FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Familiarise yourself with the online environment. You will gain access to your paper in Blackboard on the first day of the paper.

It is a Tertiary Education Commission requirement that all learners enrolled in programmes at Levels 1, 2, or 3 must complete online literacy and numeracy assignments at the beginning of their studies.

If you are required to complete these assignments you will receive information about the assignments, and how to complete them, during the first two weeks of your study.

You will be sent an official SIT Academic Transcript for each programme of study that you complete.

This shows the units/papers studied and the results for each one.

For all qualifications, if successful, a certificate will be sent together with a final transcript directly from SIT or awarded at graduation.
Students are invited to attend a graduation ceremony.

As a guide, one credit equates to approximately 10 hours of study. For example, a 15-credit paper involves 150 hours of study.

All papers selected within an intake must be completed within the intake unless a transfer or extension is requested.

If you need to study full-time to access loans and allowances, please contact Studylink for guidance on the number of credits you need to take.

If your contact details change you need to inform us.  This is important as all letters, exam results and correspondence will be sent to the address that appears on your file. Please update your details online (https://my.sit.ac.nz), or pop in and see our friendly Administration staff.

If your programme lasts for more than one year you need to enrol again each year.

The reason for this is that SIT needs to ensure that all the information held about you is correct, and government requires a new enrolment form for each year or each programme of study.

Programme specific enquiries should be directed to your Programme Manager through their announcement on Blackboard where they are introducing themselves or speak to them in person. Enrolment/Withdrawal/Transfer enquiries should be directed to your Programme Manager.

If you are still receiving a statement from SIT that your fees haven’t been paid and your programme of study has already started, please talk to Administration.

Any overdue fees may be sent to a debt collection agency, who will be supplied with all relevant details in respect of any outstanding fees, as well as your contact details. Debt collection will incur additional fees.

All assignments have due dates which need to be met. All of your assessment due dates can be found on Blackboard by going into any paper in which you are enrolled and clicking on ‘Calendar’ on the left of the page or discuss with your tutor.

Step 1: 
To decide whether your previous education, training or work experience is relevant, start by looking at the paper descriptors of the SIT papers you want to apply RPL for. You may obtain these from the RPL facilitator or the Programme Manager. If the paper is a unit standard (papers with codes beginning with ‘US’), you can get a copy of the unit standard from the NZQA website: https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/framework/search/index.do

Step 2: 
For each paper:

• Identify the knowledge and skill you have learned that reasonably match the learning outcomes for the paper.
• Ensure that you have obtained or can obtain necessary evidence to prove that you have the skills and knowledge.
• Repeat the above steps for each outcome of each paper you are applying RPL for.

Reminder: Any formal education/training and/or experience will need to:

1. Have similar content
2. Be at the same level as the paper/unit standard that you are applying for
3. Have a similar number of credits
4. Be current (i.e. have been completed in approximately the last five years)

Step 3: 
Contact the Programme Manager and discuss your proposal. They will advise if you should pursue the RPL process.

Step 4: 
You need to prepare a portfolio of evidence that clearly shows the assessor how you meet each learning outcome. This may mean contacting an institute that you studied with to obtain academic transcripts and course descriptors. It is your responsibility to obtain these documents and have transcripts verified.

Fee & Evidence Information

Sample Paper Descriptor

Step 5: 
Contact the RPL facilitator once you have this information organised. The facilitator will be able to advise you if sufficient evidence has been supplied and on the next steps of the process.

Note:

• It takes 4 to 8 weeks to process an RPL application. It may take longer to process your application during the peak periods at the beginning and end of the year.
• RPL can only be gained for a complete unit standard/module/paper
• An applicant may be awarded RPL where it can be demonstrated that prior learning reaches the required standard
• If the RPL result is required for a qualification completion at the end of the year:
  • It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that sufficient time is given to their RPL application by submitting the application early.(Preferable 4 months before programme completion date)
  • If the RPL application requires the result of another paper taken concurrently at another institution, please make sure to inform the Programme Manager.
• “Credit Transfer” refers to credit gained from a qualification awarded by another provider
• “Cross Credit” refers to credits that may be granted for more than one qualification within the one institution