity to ensure consistency in the assumptions used for
workforce planning or to ensure that this planning is aligned with overall health sector
planning.
Currently, the pathway from education to career choice limits the ability to be sufficiently
responsive to changing health care needs. The situation is complex and problematic and
raises a number of issues, most of which were highlighted in the June 2012 report.
Guiding Principles for the Education Framework
The Working Group identified the following guiding principles for development of the proposed
education framework
Flexible and adaptable
 The framework must be flexible and adaptable to meet the requirements of existing,
changing and emerging occupational groups. It must enable the current and future workforce
to expand their skills and capabilities without having to return to the beginning of a new
qualification or programme; that is, avoid needing to repeat learning of core or occupational
domain skills and knowledge.
 The framework must also enable career progression and role change by providing a
coherent learning pathway from certificate to postgraduate study; that is, from technician to
scientist and all roles in between.
Meets the needs of workforce planners, learners and employers
 The framework must meet the requirements and needs of all stakeholders.
 Those involved in workforce planning at a national, regional or local level must have
oversight and understanding of education and training programmes and have input into
graduate numbers and workforce allocation.
 Learners need to clearly understand the learning pathways they engage with to support
career progression and role change.
 Employers must have confidence that education and training programmes will produce
graduates who are fit-for-purpose now and able to adapt to future needs.
21st century learning and teaching strategies are adopted
 To ensure that education and training programmes are credible they should be delivered
using advanced educational technologies complementary to those used by the health
science and technology workforce in the workplace.
 Educational delivery should include advanced e-learning and blended learning modes to
advance learners’ technical expertise. Such delivery will ensure education and training is
accessible to occupational groups spread thinly across the country and those in rural and
urban areas.
 All educational and training programmes must have significant components of supervised
work-based learning.
Resource effectiveness
 Learning pathways on the education framework should be efficient in terms of time and
cost, for learners, employers, providers, and education funding bodies.
 The framework must enable learners to achieve their career aspirations in the most timeefficient way and at the least cost to themselves and their employers.
 It is also important for employers that employees can be retained as long as possible on the
job whilst they learn; this can be enabled by using educational technologies and avoiding
duplication of learning.
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
In this time of scarce resources, providers and education funding bodies are keen to spend
wisely. This means the framework must promote coherent educational programmes; enable
credit transfer opportunities; ensure programme viability in terms of student numbers and
the preparedness of graduates for the workplace; and transparency so as to be able to
predict the optimal size and shape of the workforce.
Accommodates local, regional and national workforce development
 It is important that the framework is flexible enough to enable education providers and
employers to address local and regional workforce development variations yet still be able
to meet national requirements.
THE PROPOSED EDUCATION FRAMEWORK
Health science and technology professions/occupations have been grouped into occupational
domains (see Figure 1). In this diagram, the overall learning needs of the health science and
technical workforce have been considered, as the learning needs of each of the occupational
domains identified.
There are core skills and knowledge that all those who work in the allied health, health science and
technology workforces need to acquire (e.g. cultural competence, communication skills, ethics and
professional practice, basic anatomy and physiology, and health and safety in the workplace).
There is also learning that is specific to an occupational domain (e.g. in the Dental occupational
domain all learners would require anatomy of the head and neck). In addition specialist knowledge
specific to a job/role is required (e.g. a Dental Therapist would require oral pathology).
Figure 1: Health Science and Technical Occupational Domains
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The above represents an initial grouping of roles into occupational domains. Further work will
need to be undertaken to determine the depth and breadth of learning needed and the type, size
and shape of the roles in each occupational domain.
Learning pathways (qualifications and levels) have been mapped against a wide range of
roles in the sector, from technician through to scientist. Figure 2 shows a “staircase” of
qualifications signalling possible progression from certificate level through to postgraduate
study.
At each qualification level, learners can choose to undertake core, occupational domain and
specialist areas of learning that enable flexibility of educational pathway choice.
Figure 2: Framework for National Qualifications for the Health Science and Technology
Workforce
THE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK IN ACTION: EDUCATION PROGRAMMES
In the following paragraphs, some existing health science and technology programmes are
mapped on to the proposed education framework to demonstrate the applicability of the
proposed framework to existing education provision for the allied health, health science and
technical workforces.
