business.gov.au | 13 28 46 .

The Australian Apprenticeships Management

System IT overview

The Australian Apprenticeships Management System

The Australian Government will soon be calling for tenders to deploy modern online services to automate
many of the current manual and paper based processes involved in Australian Apprenticeships. Australian
Apprenticeships Centres are hamstrung by lack of modern on-line tools by which to engage with employers
and apprentices.

IT providers will be asked to work with the Government to develop and roll-out the new platform.

Background
The Australian Apprenticeships Management System (AAMS) will support the operation of the Australian
Apprenticeship Support Network (network providers), which is subject to a separate tender based on the
announcements of the Prime Minister, the Hon Tony Abbott MP and the Minister for Industry, the Hon Ian
Macfarlane MP on 8 September 2015.

Successful tenderers under the support network need to conduct core business of making payments to
employers and apprentices under the Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Programme and the
Governments new Trade Support Loans. Importantly, network providers are also expected to engage
regularly with employers and apprentices to track their progress and to engage face-to-face when important
milestones arise or there are issues of concern. An opportunity will be given for network providers to offer
innovative solutions to make the connection between employers and aspiring apprentices and trainees.

AAMS will provide a platform for these functions and services and facilitate the electronic storage of
employer, apprentice, and service provider information, and make Commonwealth payments.

Key functions of the new system

1. Contact and client management

A platform for the management of customer information from all parties including apprentice,
business and training information.
A platform to allow for the online sign-up of apprenticeships including the ability to verify electronic
signatures.
A system which allows for the online management and filing of records and contracts.
2. Determining eligibility for payments
A system which automatically calculates if apprentices, employers and service providers are
eligible to receive payments under the Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Programme,
Australian Apprenticeships Support Network and Trade Support Loan programme based on a
Business Rules Engine which allows the rules defining eligibility for payments to be quickly and
efficiently updated as policies change into the future.

3. Making payments
A system which automatically monitors and calculates when payments should be made to
apprentices, employers and service providers who are eligible for payments.
A system which allows apprentices and employers to electronically submit and authorise claims
online in order to receive payments.
A system which will process payments through the Departments financial management information
system, TechnologyOne.

The system in more detail

The Government will be seeking proposals from the private sector to deploy a system with significant e-
business capability to streamline administration costs and reduce the need for paper-based processing and
hard copy filing. AAMS will need to have online and e-business data entry and authorisation capabilities.
Data entry, electronic signatures and claim processing and authorisation must have the capability to be
performed online via contemporary mobile computing platforms, such as tablets and smartphones.

Subject to responses from the market to the tender, AAMS will allow training contracts and claims to be
electronic (pending legal advice on the electronic storage of certain information). Current paper based claim
forms will be converted to electronic format. An important feature of the system will be to collect data once
and reuse. This way current information can be provided back to the employer and apprentice and they will
only need to update the information or supply supplementary data to activate payment.

Other core functionality sought through the tender includes the tracking of engagement between the
support network provider, apprentices and employers, and other key services involved in apprenticeship
training. State and territory authorities oversight the quality of the work-site supervision of the on-the-job
training. Obligations on these parties are reflected in a formal contract of training which states and
territories use to underpin the integrity of the apprenticeship training arrangement.

Registered training organisations have responsibility to deliver the training and engage with the employer to
structure relevant workplace opportunity for apprentices to deepen their skills. This relationship will also
need to be tracked as part of AAMS.

The Department will be seeking as part of the solution a business rules engine which will enable on-the-
spot automated eligibility assessments for payments. Different payments are expected to be able to be
configured and deployed rapidly. AAMS will also need to include a mechanism for monitoring performance
of service providers and a platform for addressing compliance and auditing requirements.

AAMS will need the capability to create approximately 29,000 contracts of training each month and
process an estimated 135,000 payments per month.

There are around 100 different payment types, which give rise to additional complexity as each uses
different eligibility criteria. AAMS will need to support complex system interfaces between the Department
and the eight State/Territory Training Authorities to ensure the capture and sharing of information relating to
Australian Apprentices is accurate and provided in a timely and efficient manner. It will also be required to
interface with Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office and the Department of Industry.

AAMS must also be compatible, and be able to easily integrate, with the Department of Industrys ICT
infrastructure, payment system and strategic platforms.

The proposed AAMS solution is expected to take an existing Commercial Off The Shelf Customer
Relationship Management product, customising it where required to meet the needs described.
Support for VET data strategy
The Commonwealth and states and territories have agreed to national approaches to the collection and use
of information and data to support the efficient operation of training in Australia. Central to this strategy is a
strong commitment to data standards and data sharing protocols, so that information can be readily
deployed to help individuals engage in training and to reduce the data reporting load on training providers
and participants.

This will include integration with the Unique Student Identifier system and the AVETMISS National
Apprentice and Trainee collection. The data collected through the AAMS platform and the approach to
storage and sharing of information will need to be consistent with that objective. Further information on
data standards will form part of the AAMS tender.

Request for Tender

The Department is planning to approach the market through an open tender in October 2014.

The tender will ask for advice on the best roll-out of the system, including whether core functionality can be
in operation from 1 July 2015, in line with the Australian Apprenticeship Support Network contract.

Depending upon the assessment of the tenders, however, a staged roll-out may be considered to mitigate
risk.

The Department expects AAMS to be a turnkey solution but recognises that the solution components span
a number of specialist areas. Therefore, the Department will welcome submissions from consortium or a
sub-contract vendor relationship.