Background to Central West Community College
Central West Community College is a not for profit organisation with 28 years experience delivering vocational training including traineeships, employment and apprenticeships services.
We currently deliver Job Services Australia and Disability Employment Services across Central West NSW and operate as an Australian Apprenticeships Centre throughout the Central West, Hunter and North Coast regions of NSW.
Over the last six years, we have supported almost 20,000 employers to sign up and support over 36,000 Australian Apprentices. We also deliver the Kickstart Mentoring Pilot Program in the north coast region of NSW, supportingover 360 apprentices at any point in time.
As an organisation we are specialists in regional service delivery. We maintainstrong industry links through strategic employer engagement activities and our RTO specialises in vocational training and workforce development for the agrifoods, community services and mining industries. We work with the full range of employers ranging from multi-national companies such as Newcrest Mining Ltd and MARS through to small businesses with less than 20 employees. In fact,around 40% of our apprenticeships signups each year are with small businesses, that is those with less than 20 employees.
Review of Australian Apprenticeships System
Central West Community College commends any review of the Australian Apprenticeships (AA) system. We know the vital and valuable role the system plays in skill development of existing workers and new workers in the Australian labour force particularly in regional areas.
We would like to offer the following suggestions for consideration during the current review of the Australian Apprenticeships System:
- Greater flexibility is required in the future AA system. The current AA systemis rigid and prescriptive, particularly in terms of contact regimeswith limited support provided to the employer and apprentice. Greater flexibility is needed to allow more responsive, tailored and individualised support for employers and apprentices. For example,contact regimes developed in consultation with the employer and apprenticebased on the level of contact they require; some may need contact visits earlier into the apprenticeshipor more frequent contact than others. Some may benefit from a structured mentoring approach.
The broadening of the role of AACs to also coordinate wrap around support services should be considered. This would ensuretargeted and timely support is provided to individual apprentices and employers to address barriers and issues that threaten the success of the apprenticeship.
- Employer incentivesare generally not a key motivator for employers to invest in apprenticeships. In fact, the employers who are motivated by the funding often give poor workplace support for apprentices. In addition, the allocation of incentives is inequitable as it currently provides the same level of funding to all employers regardless of size, industry or occupation. Rather, employer incentives could be redirected to a central fund and drawn on by AACs to deliver the targeted support to employers and apprentices on an ‘as needs’ basis and level of assessed disadvantage.
The central fund could operate in a similar way to the current Employment Pathway Fund featured in the Australian Government’s Job Services Australia. Examples of items to be funded could include: wage subsidies to support small business or an employer facing financial hardship, learning support for an apprentice requiring specialised assistance; or allied health related services for apprentices not eligible for support through existing programs such as Disability Employment Services etc. Other options may include rolling current initiatives such as Tools for your Trade into the fund with AACs given responsibility to coordinate equipment and tools as required for specific occupations again on an as needed basis.
- Incentify apprenticeships to attract and retain the apprentices. Currently there is nothing in the AA system to motivate apprenticesto commence or finish an apprenticeship. Scholarships or a ‘bonus payment’ to attract apprentices (similar to the ‘baby bonus’) could be offered. Likewise, abonus could be offered to reward apprentices for successful completion. A completion bonus may in some cases be more attractive to an apprentice than a pay rise offered by a new employer.
- Skills shortage or priority occupations could be targeted by reviewing the current ‘tiered’ payment structure. Rather than funding apprenticeships/traineeships in some occupations and not others, AACs could be encouraged to maximise sign ups into priority occupations by offering higher sign up payments for priority occupations compared to non-priority occupations.
- The value of Certificate II level qualifications, particularly through traineeships and apprenticeships should not be under estimated in terms of pathways to Certificate III and beyond. It is our experience that disadvantaged cohorts, with low foundation skills and no prior experience in post school education struggle to go straight into qualifications at Certificate III or IV level. Those who participate in some form of VET training at Certificate II first, generally have more success in transitioning to the next level VET qualification. Additionally, a 12 month Certificate II level traineeship offers a realistic and viable entry level option to the labour force for many within the disadvantaged cohort rather than a two to four year traineeship/apprenticeship. Without these opportunities, workforce participation will be impacted.
Urgent review of performance data
As an experienced provider of Australian Apprenticeships Centre services, we feel compelled to highlight theambiguityin the currentperformance data (specifically completion rates) that has been relied on for recent review processes. As it is highly likely such performance data will go on to underpin the future governance, funding and policy direction of the framework for Australian Apprenticeships, we urge immediate attention and action to consider this issue.
Below, in their simplest form, are three of the main issues our organisation has identified that are effectively distorting the current calculation of completion rates:
1)An individual apprentice can recordone commencement, multiple re-commencements, multiple cancellations but only ever one completion
2)Certificate II completion data is not incentivised for employers and therefore is not submitted in all cases, thus recorded completions are below actual completions
3)Completions outside the nominal term are not counted as a completion.