Undergraduate degrees
An initial mapping of the learning pathways of several existing undergraduate degrees, albeit
that these degrees are currently offered discretely from one another, demonstrates that there is:
(a) common content across all of these degrees (core learning),
(b) some content that is shared between two or more degrees within an occupational
domain (occupation domain learning) and
(c) some content unique to each of the three disciplines (specialist learning).
The three degrees which were mapped were the Bachelor of Medical Imaging and the Bachelor
of Radiation Therapy, which are both in the Imaging Therapy and Sonography occupational
domain, and the Bachelor of Oral Health (Dental Therapist), which is in the Dental occupational
domain.
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Across all three of the degrees mapped by the Working Group, core learning included anatomy
and physiology, ethics and professional practice, health in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand,
and research methods.
Across the two degrees in Imaging Therapy and Sonography, occupational domain learning
included radiographic technique and medical imaging science.
As well, of course, all three degrees had specialist learning unique to their individual discipline.
The education framework enables shared learning components to be recognised across all three
occupational domains, providing both shared learning opportunities and recognition of prior
learning if a person decides to change careers within or across occupational domains.
Postgraduate degrees
A Masters degree is the entry-level requirement for a number of health (including allied health),
scientific and technical careers.
For example, a two-year clinical Masters degree in genetic counselling is the entry level
requirement for employment in this profession. Currently, this Masters programme is offered by
two Australian universities. Both universities have 200-level (second year undergraduate degree)
genetics papers as a prerequisite to enter the Masters degree which means that New
Zealand graduates seeking entry to the profession must either be able to and have included,
200-level genetics papers in their undergraduate degree, or must complete these papers
separately.
Consultation with Australian programme directors indicates that they would be willing to
recognise the proposed Bachelor of Health Science and Technology degree and consider
applications from New Zealand graduates of this degree, if it includes 200-level genetics
courses. The programme directors in Australia see the value of graduates of the Bachelor of
Health Science and Technology having some knowledge of the context of health care in
New Zealand, along with other core knowledge such as ethics and research skills, prior to
entering the Masters degree in genetic counselling.
In a second example, for those seeking a career in cardiac or respiratory physiology, graduates
with an undergraduate degree are employed for two years as a trainee Clinical Physiologist to
gain relevant experience. They are also required to complete a postgraduate qualification with
specialist physiology content.
Using the proposed framework, candidates completing the Bachelor of Health Science and
Technology within the occupational domain (physiology) and specialist learning (cardiac or
respiratory physiology) would be considered work-ready and able to enter a career in cardiac
and respiratory physiology directly. Further work-related experience would be required (though
not at trainee level) and postgraduate study will be necessary for those wishing to advance
further in their careers.
Similar application of the proposed framework would apply to careers in renal dialysis and
neurophysiology.
THE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK IN ACTION: CAREER PATHWAYS
Currently, some professions have avenues that allow candidates who have a degree which is
not specific to that profession to work and train to obtain recognition in that field of expertise.
One example is Medical Laboratory Science where people with a Bachelor of Science degree
can work and train to obtain a Graduate Diploma Science in Medical Laboratory Science. They
can then be assessed by their peers and, if approved, can apply for registration as a Medical
Laboratory Scientist. This can either be completed extramurally or by attendance at courses held
at a university.
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Under the proposed education framework, a health science professional who wishes to change
their career within the health science and technology sector and enter another health profession
will be able to do so more easily than they would under the current structure.
In illustration, a graduate with a Bachelor of Health Science and Technology (Medical Laboratory
Science) degree who wishes to become a Medical Radiation Therapist will be able to do so
in a shorter timeframe with reduced cost implications by completing the occupational domain
and specialist learning of the Bachelor of Health Science and Technology (Medical Imaging).
The education framework will also enable career progression for those who have not completed
any formal qualifications. For example Medical Laboratory Technicians, who may have learned
on the job and been deemed competent by their peers, would be able to complete courses to
enable them to gain a higher qualification and progress in that profession. This is seen as an
important part of any future workforce development.
THE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK IN ACTION: SHIFTING CAREERS
The proposed education framework will enable health science and technical professionals to
move either within or across occupational domains, as demonstrated in the example of
dental occupations set out below.
Dental Chairside Assistants
A Dental Chairside Assistant would require a Certificate in Health Science and Technology
(Dental Assistant) with 120 credits at level 4. Those enrolled in the Dental Chairside Assistant
learning pathway of the Certificate in Health Science and Technology would undertake core
learning (i.e. communication skills and anatomy) with other assistant level roles and specialist
Dental Chairside Assistant learning.
