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Smart and Skilled: Where is it up to

3/3/2015

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Feedback from Providers is that enrolments are well and truly underway and in fact some have already got the Notification of Enrolment Process behind them, have met their financial caps and are delivering the training.

If you are not one of them, don't worry because there is still time, and some of those who have rushed ahead to meet caps may not have crossed the t's and etc. In short they have focussed on the targets and not the compliance. However, there are also a number of providers who have successfully managed both and they are  to be congratulated.
For most RTO's, and especially for smaller ones (and those who only received small amounts of funding),  it is a risk management decision regarding where to put their resources - enrolments or compliance. Having said that, I have done a few checks on one or two who have received millions of dollars of Smart and Skilled money to find no evidence of any compliance on their website at all. In a fair world this would work against them with future allocations but.....
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Where it is all at
The good news in from State Training Services (March 2015 - Making Connections ) yesterday was that allocations have been raised for a number of existing providers of targeted priorities qualifications: childcare, aged care,  disability support, agriculture and  Auslan and Interpreting. Additional contracts have also been offered to new Providers for these qualifications. 

Additional funds have also been allocated to increase regional caps for entitlement (Certificate II and III) and foundation skills to ensure that training providers have a minimum of 12 training places in each region. If you have not been included in this it would probably be worth contacting your local STS office to find out why.

Hopefully, these allocations have gone to providers with experience in delivering the training in the region it has been purchased. Conversations I have had around the Smart and Skilled training sector indicate the frustration so many providers have had with getting very small allocations for qualifications they have never previously delivered in untested market/regions. On top of this  providers out with their region (some from interstate) are now delivering to their long term target markets, sometimes using the venues such as the local RSL as their contact or delivery  site. It is certainly an interesting (polite way of saying it) delivery model and one with potentially  huge social, community and economic  implications! Perhaps this new allocation is a response to this feedback.

So it is interesting times in the Smart and Skilled world, changes are happening and Providers need to be positioned to maximise their advantage. My next blog will deal with where you should be up to now in terms of your contractual compliance. In the meantime if you have any questions please feel free to contact me using either the form on the right of this page or the contacts page on the website.


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Smart and Skilled - the Clock is ticking

7/2/2015

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Did your Activity Schedule start on Jan 1 2015?

If it  did - are you aware that by the end of March the 2015 Smart and Skilled Contract specifies you should have expended 70% of your allocated Financial Cap?

This means that you should have completed the Notification of Enrolment process for 70% of your targeted 2015 S&S enrolments.

The three month point  is when the first review of Financial Caps is scheduled.  The Contract states that if at this time a Provider's activity is less than the 'Cap Usage estimate level" (i.e. 70%) then caps maybe reduced, approved qualifications removed or Commitment ID's no longer issued.

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The Compliance Countdown
A quick look at where Smart and Skilled Providers are up to in terms of their pre-enrolment marketing requirements revealed that relatively few are up to speed.

We sampled 10% of Smart and Skilled Provider websites and found: .
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68%  demonstrated no compliance (not even the link to State Training Services on their home page)

19% demonstrated part compliance (at least a link to Smart and Skilled or some reference to Smart and Skilled)

12% were fully compliant (all relevant information as stipulated in the Operating Guidelines was uploaded to site- well done!!)

Your Place on the Timeline
With the 3 month mark fast approaching (less than 7 weeks to go) I imagine you will have at least started marketing if not enrolling. To demonstrate your have met your contractual requirements before you put anyone through the Notifications of Enrolment process  you really need to have ticked all the boxes in the following list:
1. Have a link to Smart and Skilled website on your home page

2. Met all the requirements of  Marketing (Section 1) in the Operating Guidelines  including developing  a Marketing Strategy  and filing copies of all marketing/promotional material as evidence of implementation of your strategy.

3. Uploaded all relevant Student Pre-enrolment Information (Section 5) to your website

4. Uploaded the Notification of Enrolments Process (Section 6) to your website
How to gain ground and not waste time
There are a couple of really easy ways to save time:

1. We have built a Sample Smart and Skilled webpage  to show what your page might look like and what it should include. All links are live so have a look around and see how it might work for you. It should be easy to give your IT department the link to use as template to let them quickly and easily build your site. (Don't forget to also put the Smart and Skilled link on your home page).
2. You can be compliant in a few easy clicks by downloading the Smart and Skilled Resource Kit. 