In addition, we raise the possibility that inconsistencies in data may be occurring where group training organisations (GTOs) use different criteria to record commencements and completions. For example an apprentice employed by a GTO who leaves one host employer to commence with another host employeris potentially not counted as a cancellation and re-commencement. This may result in higher completion rates by GTOs compared to non-GTO apprentices who change individual employers.
In the interest of rectifying these anomalies, Central West Community College supports two possible solutions to the issues identified above.
- Fast track the national Student Identifier Number – effective in addressing issues 1 & 2
- The introduction of ‘competency based progression’ – effective in addressing issue 2 & 3.
Furthermore, the establishment of a National Custodian will serve to address the inconsistencies in the individual approach each Australian state takes in its treatment of cancellations and withdrawals from Australian Apprenticeships.
We believe the ambiguity and discrepancies outlined above are significant enough to warrant the comprehensive review of the definition of ‘completion’ and a consistent approach nationally to recording ‘completion rates’ for Australian Apprenticeships.
Central West Community College sees ensuring the underpinning data for decision making ‘right’ before proceeding with any radical reform of the current AA system as urgent and critical.
Our response to recommendations
In relation to the recommendations identified in the final report of the Expert Panel, ‘A Shared Responsibility’, dated 31 January 2011, Central West Community College would like to offer the following comments for consideration:
Recommendation 1 – Establish a National custodian to oversee reform that will ensure Australia has a high quality Australian Apprenticeships system
We strongly support the concept of an overarching jurisdiction nationally. Reducing 8 jurisdictions to 1 would greatly reduce complexity and duplication of services. This is a high priority and should be commenced immediately. Australian Apprenticeships Centres (AACs) are currently the only aspect of the apprenticeships system in touch with every apprentice and trainee across the country. As such, we believe AACs are ideally placed to act on behalf of the National Custodian to facilitate stronger partnerships between government and industry to support Australian Apprenticeships.
Recommendation 2 –Enhance quality and effectiveness of the Australian Apprenticeships system by clarifying the roles and consolidating the number of stakeholders in the system, ensuring that services are provided by the most appropriate provider, duplication of service delivery is reduced and administrative processes are streamlined.
In an attempt to demystify the currently very complex AA systemfor employers and apprentices, Central West Community College developedand uses a visual aid which we refer to as our ‘Star Chart’ (see attachment 1).
Our Star Chart clearly identifies all of the stakeholders to the AA system and outlines the role and responsibilities of each. It was developed to assist employers and apprentices understand and navigate their way through the complex system.
While our Star Chart is helpful to explain the system, it does not take away the definite need to consolidate the number of stakeholders in the AA system, reduce duplication of service delivery and streamline administrative processes.
We fully support the recommendation to enhance quality and effectiveness of the system by clarifying the roles and consolidating the number of stakeholders in the system, ensuring that services are provided by the most appropriate provider, duplication of service delivery is reduced and administrative processes are streamlined.
Recommendation 3 – Establish a formal accreditationprocess for the pre-qualification and training of all employers of apprentices and trainees to ensure a nationally consistent minimum standard of high quality employment and training is provided.
In principle, we support the concept of upfront screening and assessment of employers to determine their capacity to effectively support an apprentice and their training. However, we would be hesitant to support the introduction of an onerous process with potential to create another bureaucratic hurdle that deters employers from engaging with the apprenticeship system.
The valuable opportunity to clarify roles and responsibilities to employers and provide assistance for them to enhance their capacity to support apprentices however should not be lost. In NSW, this process already happens to some extent unofficially between AACs and STS, with AACs notifying STS of employers informally assessed as having inadequate supports in place for apprentices.
Agencies such as AACs are well placed to complete pre-employment assessment of employers as they are already in the field interacting with the full range of employers, promoting and establishing apprenticeships. An AAC may be talking to an employer for many months before the employer decides to commit to taking on an apprentice.
Other agencies such as STS and RTOs are generally introduced later, oftenafter the apprentice is employed and may not have a strong relationship with the employer.
Recommendation 4 – Establish structured support for employers to provide high quality employment and workforce development experiences for eligible apprentices and trainees. The focus of Australian Government support should be on assisting employers to provide high quality on-the-job and off-the-job training through support services such as mentoring and pastoral care.
As an AAC, it is our experience that employers and apprentices require ongoing support from pre-employment through to completion.
Broadening the role of AACs to more actively support employers and apprentices during the full duration of the apprenticeship is a critical to improving apprentice retention and completion rates.
Some of the activities AACs currently informally delivercould be formalised and funded within future AAC systems, including:
- delivery of additional pre-employment services to both the prospective employer and the prospective apprentice. For example, providing a workforce development information service to employers, and careers advice to prospective apprentices. AACs could also be more effectively utilisedto actively promote apprenticeships as career pathways and create linkages to schools and the unemployed via employment service providers.
