Advisor Training – exciting developments

[Sally Blackwell]

Those of you who attended the workshop in Wellington in June will know that Jo Wills from CEN is working very hard to get a pilot advisor training and certification programme launched in the coming months.

You will also know that at the workshop we agreed one of the ways to really put the Hub and its collaborative potential into practice, would be to set up a working group to develop a ‘product’ or ‘output’. It was agreed that by setting ourselves such a task we would learn a lot about the practicalities of working together, we’d be able to hone a QA process and we’d have a useful resource as the end result. If successful we thought we could repeat and build on the process.

Following the workshop a number of us (from the ‘steering group’ agreed at the workshop) discussed how these two processes – developing advisor training and developing a Hub working group – could leverage off each other. As a result we’ve established a working group (made up of Hub participants) which will provide advice and technical input into the development of the advisor training programme.

This has all happened pretty fast as Jo is working to a tight time frame. Therefore, Jo (with input from the steering group) has approached people we thought would be interested, plus have the skills and experience and the capacity/willingness to provide time as in-kind support (i.e. the project has a small budget).

The Working Group is made up of:

• Me – Chair
• Jo Wills – working group coordinator
• Heidi Mardon
• Lois Easton
• Ian Mayes, and
• Ian McChesney

We may also draw in a few other technical and educational/training experts to help with certain elements of the development if needed.

This particular initiative is being led (and funded) by CEN but we hope that by drawing on the Hub connections already in place all of us can benefit and learn from the process.

As Chair of the working group I will have an eye to the process of working together and how this can feed-back and inform future collaborative activity through the Hub. (the next working group?).

The working group will have its first meeting on 29th August.

We’ll keep you posted as things develop.

Sally

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[Phil Squire]

Great to see this moving forward – this space is changing fast, and with the likes of banks, energy retailers and post-WUNZ players gearing up for more, we can only benefit from certification and training from a coalition of the willing.

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[Jo Wills]

Long time between updates however this project is moving along very rapidly.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is a very exciting step for CEN and I would like to recognize the people and organisations making it possible; Tindall Foundation for the funding, the HPA Working Group consisting of Lois Easton – Beacon, Ian Mayes – Hamilton City Council Eco Design Advisor, Ian McChesney – Public Policy Contractor, Heidi Mardon – Enviroschools and Sally Blackwell – Meso Consulting. This amazing team of people have been amazing so you can expect me to keep singing their praises for a long time to come!

Onto the detail:

The pre-test has been completed by all those wishing to participate. This has been a very important step because it’s allowing our working group to determine various levels of need amongst the group and they will be tailoring the training to suit. As these first courses are a pilot, we will be relying on those attending to provide open and honest feedback about the content, course materials and delivery.

When we launch this to the wider sector it will truly be a ‘by the sector for the sector’ initiative that has the potential for massive impact across NZ. One of the ‘top 5 barriers’ to achieving affordable warmth for NZ families as determined by the conference attendees was;
4. ‘Access to quality and trusted advice’ with the solution agreed as ‘Capacity training and development within sector, led by independent organisation’.

So this training is delivering to an urgent need in the market and all who are attending (and pass) the first two courses will be the first in NZ to become CEN Certified Home Performance Advisors. When we open it to the sector, non-members will be able to go on the course but won’t be CEN certified, just Certified Home Performance Advisors (plus they will pay more).

The two course dates are as below, in total we have had 31 people take the test, and there is a good distribution of people from across the country this is a great start!

South Island, Christchurch: 7pm Wednesday 30th October – 5pm Friday 1st November
North Island, Hamilton: 7pm Wednesday 6th November – 5pm Friday 8th November

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