For assessors & operators
Endorsements: what they are, and what you already hold
Most people reading this have an NZRA account they haven’t opened in a while. That’s on us, not you — we built a lot and didn’t walk anyone through it. So this page starts with what’s already sitting there with your name on it, then explains how endorsements work.
Scroll at your own pace. Nothing here needs you to be signed in to read, and there’s a form at the bottom that reaches NZRA directly — including if you can’t get into your account.
Start here
The idea in one line
You hold a River Guide Qualification. Endorsements are what you hold against it.
Everything in that list used to be called a “qualification”, which made it sound like you needed a separate one for every grade and every river. You don’t. You have one qualification and you add endorsements to it as you go.
What changed
- The wording, wherever you see it.
- The assessed River Rescue award is now the River Rescue Endorsement.
- You have a Record of Learning showing everything in one place.
- Assessors can read the whole framework any time.
What didn’t
- Your login, your account, your history.
- Certificates already issued — same numbers, same PDFs.
- The River Rescue Course is still the course. Only the assessed award was renamed.
- Every fee. Nothing here moved a price.
Before anything else
What’s already in there
Four things that exist today, work today, and that most of you have never opened.
The public register
Every NZRA award, searchable by anyone, including 3,479 legacy NZRRP records carried over from the old register.
When a client, a council or an overseas operator asks you to prove your guides are qualified, this is the link you send instead of a folder of scans.
Open the registerYour team, one page
Operators: every guide attached to your operation, what they hold, what they’re working toward, and the trips they’ve logged.
Your company subscription and invoices, your team’s workshop registrations, and posting a vacancy all live in the same place.
Your guidesThe trip logbook
Honest version: 88 trips logged, by five guides, out of nearly two hundred registered. It’s the biggest gap between what we built and what anyone uses.
It keeps a running record of trips, hours, rivers and roles, feeds your Record of Learning, and gives your assessor real evidence of what you’ve actually run. It is free for any signed-up user — membership only adds the branded PDF export.
Your logbookThe catalogue
The seven endorsements
| Endorsement | Cert | Fee incl. GST | Units | Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 2 Raft Guide | G2 | $150 | 19 | 107 |
| River Rescue Endorsement | RR | $150 — or free with Grade 3+ | 8 | 73 |
| Oar Guide Grade 2 | OG2 | $150 | 18 | 108 |
| Grade 3 Raft Guide Endorsement | G3 | $750 | 11 | 64 |
| Grade 4/5 Raft Guide Endorsement | G45 | $750 | 11 | 65 |
| Senior Grade 3 Endorsement | SG3 | $750 | 9 | 77 |
| Senior Grade 4/5 Endorsement | SG45 | $750 | 9 | 77 |
At $150 incl. GST
Foundation E-learning and your certificate are included. Assessor fees are not — you arrange those directly with your assessor.
At $750 incl. GST
All units, assessor fees included, and your certificate. One fee, nothing else to arrange.
These are today’s fees. The exec is reviewing pricing, including polytech and in-house assessments, and nothing changes without notice.
Full detail on each endorsementTwo different things
River Rescue Endorsement vs River Rescue Course
Same two words at the front, not the same thing. This is the one people mix up most, so here it is side by side.
The Endorsement proves you can do it. The Course keeps you current.
The award
River Rescue Endorsement
- What it is
- An assessed award, held against your River Guide Qualification like any other endorsement. 8 units, marked by an assessor.
- How you get it
- It now comes WITH Grade 3, Senior Grade 3, Grade 4/5 and Senior Grade 4/5 at no extra cost — the assessor signs off its 8 units alongside the award, and the grade certificate won’t issue until they have. On its own (say a Grade 2 guide who wants it) it’s $150 incl. GST, or tick “Add the River Rescue Endorsement” on the full-week November course, where it’s included. Earned once. Grade 2 and Oar Guide don’t need it at all. Note: holding an older Grade 3 doesn’t by itself put River Rescue on your record — if it was never assessed, your assessor marks it now, free.
- Does it expire?
- No. Assessed once, held for good.
- What it’s for
- It shows you’re competent at river rescue. It’s the award itself.
