NCEA L3 Booklet

The Success of the Service Academies

How productive is the Service Academy programme, mainly focusing on Induction Camp for 2022.

Summary

A survey was sent out to all Service Academies (28) in New Zealand but less than half (14) of the academies completed the survey on their experience at the 2022 Induction Camp. The survey was to collect data that will analyse this report, however not all academies were able to complete it by the due date. This collected data will help validate how useful the Service Academy programme is.

Introduction

The Service Academy is a military based learning programme carried out by selected schools targeting students in Year 12-13 who are at risk of disengaging from school. The purpose of this programme is to encourage individuals to engage in their learning by providing a motivated and disciplined programme. It is designed to help students gain further qualifications before they enter the workforce or on to further training. For students who wish to join the Service Academy in their school they can start as early as Year 11 where they would benefit from a military-focused programme while being able to earn NCEA Levels 1,2 & 3 credits. This programme is funded by the Ministry of Education who support the Service Academy by granting $90,000. With this amount of money the schools are to hire a Director, purchase uniforms, transportation and additional costs for the students who are in the Service Academy.

Body

From 28 Academies throughout New Zealand 14 Academies completed the survey with the total of 114 responses received. A factor of having a low submission rate was due to some Academies having limited access to ICT and Academies not completing the hard copy survey sent to them.

Out of 14 Academies that responded Tamaki College Service Academy had all it´s 10 students complete the survey providing 100% completion rate. Students who filled out the survey were asked to make their answers as detailed as possible. The results are available to Directors, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Defence and YDU (Youth Development Unit) of the Defence Force. These responses are from all the students who were able to fill out the survey after completing the Induction Camp 2018 in New Zealand.

These two graphs show us the average age and gender of the students who went on Induction Camp. The graph on the left tells us the age of the students range from 15-19 years old but overall the average age on Camp was 16 years old. The graph on the right shows the gender split, 65.4% male and 34.6% female.

The data from the graph above shows which NCEA Level students are working towards, most students are working towards their Level 2 at 49.4%, Level 3 at 41.1% and the least being Level 1 at 9.5%.

From the NCEA Level 2 data students mostly achieved from the unit standard 24098 demonstrate and apply knowledge of basic foot drill in New Zealand Cadet Forces. The reason why this unit standard is so successful is because at Camp we march everyday and almost everywhere we go on base.

From the NCEA Level 2 data the second highest achieved unit standard while in Induction Camp was 9677 participate in a team which was an objective. The reason why this unit standard is successful is because we all worked in a team, every person had their own individual roles so that we were able to complete this task at Induction Camp.

Lastly from the NCEA Level 2 data the 3rd highest achieved unit standard while on Induction Camp was 467 demonstrate personal and social development through participation in adventure based learning. The reason why this unit standard is successful is because students are working in a team to do activities such as high ropes and the confidence course.

Looking at the attendance rate from 2021 we can see the numbers drop from the lowest attendance percentage (12) and the numbers of the highest attendance percentage increase (147) for 2021. This proves that the Service Academy programme is increasing attendance for students within their schools and may help with their application to join the NZ Defence Force in the future.

The Northern Region Service Academies Induction Camp was held at Waiouru Military Camp with 85.5% attendance rate, plus 6.1% attended their Induction at the Motu Moana Scout Camp in Auckland and the Southern Region Services Academies 8.4% went to Burnham Military Camp just south of Christchurch.

From the data collected;

26.6% of students joined the Academy for self discipline.

20.2% of students joined the Academy for team work.

17.2% of students joined the Academy for pride in self.

After filling out the survey the two major forces students are looking to joining was the NZ Army with 30% and the Navy at 28.8%, not only that but 14.2% said they were not interested in a career in the services.

As shown below in the graph we have a scale from 1-5, 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.

In regards to the physical training sessions at Induction Camp on a scale from 1-5, the survey averaged a 4.14%.

In regards to discipline at Induction Camp the survey averaged a 4.23%.

After Induction Camp 3.25% of the students said it was hard to catch up on missed school work in other subjects, this was because the Camp was for two weeks.

As resulted 4.27% of the students that attended Induction Camp enjoyed their experience.

Overall the data on Induction Camp has proven to be a highly successful programme. Induction Camp has shown to be a big impact on students in a lot of different aspects, the most common ones are discipline, being able to work in a team and having pride in oneself.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this report has provided students with many different experiences. Each student that attended the Induction Camp have improved with self betterment and pride. The Camp has helped all grow physically and mentally, improved teamwork and gained better leadership skills. Finally it has prepared all students for a better future.

References:

http://alternativeeducation.tki.org.nz/Services-academies