NETM Education and Training Providers Panel

[Beginning of recorded material]

Peter Mackey

Hi my name is Peter Mackey, I'm with the Western Parkland City Authority and today we'd like to give you some background to the Request for Tender process for the NETM Education and Training Providers Panel.

So firstly some background to the NETM. What's "new" about the New Education and Training Model? In essence, it is a flipped model of training development -- that is, it's industry-driven and industry-led.

We're focused on the industries that are relevant to the Western Parkland City, and they include sectors such as advanced manufacturing, defence & aerospace, pharmaceutical manufacturing, freight & logistics, and agribusiness. We're also cross-sectoral, so we have providers that are delivering training from the higher education and from vocational sectors.

The last feature of the NETM that I'd like to highlight is the stackability of the micro-credentials, so learners can pick and choose micro-credentials that'll support their career and learning development goals.

So I'd just like to unpack the industry-led element of the NETM. The NETM relies on industry partners to initiate proposals for micro-credentials, so they are involved at that initiation phase. They're often then involved in the co-design of the micro-credential with the Education and Training provider to ensure that the content is actually industry-led -- and potentially they can also be involved in the co-delivery of those micro-credentials, and they can help by enrolling their own staff into those micro-credentials as well as helping us market the micro-credentials across their industry.

So the NETM is a four-year pilot. The government funded the program to a total cost of 37 million dollars over the four year period. We are required to develop 100 micro-credentials over the term of the pilot and we're aiming to reach at least 3,000 learners throughout that period of time.

So on the timeline there you can see that the initial tender was run at the end of 2021, we're now 12 months down the track so we're looking to add additional providers to our panel which is why we're here today running through this presentation.

So now I'm going to take you through the NETM procurement process. It's really important to bear this in mind when you're forming your response to the RFT.

As mentioned previously the industry partner initiates an idea and comes up with a proposal. The WPCA works through that proposal with the industry proponent, and when it's ready to be able to be put to our Industry Reference Group, it then goes to them for validation -- and there are two elements that the Industry Reference Group are looking at.

Firstly they want to ensure that the proposal actually represents a gap and it's not duplicating existing training.

The second thing they want to make sure, is that this is not a proposal that's only going to benefit that individual company. but rather something that will benefit the whole sector collectively.

So once the proposal has been given a thumbs up by the NETM Industry Reference Group, the NETM will put that proposal out to a competitive RFQ of the panel and we will go to those providers that have indicated they have the relevant industry specialization. The providers then decide if they wish to respond to that RFQ, and those RFQ responses are assessed on their merits.

Ultimately a successful provider is selected and we connect that industry partner with the provider to go through the co-design and co-development and potentially co-delivery of that micro-credential. Keep this process in mind when you're responding to the Request for Tender because it's your decisions around your industry specialisations the NETM will use to determine whether or not we offer the RFQ to you.

As I highlighted a few slides ago, the Education Training Providers Panel is cross-sectoral, so you can see we have representatives from the higher education and vocational education training sector - both public and private.

So there are four parts to the tender, let's go through each of them one by one.

Part A covers the Terms and Conditions.

Part B covers the RFT Statement of Requirements, and Part C goes through the Deed of Standing Offer template, the RFQ template.

Now I've highlighted Part D in yellow because the RFT Response Schedule is the part that you need to respond to as part of the Request for Tender.

All right, some important details to keep in mind when drafting Your Part D response. Obviously you'll need to ensure that you have all of the tenderer's details included -- ABN, contact, structure, etc.

Clearly the important thing here is your capability, so what are the overall specializations you'd like to apply for?

The capacity a bit of information around your organizational level capacity. The Panel and Performance Management, so details on the panel participation process that you have in place.

Compliance with Deed -- and again, you'll need to refer to Part C there for the Deed of Standing offer template. Insurance details.

The SME and local participation plan -- that's a New South Wales Government policy requirement.

Aboriginal Participation -- again a New South Wales Government policy requirement, as well as assumptions and exclusions.

Okay -- some tips on capability examples in part D.

As a rule of thumb, please give us one example per specialisation, but if you're only applying for one specialisation, please give us two examples.

In your responses please focus on the industry-led element of the training that you have developed and delivered in the past and obviously this doesn't need to be an example of micro-credentials.

Bear in mind relevance matters -- so provide good examples for each of your industry specializations that highlight your industry partnerships, your collaboration, co-design and co-delivery, how you have led expertise performance and innovation, your alignment with quality standards and of course student support.

Please remember there is 150 word limit per element.

And really importantly, please bear in mind that the tender evaluation team can only look at the documents you provide, so they can't look at references outside your RFT responses, such as web links and so on.

So thanks for your time, I hope this presentation has been helpful. If you have any further questions beyond the presentation please address them to [email protected] and all the very best for your response.

[End of recorded material]