Supervision in the Immigration Industry: an Exploratory Study

This research sought to gather foundational data about supervision experience from the perspectives of supervisors and supervisees. It also aimed to explore the professional practice of supervision as a potential innovative niche in the education sector which is complementary to what we currently deliver.

Toi Ohomai are the only education providers for those seeking to become qualified licensed immigration advisers, and the requirement for industry supervision introduced in November 2015 represented new territory for our students and graduates to navigate.

While industry stakeholders might assume that two years of professional supervision would lead to more capable and confident advisers becoming fully licensed, to date there is no research interrogating that assumption.

This research project aimed to lay some foundations in a new field. The purpose of conducting this research was to enable tutors within the immigration programme to enhance our existing delivery and better support those seeking to enter the industry; and be proactive in setting the standard for excellence among supervisors by developing innovative and tailored programmes attractive to experienced advisers in the industry who are currently, or considering, supervising students.

Using publically available information to contact provisional licence holders and supervisors, we gathered feedback from those being supervised and those supervising. The question being considered was whether supervision was working for supervisors and supervisees.

Evaluating survey feedback from participants provided us with a basis for a preliminary position on whether the supervision process was successful and, if not, where issues lay.