The kit contents include a Management Checklist and all the supporting documents you will need to get you started and to demonstrate compliance at audit. The Checklist can be used as an Internal Audit document and will take you step by step through what you need to know and do  to get your program up and running.  
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Training Matters 103- made easy

5/2/2015

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Training Market Bulletin 16 January – Made Easy

The Training Market Bulletin of 16 January informed us about:

- Changes to the Notification of enrolment process
- Fees for Continuing Students in 2015
- Apprenticeship and Traineeship Searches
- Lodgement of Training Contracts under APL

There was a fair amount of reading but in a nutshell what do we need to know – what has changed and what effect does it have on those starting to deliver the program?
  Here I look in brief at I  what I thought is important for Providers.


Notification of Enrolment Process
The only major change here seems to be a sensible one!
Basically the Notification of Enrolment process has been divided into two parts:
Step 1: Enquiry
This step allows you to enter student/trainee details to check eligibility without going through to the Commitment ID stage. At this stage a Quote ID is generated

Step 2: Commitment ID
You would proceed with Step 2 when the student/trainee confirms they want to enrol in the course and you have sighted evidence of eligibility (see the Proof Of Student Eligibility Checklist in Notification of Enrolment P&P in the Resource Kit).
 You must complete this step within 7 days of the Quote ID being generated or it is cancelled. Proceeding with this step completes the Notification of Enrolment and generates a Commitment ID. It at this point that your Financial Cap allowance is adjusted.


A few other points which are not new but probably worth a reminder:
The Notification of Enrolment Process must be completed before the student commences training. You have to do this to ensure the student is included in the reporting process; failure to do so means you can't claim for them.

You have 4 months from issue of a Commitment ID to starting a student in their training. It over 4 months the Commitment is cancelled.

Verified USI's must be provided in the second step

SBATS are not included in the Notification of Enrolment process - a separate process will be available soon
Quick Tip: Student Eligibility Check - a short cut

Not included in Training Matters but maybe worthwhile knowing is an alternative, quick,  first step to check student  eligibility and student fees.
Go to the
Student Page of the Smart and Skilled website. Here you will find an Eligibility Checker and student fee estimator (on the Find a Course Page) that does not require personal information to be entered.
This might be a useful tool for Front Desk staff fielding initial enquires, either by referring students to  or using  it themselves.
It does not, however, inform Providers of their subsidies to work this out go to
Smart and Skilled - Prices, fees and subsidies in 2015

Fees for Continuing Students in 2015

Students who commenced in 2014 do not undergo and Notification of Enrolment Process. They must, however, be informed of the new fee structure. It is the Provider’s responsibility to calculate the pro rata fees based on the proportion of the course the student has to complete. Appendix 5 (page 20) of the Fee Administration Policy gives details and examples.

Apprenticeship and Traineeship Search

The information in this section gives information regarding where to search for Smart and Skilled subsided traineeship,non subsided training  and SBATS and is self-explanatory.

Lodgement of Training Contracts under APL


Last day for lodging training that commenced before 31 Dec 2014 under the APL is 28 February

And that is about it for Training Matters 103


 

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Smart and Skilled -Up and Running

26/1/2015

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How do we stay in the race?
Step 1: Understanding the requirements
It's been a long time in the making - over two years - but now it's here what do we know about Smart and Skilled?
A few easy to grasp facts are:
- It provides subsidised training for eligible participants in NSW
- There is a one year funding period
- Success in obtaining future contracts will be dependent on performance in 2015
And
                                                                             
 -
It is complicated.
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Smart and  Skilled at the starting gate
Basically, the pressure is on for Smart and Skilled Providers to produce the goods - quality training that expends, some would say, a fairly arbitrary allocation of fairly arbitrary  amounts of funding . However, for most of us delivery is not a problem; quality training is what we do. The problem for many is in understanding exactly what the contractual requirements are; we know we have to clear the hurdles to stay in the race but what are they exactly and where do we find them?

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During the two years that the DEC was developing Smart and Skilled it does not appear that at any time the focus was on making it simple. I have spent the last two and a half months coming to terms with all aspects of the program by immersing myself in the documents and last week in a reply to a question I posted to STS I was referred to a Fact Sheet I had never sighted before!
To confound matters Training Matters put out a newsletter in the same week with new information and new requirements that had not, to my knowledge,   been included in any previous document  (to be discussed in next blog).

Smart and Skilled Documents
Concerned that I could be overlooking  important information I decided to list all the Smart and Skilled Reference Sources relevant to current delivery of the program. This is what I came up with:



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    Hi, I am Anne

    On this blog I share tips on changes in VET Compliance and how  to stay up to date with Smart and Skilled. For updates please sign up below.

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