- participate in the selection of apprentices by providing job matching and recruitment support for employers to optimise ‘job fit’ in terms of the apprentice’s fit with the occupation and the employer.
- delivery of apprenticeship and general VET information, advice and referral for employers’ broader workforce development.
- the coordination of wrap around services for apprentices funded through a central fund operating similarly to the current Employment Pathway Fund in Job Services Australia.
- the provision of mentoring support for apprentices and their employers. As a provider of DEEWR’s Kickstart Mentoring Initiative pilot, Central West Community College currently supports up to 360 young apprentices and has achieved 95% retention rates to date. This is a substantial increase on the 77% retention rate recorded prior to the introduction of this additional support. Our Mentors draw on a network of external service providers to coordinate holistic support to meet the individual needs of each Kickstart apprentice.
Our pilot project model currently works only with apprentices signed up under the Government’s Kickstart Initiative who are assessed as ‘at risk’ of fall off. A mentoring strategy could be broadened to all apprentices and delivered by AACs. Our experience to date is thattargeted mentoring/pastoral care is highly effective in improvingretention rates in the critical first 12 months. Our approach has been to identify support needs based on known high, medium, low risk factors which affect retention and completion.
Through our mentor program we have identified that the most common risk factor for fall offs is a non-supportive employment environment. Nearly 10% of apprentices assessed through our Kickstart Mentoring program have been identified in this risk category. Mentoring support is therefore valuable in retaining a significant proportion of apprentices.
Finally, many larger employers already have capacity to support apprentices through mentoring and pastoral care (eg larger employers have Apprentice Masters). However our experience is that smaller employers, particularly those in regional areas generally don’t have this capacity. We strongly support the concept to provide additional targeted support to apprentices based with these smaller employers.
Recommendation 5 – Redirect current Australian Government employer incentives to provide structured support services to eligible apprentices and trainees and their employers in occupations that are priorities for the Australian economy.
Redirecting employer incentives provide structured support servicesto apprentices/trainees and their employers is a valuable concept. As proposed earlier in our response, we would support the redirection of employer incentives into a central fund to pay for the support services. We raise however, that supporting only those occupations considered to be the priorities to the Australian economy risks creating skills shortages in other areas and has the potential to further marginalise socially disadvantaged people who are typically attracted to apprenticeships/traineeshipsin non-priority occupations, for example meat processing and sawmilling.
In terms of maximising commencements in priority occupations this could be achieved by reviewing the current ‘tier’ funding arrangements paid to AACs. Presently the tier payments are based on certificate levels. Rather, if tier payments were based on occupations and their corresponding qualifications, it is reasonable to predict that AACs would maximise sign ups in these occupations.
Recommendation 6 –Reinforce the need for a shared responsibility for the Australian Apprenticeships system by establishing an Employer Contribution scheme in which employer contributions will be matched by the Australian Government.
The introduction of an Employer Contribution Scheme fails to acknowledge the significant contribution already made by employers and we therefore support the withdrawal of this concept.
Recommendation 7 - Facilitate a cooperative and flexible approachby government and industry bodies to allow for the continuation of both training and employment of apprentices and trainees during periods of economic downturn.
While conceptually this is a reasonable idea, there may be some difficulty in achieving this in practice. Successful initiatives such as the Kickstart Apprenticeships Initiative launched by the Australian Government during the recent global financial crisis should be considered as targeted strategies to support employers during difficult times.
Recommendation 8 - Formally regulate quality of VET in schools within the VET system to enhance the consistency and quality of training across all jurisdictions and to recognise the potential of VET in Schools as a pathway into an apprenticeship or traineeship.
We strongly support regulating the quality of VET in schools. VET in schools offers a unique pathway opportunity, particularly for students more suited to practical learning or those without aspirations to attend University.
Recommendation 9 – Increase national consistency in preparatory training by directing the National Quality Council to develop definitions for pre-apprenticeship and pre-vocational training
We support any action to achieve a nationally consistent approach to pre-apprenticeship training.
Recommendation 10 – Provide additional support for apprentices and trainees who face specific challenges
As a long standing Employment Services Provider, Community College and AAC, it is our experience that people facing specific challenges including multiple and entrenched disadvantage require a higher level of engagement and support to remain in and succeed in VET studies and Australian Apprenticeships.
We therefore endorse the opportunity for any additional support that targets these groups however it MUST be adequately resourced and ongoing (provided early and at all stages of participation). It must also be flexible and milestone focused rather than compliance driven. By this we mean not based on prescribed visits or rigid schedules but instead have a greater focus on progressive achievement of competency.
Furthermore, targeting funding to specific industries and qualification levels thereby eliminating or restricting access to Certificate II level qualifications has potential to jeopardise the whole concept of pathways into VET and the Australian Apprenticeships system for the socially excluded.