Apprenticeship Office news and updates

The Department’s policy position on minimum hours of paid work has not changed. The revised fact sheet has been developed to provide more detailed information to help clarify the existing minimum hour requirements of paid work for school-based apprenticeship and traineeship arrangements, along with some examples to show how the requirements could be achieved.

The updated fact sheet is available on the Apprenticeship Office website, under Training contract forms and fact sheets.

• Form – Notice to terminate a training contract
• Form –  Notice to assign a training contract to a new employer
• Form – Notice to vary a training contract
• Fact sheet – Termination of a training contract without apprentice consent
• Fact sheet – Extending a training contract
• Fact sheet – Assignment of a training contract to a new employer
• Fact sheet – Training contract registration and assessment – Frequently asked questions
• Fact sheet – Training plans
• National training plan template
• Case study – Completion of a training contract

In addition, the following new fact sheets have been developed and published.

• Fact sheet – Employer’s eligibility to enter into a training contract
• Fact sheet – Cancellation of a training contract due to apprentice abandonment
• Fact sheet – School based apprenticeships and traineeships: Minimum hours per week

These documents are all available from the Training contract forms and fact sheets section of the Apprenticeship Office website at dtwd.wa.gov.au/apprenticeship-office.

The changes simplify the timeframe for training providers to develop training plans for apprentices and trainees, clarify training plan requirements and ensure that schools are central to and can support school-based apprenticeship and traineeship (SBAT) arrangements. Overall, the changes will support quality training plans being developed in a timely manner that meet stakeholder needs.

Amendments include:

• changing the timeframe to sign a training plan to six weeks from the date that the parties are notified of the registration of the training contract.  In most cases, this will give RTOs more time;
• making all parties aware of their obligations by clarifying that a new training plan is to be signed when there is a new training provider or employer.  This will ensure that the same quality applies to the training arrangement after an assignment or variation;
• requiring training providers to notify the Department when a training plan has been signed so that the Department can ensure that training plans are being developed in the early phase of the training;
• requiring school endorsement of the training plan for all SBAT arrangements to ensure that schools are aware of and are supportive of the training arrangement. Completion and submission of the Education, Training and Employment Schedule or ETES form will no longer be required; and
• clarifying that home educated students will no longer be able to access SBAT, but will instead have access to a broader range of apprenticeships or traineeships under a part-time arrangement.

Further information on the amendments is provided in the fact sheets Changes to training plans and School-based apprenticeships and traineeships and changes to training plan requirements which are available on the Apprenticeship Office website under Training contract forms and fact sheets.

Updated forms and fact sheets relating to training plans, assignment and variations and the training plan template will be published on the Apprenticeship Office website on 9 February 2018. Please ensure you are using the current version of the forms when submitting requests to the Apprenticeship Office.

Details of the proposed changes can be found at Office of State Revenue Circular 10. Any queries relating to the administration of the payroll tax exemption should be made to the Office of State Revenue on 08 9262 1300 or by web enquiry at osr.wa.gov.au/PayrollEnquiry.

The Department of Training and Workforce Development Apprenticeship Office will continue to assess and make decisions on requests relating to existing worker traineeships in accordance with the Vocational Education and Training Act 1996 and relevant Regulations.

Please note, under the proposed transitional arrangements for existing worker traineeships registered or lodged with the Department before 1 December 2017, the duration of the payroll tax exemption cannot be extended by suspending or varying the training contract. The transitional arrangements will only allow the payroll tax exemption to apply until the expected completion date of these training contracts as at 1 December 2017.

The Apprenticeship Office may also assess a worker’s employment status (ie; existing worker or new entrant) as part of its registration assessment or compliance assessment following the registration of a training contract. Guidelines on how to determine a worker’s employment status will be published in due course.

The proposed automation to the upgrade of superseded qualifications where the transition period has ended provides the following benefit to stakeholders:

• removal of the need to notify the Department for a qualification upgrade; and
• instant update of the qualification information in a training contract record.

The Department has received overall positive feedback to this proposal and made necessary amendments to ensure the change meets stakeholder needs. It is planned that the change to TRS will be deployed in the evening on Thursday 8 June 2017.

For detailed information about this change, please refer to this frequently asked questions document.

If you have any questions regarding the above change, please call 13 19 54 or email ApprenticeshipOffice.Projects@dtwd.wa.gov.au.

Regulation 52 training contract completion requirements

When:              26 October 2016 2–3pm

Where:             Ground Floor, Optima Centre Building B, 16 Parkland Road Osborne Park

This workshop is aimed at staff within registered training organisations who are responsible for advising the Apprenticeship Office of the training contract completion.