- Where it shows
- In the endorsements list on your Record of Learning, with an RR certificate.
The training
River Rescue Course
- What it is
- Training you attend — NZRA’s three-day course each November, or an in-house session run by an assessor.
- How you get it
- Turn up and take part. Your attendance is approved afterwards and the course date goes on your record. You get a training certificate, which says plainly that it isn’t an assessment of competency.
- Does it expire?
- Yes — it’s current for three years from your last course. NZRA emails you as the three-year mark comes up.
- What it’s for
- Keeping your skills fresh. A current Course is required for a Senior award.
- Where it shows
- The River Rescue box at the top of your Record of Learning, with the date of your last course. Assessors see it as current or lapsed.
The short version: the Course on its own doesn’t give you the Endorsement, and holding the Endorsement doesn’t keep you current. They sit on your record as two separate lines, and assessors see them that way too.
See how it works across a whole careerFor every guide
Your Record of Learning
One page that answers “what do I actually hold?” without digging through old emails.
What’s on it
- Every endorsement you hold, each tagged Assessed or Legacy (NZRRP …) so nobody has to guess where it came from.
- Your Foundation E-learning, and the date of your last River Rescue Course (the box marked River Rescue at the top). A River Rescue Endorsement sits in your endorsements list with the others.
- Trips logged and total hours, from your logbook.
- Old register records we think are yours, ready to claim.
Guiding before the platform? Claim your old record
There are 3,479 records on the legacy NZRRP register. If yours is in there, attach it to your account rather than proving anything again.
- 1. Open your Record of Learning — we list the likely matches on your name.
- 2. Tick the ones that are you, and claim them.
- 3. An NZRA admin confirms. Until then they show as pending.
You need a current membership to claim, and the name has to match. If it doesn’t — a different surname then, a nickname on the old register — use the form at the bottom of this page and we’ll do it by hand.
For assessors
What’s new for you
Read the framework any time
Sidebar → Endorsements. Every endorsement, every unit, every criterion — readable without a live candidate open in front of you.
Reference only; nothing in there marks anybody. This is the thing most of you asked for — previously the only way to read the Grade 4/5 criteria was to be assessing someone on Grade 4/5.
How marking works
- Tick the criteria the candidate met.
- Write your evidence notes — what you actually saw. The save won’t go through without them.
- Mark the unit competent or not yet competent. Two words, no half-pass.
- Add feedback. The candidate sees it.
The certificate issues itself
Mark the last unit competent and the certificate is issued on the spot, numbered automatically, and the endorsement lands on the guide’s record the same second. No separate step, no waiting on the office.
Where the Foundation E-learning requirement is switched on, a raft guide candidate who hasn’t finished the theory can be competent on every unit and still not get the certificate. You’ll see a banner on the assessment page — check it early, not at the end of the day.
Practise on the real thing
There are 27 practice enrolments on the Grade 3 Endorsement. They behave exactly like a real assessment with one difference: no certificate, no record, no email to anybody.
Nobody should be learning the marking screen on a real candidate’s file. Make your mistakes there first. Moderators can review practice assessments too, so you can get a second opinion before it counts.
What marking a unit looks like
Every unit is its own card, one after another down the page. Tick, choose a result, write what you saw, save. You can save unit by unit, or mark a few and use Save All Progress at the bottom — it only saves the units you’ve actually given a result, and it tells you which ones are missing their evidence notes.
Can’t finish? Hand the candidate on
Injured, moving on, season’s over, or it turns out you’re too close to the candidate. It happens. You don’t have to start again and neither does the guide.
- Open the assessment, press Hand off to another assessor, pick who is taking over, and press Reassign.
- Everything you’ve already marked stays, and stays yours — each unit keeps its Assessed by [you] on [date] line.
- The new assessor opens the same assessment and carries on from the units that are left. The candidate drops off your list.
- Give the other assessor a heads-up first. The handover doesn’t email them.
Only the assessor currently assigned can hand off. If that person can’t — they’ve left, or they’re not answering — NZRA can change the assessor from the admin panel.
