VRQA Stakeholder Engagement Strategy 2017–18
This strategy articulates how the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) office will carry out the expectations of the VRQA Board in engaging stakeholders.
The VRQA regulates education and training activities in Victoria, ensuring consumers of education and training receive quality education in well-governed learning environments. Our work is governed by the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 and its associated regulations.
Quality relationships with stakeholders support the achievement of the purpose, directions and initiatives of the VRQA Strategic Plan 2016–18 which are to:
· implement government regulatory directions and work to explore further reform opportunities
· achieve recognition as a regulator meeting the highest level of integrity and contemporary governance standards
· improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our regulatory activities
· ensure that we are appropriately resourced to carry out our legislative regulatory functions.
Strong stakeholder engagement will underpin the success of many of the projects under the VRQA reform program, including:
· refreshing regulatory services
· ensuring regulated entities comply with the child safe standards
· delivering the Epsilon project and upgraded VRQA State Register.
Our work is guided by the Ministerial Statement of Expectations for the VRQA Board which includes an expectation to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of regulatory activities, minimise the regulatoryburden on education and training providers and strengthen engagement with stakeholders.
1. Our stakeholders
Many of our diverse stakeholders are involved in governing, regulating or delivering education and training in Victoria at the system level. Other stakeholders represent specific industries as well as education and training sector professionals.
Our stakeholders include:
· the Department of Education and Training (DET)
· our co-regulators in the education and training portfolio
· school system owners
· peak bodies, industry organisations and unions
· Commonwealth and state government agencies, including other regulators.
Our interactions with some stakeholders are governed by memoranda of understanding.
2. Our engagement
Effective engagement with stakeholders improves regulation and helps to achieve our regulatory objectives.
We understand that strong, reciprocal relationships with stakeholders generate insights and support that strengthen our work with education and training providers, apprentices, trainees and employers and consumers of education and training.
Our stakeholders bring deep knowledge of their organisations, environments and industry. In many instances they can provide valuable information about how organisations and consumers of education and training are faring in their system or industry. We may be able to act on this information.
They can reflect on our performance and offer ideas for us to improve our performance.
As we work through the reform program, we need to connect and strengthen our engagement with affected stakeholders.
Our client and stakeholder research indicates that we need to improve stakeholder understanding of our role and functions, and the purpose and benefits of our regulation.
Our stakeholders have told us that they value their engagement with us, including with the VRQA Board, and that they would like further structured engagement targeted to the issues that most affect them.
We will maintain important stakeholder engagement mechanisms including the annual VRQA Board and Stakeholder Breakfast and our annual client and stakeholder research. VRQA board members will directly engage with stakeholders on matters of strategic importance to the education and training sector.
When planning and implementing reforms and projects, we will also consider which stakeholders are affected and engage with them to understand their needs and inform our activities.
VRQA values and principles for engagement
The Victorian Public Sector Commission (VPSC) public sector values underpin our interactions with our stakeholders, with a particular focus on the VRQA RITE values that are specific to our work as a regulator:
VPSC public sector values: / VRQA RITE values:Responsiveness
Integrity
Impartiality
Accountability
Respect
Leadership
Human Rights / Respect and diversity
Integrity
Transparency
Empowerment
3. How we will engage
Our stakeholders are diverse. Their interest in our activities varies between activities and projects.
To ensure that our engagement is fit for purpose and does not overburden our stakeholders, our approaches are shaped by their level of interest in and influence on our work, their needs and attributes, and our goals for stakeholder engagement.
We understand that digital access is increasingly people’s first choice for communicating. We are building this into our way of working.
Our engagement is summarised in the table below.
/ Inform / Consult / Collaborate /Stakeholder engagement goals / · To provide balanced, objective, accurate and consistent information to help stakeholders understand issues, approaches, opportunities and/or solutions. / · To obtain feedback from stakeholders on analysis, approaches and/or outcomes. / · To work directly with stakeholders to consistently understand and consider their concerns and needs.
Our commitment to stakeholders / · We will keep you informed. / · We will keep you informed, listen to and acknowledge concerns and aspirations, and provide feedback on how stakeholder input influenced the outcome. / · We will work with you to reflect your concerns and aspirations in our approach and provide feedback on how stakeholder input influenced the outcome.
Methods of engagement / · VRQA website
· Educative resources
· Publications
· VRQA e-news
· Workshops and briefings with online webinar conferencing (where available)
· Correspondence
· SMS messages and other digital-first communications / · Annual client and stakeholder research
· Workshops and briefings with online webinar conferencing (where available)
· Individual meetings with stakeholders
· Digital-first communications / · Reference groups
· Stakeholder forums
· Individual meetings with stakeholders
· Network meeting attendance
· VRQA presentations at external events
· Digital-first communications including online webinar conferencing
4. Our priorities
Engaging stakeholders is integral to our work. We will maintain contact with stakeholders so they trust and have confidence in our decision-making and processes and contribute to improving our regulatory activities.
The 2016 client and stakeholder research indicated several areas to strengthen our engagement and communication. Furthermore, our strategic plan has a number of key projects that require effective stakeholder engagement in order to be successfully implemented.
The priorities for stakeholder engagement in 2017–18 are to:
- Ensure effective stakeholder engagement underpins the implementation of the reform projects
Strong stakeholder engagement is critical to achieving many of the projects under the reform program. In rolling out the projects, we will identify and consult with affected stakeholders, recognising their expertise and experience can inform project outcomes.
