Components of the Process

Study time | Study packages | Additional material required | Assessment | Cross credits and exemptions | Health and Safety | Assessment of Prior Learning | Brochure | Entry Requirments

Study time

If you are employed and studying part-time it is recommended that you only study one unit standard (subject) at a time because you can enrol several times in a year. You can start any time of the year and have 12 months to complete your unit from the date of enrolment, although you will probably finish it in a shorter time. You can then enrol in another unit.

Unit standards vary from three to 45 credits, each credit equates to approximately 10 hours of study time, so 10 credit course equates to 100 hours study. Only under exceptional circumstances and with agreement of the Academic Registrar and the Programme Co-ordinator can a student study full-time, for which the workload is 100 credits, or 1000 hours study time over a 12 months period.

See our Study Guidelines for suggestions on completion of out main programmes.

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Study packages

For each course of study, you receive a study pack containing all the course material. In some cases this pack includes supporting data such as published bulletins, NZ Standards, videos, computer disks and CD-Roms. The course material is interactive and requires you to work through the resources and do the exercises.

Examples of our course materials.

Examples of the additional support material included in the study packs.

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Additional material required

Some unit standards require you to refer to textbooks or NZ Standards. These can be purchased, or you may borrow them through Open Polytechnic Library. Students attempting drawing unit standards are required to supply their own drawing equipment and suitable paper for both manual drawing and Computer Aided Drawing (CAD). Students attempting the commercial measurement unit will require access to computer facilities. You will need access to an audio cassette recorder and a video player for some unit standards.

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Assessment

All unit standards are internally assessed. This means there are no examinations. Each unit has various study booklets to work through. There is a variety of assessments, projects, case studies and field reports to complete for each unit which will be assessed by your Open Polytechnic tutor. The unit standards specify the skills and knowledge which learners must achieve in order to gain credit.

The work comes in two forms:

• Progress reviews to assist and support your learning process;
• Assessments to assess competency.

Progress review work is compulsory and is designed to give a better chance to achieve competency in the assessment.

Students submitting an acceptable assessment submission will gain a result of competent, and those not reaching the required standard have a second opportunity to do further work and resubmit.

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Cross credits and exemptions

Students who have passed courses in New Zealand construction-related Certificates such as NZCB, NZCQS, NZCAD or Carpentry Trade and Advanced Trade Qualifications should request information on cross credits and exemptions.

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Health and safety

Open Polytechnic supports the promotion and maintenance of occupational health and safety standards. In the construction industry, Site Safe, an independent organisation set up to reduce construction injuries and deaths, promotes safety through a variety of publications including Best Practice Guidelines for Health and Safety in the Construction Tendering Process, seminars and activities identified on their web site, www.sitesafe.org.nz

Students are encouraged to adopt a safety conscious attitude in all their activities. Under the Health and Safety in Employment Act, everyone has a legal responsibility when associated with construction related activities. Some projects and assessments require visits to factory and building sites. Students must ensure they have permission of the appropriate personnel to enter such sites and are fully aware and comply with all site health and safety requirements.

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