Recently added
Photo & video evidence, and tertiary credit
Two things for assessors that switch on alongside this page.
Attach photos, video and documents
At the bottom of every assessment there’s now an Evidence files panel. Upload photos, video clips, or documents (PDF or Word) against the candidate’s assessment, and add a caption so a moderator knows what they’re looking at.
Private
Only the assigned assessor, moderators and NZRA admins can open them. Not public, and not other assessors.
Supporting, not instead
Files back up your marking. The written Record of Assessment on each unit is still required.
Up to 400 MB per file
A clip off your phone is fine. Record at 1080p rather than 4K — the files are about a quarter the size and still plenty clear enough.
Credit from an approved tertiary assessment (Grade 2)
Some assessors also deliver an NZQA-approved or tertiary programme where the student has already been fully assessed on Grade 2 raft guiding. Ticking every line a second time proves nothing new.
- 1. Attach the completed tertiary assessment in Evidence files — a PDF, a Word document, or photos of the pages. Not a video.
- 2. In the Credit from a tertiary assessment panel, pick that file and name the programme and provider.
- 3. Tick to confirm, and press Mark all units competent from this assessment.
Every Grade 2 Raft Guide unit is marked competent, with the tertiary assessment recorded as the evidence on each one (a unit you’d already marked competent keeps what you wrote). The certificate issues the usual way — including the Foundation E-learning rule where that’s switched on. A moderator reviews it afterwards, like any other assessment.
Grade 2 Raft Guide only, and only for approved assessors. An NZRA admin switches it on assessor by assessor. If you don’t see the panel, it isn’t switched on for you — ask us. The attached assessment is what the certificate rests on, so once it’s used it can’t be deleted.
For company owners & managers
What you can see about your guides
- Endorsements — what they hold, with certificate number and issue date.
- In progress — what they’re enrolled in, so you know who’s working toward what.
- Trip log book — their logged trips and hours.
Revoked certificates drop off automatically, so what you see is current.
Read this bit carefully
That list is built from certificates issued through the platform — not the guide’s full history.
A guide with years on the old NZRRP register may show very little there yet. Ask them to show you their own Record of Learning for the full picture. A short list is not evidence that someone is unqualified.
Who to ask
What the NZRA office can sort for you
Behind the pages you see there’s an admin panel. You won’t use it, but it’s worth knowing what’s in there — so when something’s stuck, you know it can be fixed and who to ask.
Accounts & access
- Can’t get in? We send a reset link to your email. We never see your password.
- No access to that email? We can set a temporary password, and you choose your own the first time you sign in.
- Change the email address on an account, or fix a name.
- Set what an account is for — guide, assessor or company admin — and switch on moderation for an assessor.
- Switch on tertiary credit (Grade 2) for an approved assessor.
Enrolments & assessments
- Enrol a guide by hand, without the online payment step, and assign the assessor at the same time.
- Assign an assessor to a guide who’s waiting, or change the assessor on any enrolment.
- Refund an enrolment: the card payment goes back and the enrolment is withdrawn.
- Moderators review completed assessments: approve them, flag a quality issue, or reopen one for re-assessment.
Certificates & records
- Find any certificate issued through the platform and pull its PDF.
- Revoke a certificate, with the reason recorded. It comes off the guide’s record too, and can be restored.
- Confirm the legacy NZRRP awards guides have claimed, so they show on their Record of Learning.
- Look up any guide’s Record of Learning, and search the 3,479 legacy NZRRP records.
Memberships, companies & invoices
- Raise a GST invoice for a membership, a company renewal, a workshop or anything else — emailed as a PDF with the bank account and a payment reference.
- Mark an invoice paid and the member or company linked to it renews. A Stripe invoice for the same period stops chasing.
- Paying for several guides? Ask us to put them on one invoice. Paying it renews each of them.
- Issue and email receipts, grant or cancel a membership, and mark a company subscription paid or past due.
Not yet: adding or removing guides on a company’s team list from the panel.
Workshops, jobs & newsletters
- Set up River Rescue courses and workshops, open and close registration, confirm company-paid places, and record results.