We will listen to those affected by the projects so that stakeholder needs and interests are consistently and meaningfully considered in implementing the reform program.
More detailed activities are outlined in our activities.
- Communicate the purpose and benefits of VRQA regulation
There is an opportunity to improve stakeholder awareness of the VRQA’s legislative role and functions, and how our regulation contributes to quality learning outcomes.
We will actively engage DET portfolio and sector stakeholders about our purpose and functions, and strengthen the information publicly available, setting out our purpose and the benefits of our regulation for a range of audiences.
- Continuous improvement of engagement activities
The annual client and stakeholder research is a key element of the feedback cycle. It provides an independent assessment of how our stakeholders, education and training providers, employers and apprentices/trainees experience our engagement and regulatory services.
While the VRQA has consistently recorded high levels of satisfaction, we are aware of pockets of disengagement, such as apprentices. The reform program and its projects provide a timely opportunity to review the research.
In 2017, we will seek a new approach to the research. We will review the methodology and areas of focus to capture stakeholder feedback on the reform program projects, as well as tap into disengaged pockets to gain insight into unknown stakeholder sentiment.
We will continue to evaluate stakeholder engagement at the project level to assess effectiveness, whether stakeholder engagement risks were identified and managed, whether intended outcomes were delivered and where improvements can be made.
- Commit to digital-first communications
We are committed to building digital-first experiences for our stakeholders. We will build on the successes of the child safe standards and VET guidelines projects to expand our digital communications. We will continue to explore and develop technology-driven services to improve online stakeholder experiences and support the Victorian Government’s digital agenda.
We will use feedback from our client and stakeholder research to understand how our stakeholders want to transact with us online. We will review and improve existing digital channels such as the website and e-news as well as explore new technologies and platforms to support stakeholders to understand and meet their regulatory obligations.
5. Our activities
Activities such as our annual VRQA Board and Stakeholder Breakfast, apprenticeships network meetings, participation in external working groups and panels and our annual client and stakeholder research keep us in touch with our stakeholders. They provide opportunities for us to listen to stakeholder views and improve our processes and functions.
The 2016 client and stakeholder research highlights opportunities to improve our stakeholder engagement activities. The full research report and summary are available on the VRQA website.
Priority 1: Ensure effective stakeholder engagement underpins implementation of the reform agenda /Reform Project / Action /
Refresh regulatory services / Work closely with DET and key stakeholders to communicate about any remade regulations and regulatory field service arrangements.
Provide accurate and consistent information through existing communication channels and leverage stakeholder communication channels where appropriate.
Develop educative resources and information to help stakeholders prepare for change.
Ensure regulated entities comply with the child safe standards / Reflecting the move to monitoring, enforcement and reporting of the child safe standards, we will:
provide accurate and consistent information through existing communication channels
provide educative resources to help providers comply with the child safe standards.
Delivery of the Epsilon project and upgraded VRQA State Register / Campaign to raise our profile among apprentices, trainees and their employers (see Priority 2).
Commission research of communication channels for apprentices, trainees and their employers to effectively build awareness of the VRQA within the sector.
Keep stakeholders informed of progress with the Epsilon project.
Refresh the VRQA website / Listen to stakeholder feedback to modernise the VRQA website and digital services.
Ensure the website informs, and facilitates user feedback, about upcoming changes.
Priority 2: Communicate the purpose and benefits of VRQA regulation
Action
1. / Actively communicate with DET and sector stakeholders about our purpose and functions.
2. / VRQA Board members directly engage stakeholders on matters of strategic importance to the education and training sector.
3. / Strengthen public information about our purpose and functions through the refreshed website and through forums, stakeholder events and other communication channels.
4. / Focus on the apprenticeship and traineeship sector to raise awareness of the VRQA among apprentices and employers.
We will:
· focus on the start of the training contract as a key period for engagement
· work with organisations that are frequent sources of advice (e.g. registered training organisations, group training organisations (GTOs) and Australian apprenticeship support network providers)
· further develop and raise the profile of relevant educative resources
· consider leveraging the introduction of EPSILON.
Priority 3: Continuous improvement of engagement activities
Action
1. / Implement improvements identified by stakeholders in the 2016 client and stakeholder research. This will build on the successes of engagement activities for the child safe standards and GTO reforms and will focus on strengthened consultation and engagement.
2. / Seek a new approach to client and stakeholder research. We will review, strengthen and innovate the research methodology, with a particular focus on matters relevant to the strategic plan, and engaging disengaged pockets.
3. / Review project-level engagement activities such as project information sessions, targeted forums etc. to ensure they remain relevant and meet stakeholder needs and expectations.
4. / Learn from successful activities, such as the VRQA Board and Stakeholder Breakfast, and the implementation of child safe standards in the school sector to inform and improve how we deliver regulatory services.
Priority 4: Commit to digital-first communications
Action
1. / Build on well-received resources developed in 2016 such as the child safe standards video resource library and the VET podcast series to strengthen our online educative resources to support client and stakeholder understanding of and compliance with their legal and regulatory obligations.
2. / Review and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of existing digital channels including the VRQA website and the VRQA e-news.
3. / Provide, where available, online webinar conferencing facilities for VRQA forums and information sessions and effectively promote the facility to allow for regional and remote stakeholder participation.
4. / Explore new, digital-first communications that strengthen our engagement, align with the Government’s digital agenda and provide task-focused, positive stakeholder experiences.
VRQA Stakeholder Engagement Strategy 2017–18 Accessible Version
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