The Dental Chairside Assistant could either move up to a degree-level qualification in the dental
occupational domain (with some recognition of prior learning) or undertake specialist learning
within a different assistant learning pathway to become an assistant in a different environment.
Dental Technologists
Dental Technologists would have a Bachelor in Health Science and Technology (Dental
Technology) with 360 credits at level 7. Those enrolled on the Dental Technologist pathway of
the Bachelor in Health Science and Technology (Dental Technology) would undertake core
learning with other degree-level health science and technology learners (i.e. anatomy and
physiology, research methods); occupational domain learning with other technicians (i.e.
basic sciences and maths, design and fabrication, health and safety in the laboratory) and
specialist dental technology learning.
The Dental Technologist could move to another technician role (e.g., renal dialysis technician) by
moving to another occupational group thereby having to undertake the occupational domain
learning and the specialist learning (with some recognition of prior learning).
Dental Therapists
Dental Therapists would have a Bachelor of Health Science and Technology (Dental Therapy)
with 360 credits at level 7. Those enrolled on the Dental Therapist pathway of the Bachelor of
Health Science and Technology would undertake core learning with other degree level
health science and technology learners (i.e. anatomy and physiology and research methods);
occupational domain learning with those on the Bachelor of Health Science and Technology
(Oral Hygiene) (i.e. anatomy of the head and neck and dental hygiene); and specialist dental
therapy learning.
A Dental Therapist could become dual qualified by undertaking the specialist learning in the
Bachelor of Health and Technology (Oral Hygiene). A Dental Therapist could also move into a
different occupational group by completing the occupational domain and specialist learning
required. There should also be at least 120 cross credits from the Bachelor of Health
Science and Technology (Dental Therapy) into the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS).
Oral Hygienists
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Oral Hygienists would have a Bachelor of Health Science and Technology (Oral Hygiene)
with 360 credits at level 7. Those enrolled on the oral hygiene pathway of the Bachelor of
Health Science and Technology would undertake core learning with other degree level
health science and technology learners (i.e. anatomy and physiology and research methods);
occupational domain learning with those on the Bachelor of Health Science and Technology
(Dental Therapy) (i.e. anatomy of the head and neck and dental hygiene); and specialist oral
hygiene learning.
An Oral Hygienist could become dual qualified by completing the specialist learning in the
Bachelor of Health and Technology (Dental Therapy). An Oral Hygienist could also move into
a different occupational group by doing the occupational domain and specialist learning
required.
THE EDUCATION FRAMEWORK IN ACTION: EMERGING CAREERS
Rapid scientific and technical advances mean that new careers utilising emerging technologies
are likely to arise during the coming years. Students entering tertiary education today are told
that they are likely to have upward of ten careers during their working life, some of which
currently do not exist.
The proposed framework offers students, tertiary providers and employers flexibility to respond
as new technologies and careers emerge in the field of health. Individuals who have completed
the core learning (see Figure 2) in a diploma or degree in health science and technology will be
able to add new qualifications without repeating already learned skills and capabilities.
For example, molecular profiling is an emerging technology in oncology that has the potential to
result in improved outcomes for patients as treatments are appropriately targeted to the
molecular profile of the cancer that an individual has. Over time, this field is rapidly expanding
and the health workforce will need to respond to increased demand for molecular technology to
be used to determine appropriate and targeted treatment.
YOUR FEEDBACK
Framing the Future is accompanied by a set of questions based around the key themes and
objectives of the proposed education framework. We welcome feedback from a range of
perspectives, including science and technical professionals, allied health professionals,
professional organisations, health service providers and employers, health education and
training providers (academic and clinical), and regulatory authorities. As well, we would like to
hear from those who are well-established in their careers, those who are new-comers to their
profession, or from those currently studying or planning to study for a health science and
technical, or allied health, career.
Submissions should be made using the Feedback Form provided. The closing date for
submissions is 2 August 2013. Following consultation on Framing the Future, your feedback will
be analysed and the Working Group will recommend the next phase (Phase 3) of this project to
the Health Workforce New Zealand Board. We anticipate having the consultation results and an
outline of Phase 3 available by 31 October 2013.
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