About

Specialist experience, made practical

New Zealand Skill Standards is led by Garth Dawson, a qualification and standards specialist with more than a decade of experience across evaluation, development and review in New Zealand’s vocational education system.

The work

Garth’s experience includes qualification and standard evaluation at NZQA; qualification development for workforce development councils and industry training organisations; instructional design; industry and community consultation; and public-sector reporting and policy work.

The focus is on turning complex industry information, stakeholder feedback and regulatory requirements into documents that are clear, coherent and usable.

The role of AI

Garth has evaluated generative-AI responses professionally and uses large language models to improve knowledge-work processes. AI can help organise evidence, compare source material, structure drafts and reduce repetitive administration. It does not replace subject-matter expertise, stakeholder consultation or professional judgement.

Background

• Qualification and standard evaluation at the New Zealand Qualifications Authority
• Qualification development across food and fibre, community services, construction and other industry contexts
• Instructional design for technical learning in cloud, DevOps and software development
• Consultation, reporting, governance and legislative experience in the New Zealand public sector
• BA with First Class Honours and a Cambridge English-language teaching qualification

Who the work is for

• Standard-setting bodies and industry skills boards
• Standards developers and reviewers
• Industry and subject-matter experts
• Qualification developers
• Providers and others who need to understand how standards are constructed