- Approve the job listings companies send in, and close them once they’re filled.
- Send newsletters to members, members with a renewal coming up, assessors, or company contacts. Test first, send now or schedule. Unsubscribes are respected.
- Read and sort everything sent in through the feedback forms, by topic.
The framework itself
- Edit endorsements, their units and competency checklists.
- Edit the Foundation E-learning chapters, and review and approve the quiz questions.
- Keep the River Rescue checklist that assessors pick from when they run an in-house session.
- Update the wording on public website pages.
The way in is the same for all of it: the form at the bottom of this page, or the feedback button inside the app. Both land in the same inbox, sorted by topic.
So you don’t go hunting
What isn’t built yet
We’d rather tell you now than have you look for a button that isn’t there.
Evidence files sit on the whole assessment, not on one unit. Say in the caption which unit a photo or clip backs up. Guides can’t upload their own files, and can’t open the ones their assessor added.
Tertiary credit is Grade 2 Raft Guide only. Every other endorsement is marked unit by unit, as it always has been.
Moderation happens after the certificate. A moderator reviews completed assessments as quality assurance. It is not a gate the certificate waits behind, and pulling an award back is a deliberate admin action.
The mobile logbook app is still in testing. It exists and it works, but it is not publicly available yet. If you want to be a tester, say so in the form below.
Endorsements don’t expire, and that’s deliberate. Raft guide grade awards carry no expiry. Currency sits with the River Rescue Course and bears on Senior awards — it is not tracked on the endorsement record itself.
The part that matters
Four things to do now
None of this takes long, and it’s the difference between reading about the platform and actually having your record straight.
Get signed in
Hit “Forgot password” on the login page and we’ll email you a reset link. If it doesn’t arrive, or the address we have for you is out of date, tell us in the form below.
Sign inOpen your Record of Learning
Check what we think you hold. If something is missing or wrong, that is exactly what we want to hear.
Your recordClaim your legacy records
If you guided before the platform, your old NZRRP awards are probably sitting there waiting. Tick and claim.
ClaimLog one trip
Just one, from this season. It takes about a minute, and it is the habit that makes everything else work.
Your logbookOwners, one more: open your guide list and tell us who’s missing. That list is only as good as what we imported.
Asked already
Common questions
- Do I have to re-sit or re-apply for anything?
- No. Nothing you already hold changed.
- Is my Grade 3 still a Grade 3?
- Yes. It is now called the Grade 3 Endorsement. Same award, same certificate, same number.
- Do endorsements expire?
- No. Raft guide grade awards carry no expiry date, and neither does the River Rescue Endorsement. Currency sits with the River Rescue Course — three years from your last one — and it bears on Senior awards.
- I hold a guiding award from overseas. Does it count?
- An overseas award doesn’t carry across as an NZRA endorsement — you’d be assessed here, the same as anyone else. But the experience isn’t wasted. Log those trips in your logbook: it gives your assessor real evidence of what you’ve actually run. And have a yarn with an assessor about which endorsement makes sense to enrol in.
- Why can’t I see awards I know I earned?
- If they predate the platform, claim them on your Record of Learning and an admin confirms. If they don’t predate it, tell us — something is wrong and we want to know.
- Can I attach photos or video as evidence?
- Yes. The assessor attaches photos, video clips or documents in the Evidence files panel at the bottom of the assessment, up to 400 MB a file. They’re private to the assessor, moderators and NZRA admins. The written record on each unit is still required.
- Is the River Rescue Course the same as the River Rescue Endorsement?
- No. The Endorsement is an assessed award you hold for good. The Course is training you attend, and it keeps you current for three years. Doing one doesn’t give you the other.
Closing the loop
Tell us something
This is the same inbox as the feedback button inside the app, so it reaches the people who can actually do something about it.
Good things to tell us
- A criterion that reads wrong, or contradicts how you actually assess.
- An award missing from your record.
- A guide missing from your team list.
- You can’t get into your account.
- What you need for your audits that isn’t there.
Already signed in?
Use the feedback button inside the app instead — it tags your report to whatever screen you were on, which saves you explaining it.