Apprenticeship Office
Karen Ho
Presentation to ACPET Forum
Tuesday 23 February 2016
Role and function
• 1 July 2015 new Commonwealth Australian Apprenticeship
Support Network (AASN) services commenced
• To eliminate duplication the State Government re-positioned
ApprentiCentre to Apprenticeship Office
• Apprenticeship Office role is the administration and
regulation of training contracts in accordance with the VET
Act 1996
Our objectives
• Efficient administration of training contracts
• Create a regulatory environment that:
– supports apprenticeships and traineeships
– improves the quality and integrity of the apprenticeship
system
Administration of training contracts
• Administer over 40,000 active training contracts
• Receive an average of 120 new training contracts every
working day
• Average time taken to register a training contract reduced to 6
days on average (December quarter)
• Over 4,000 variations to training contracts processed
(December quarter)
• Average time taken to answer phone calls is 9 seconds
(December quarter)
Approach to compliance
Stakeholders:
Apprenticeship Office:
Have decided not to
comply
Use statutory penalties
Try to comply but
don’t always
succeed
Deter through detection
Help to comply
Willing to do the
right thing
COMPLIANCE
PYRAMID
E
Educate and prevent
Compliance activities - training plans
• Training plans are essential to the quality and integration of
the on-the-job and off-the-job training
• In 2012 we identified that there were over 4,000 overdue
training plans
• Number of overdue training plans around 300 (December
2015)
• Over 2000 overdue training plans recovered since July 2015
by working with RTOs
• 196 training plans audited since July 2015, with about 40%
complying with requirements
• Future audit work with RTOs aims to increase awareness of
the requirements
Compliance activities - training
contract lodgement
• Training contracts must be lodged within 21 days of
commencement. Delays affect commencement of training
and the RTO’s timeframe to develop the training plan
• In 2012 only 54% lodged within 21 days
• Now 75% of training contracts lodged within 21 days
(December 2015)
• This has been achieved by working with the AASNs
Compliance activities –
registration assessments
• Registration assessments check the suitability and quality of the
arrangement ‘at the gateway’. This is to prevent problems down the
track which may lead to non-completions and wastage.
• Risk-based approach, high-volume qualifications, areas of concern
• Assessments look at:
•
•
•
•
Qualification fits intended occupation
Employer ability to provide adequate training (facilities, supervision)
Visa eligibility
Consistent with the objects of the Act
• Commenced assessments in November 2015. Methodology being
refined
Compliance activities - completion of
the training contract
• The timeframe for RTOs to notify that a training contract is
completed is another future area of work
• Failure to meet the timeframe may delay certification, delay
employment and distort training statistics
• In 2012 we identified that 1, 425 completion notifications
were overdue
• Future activities will work with RTOs to reduce the number of
overdue notifications
Some changes going forward
• Consult on proposed changes to understand impacts and
communicate in advance
• Shift the emphasis to education and guidance
– Flow charts on process
– Case studies, fact sheets, FAQs, guidelines, workshops
– Greater transparency
• Change the tone of communications
Further information available
Phone:
Email:
Website:
13 19 54
apprenticeshipoffice@dtwd.wa.gov.au
www.dtwd.wa.gov.au/apprenticeshipoffice