NETM Education and Training Providers Panel

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Peter Mackey: Welcome to the NETM Education Provider Tender Briefing. My name is Peter Mackey, I'm the Executive Director of the NETM at the Western Parkland City Authority. Before we begin today's session let's hear from Dr Jennifer Westacott AO Chair of the Western Parkland City Authority board.

Dr Jennifer Westacott: The New South Wales Government has announced a major new education and training model for Bradfield City Centre - the Aerotropolis - and this new education model will transform the way education and training are done in Australia.

It will be a series of micro-credentials where students whether they're graduates, whether they're undergraduates can stack specific subjects, whether they're from TAFE, whether they're from universities and they can also work and learn at the same time. And this is going to be transformative.

What it will mean is that the high-tech world's best companies will come to Western Sydney, they'll come to New South Wales because because they'll be able to get those skilled workers - and it will also mean for people in Western Sydney they can get access to these new industries, these new high-paying tech jobs.

This is a transformation of Australia, it's a huge opportunity for Western Sydney, it means these large companies are going to make Western Sydney and New South Wales their growth hub for the Asia-Pacific region and the Indo-Pacific region.

Peter Mackey: Well thanks very much Jennifer and now on to the presentation itself. See why do we need a new model? Well technology is really changing the workforce and it's changing the kind of skills that employers need. Businesses are reporting that they have significant skill shortages and they only expect those to grow and job seekers often don't have the skill sets that employers are looking for. But the big the biggest problem we're trying to solve here is that the current education and training system is just not responsive enough to the needs of industry.

So what is the NETM? The NETM is a pilot. It's a pilot that comes with a significant investment of 37 million dollars from the New South Wales Government and that will help us fund the development and delivery of over 100 micro-credentials over the next four years to at least 3 000 learners. The sectors we're targeting are all key growth sectors of the Western Parkland City and they include advanced manufacturing, aerospace, defence, freight and logistics, agribusiness and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

So the NETM is is a flipped model, it's a model where industry is in the driver's seat and they are determining what content is being delivered. The content very much will be blended learning delivery so online delivery and applied learning through latest state-of-the-art technology on campus at the providers of choice. And it's very much bespoke and as I said earlier it's really about the rapidity and the speed to market that this model will bring. And then our role through the NETM is to evaluate the impact of those micro-credentials and to try and validate the new model that we can look to implement going forward.

So what is a micro credential well in the case of the NETM and we're talking about short courses that are around 40 hours of content. They are designed to be delivered at different levels of complexity. In terms of the Australian qualifications framework currently the NETM micro-credentials would sit outside the AQF, but we expect over the course of the pilot that we will explore AQF alignment and accreditation. And then in terms of assessment we would expect the majority of micro-credentials will be assessed in one way but we're certainly open to innovative proposals from providers to demonstrate how learners can acquire and demonstrate skills acquired.

So how will the NETM work? Well we will receive proposals from industry, we will have those proposals validated by our industry reference group, and then if supported the NETM will go out and procure on behalf of industry or government potentially, micro-credentials from the panel of pre-qualified providers. And the provider that's been selected for that work would then work quite closely with their industry partner in terms of the co-design and co-delivery of those micro-credentials into the workforce.

So now moving on to the education and training providers panel. I should highlight that we are looking to have a very broad panel, one that includes providers across the higher education and vocational sectors both public and independent providers - but importantly those that have got proven capability and capacity in the sectors that we're talking about. The initial contract term for the providers will be on the panel will be two years, that will be managed through an agreement which is a deed of standing offer. Of course getting onto the panel is no guarantee of work but pre-qualified providers may be invited to quote for specific micro-credentials that relate and align to their specific capability. I do want to highlight here that panel members will be expected to participate - and in fact required to participate in an advisory group - and that'll help us provide advice around the academic integrity and educational elements of the program, including aspects like recognition of prior learning and so on and the stacking of micro-credentials. And we also reserve the right to review the composition of the panel over time and providers as necessary.

So what are the benefits to education and training providers? Well we really think this will help drive a greater collaboration between providers and also between providers and industry and we believe it will also help providers demonstrate that they are at that cutting edge of credentials and being able to demonstrate that they can meet the demand of future job seekers through the impact and effectiveness of their micro-credentials.

So I want to talk now about the RFT process. There is the Request for Tender that is currently open and I do want to stress that this is a completely separate process from any other existing agreements that might exist between organizations and the Western Parkland City Authority currently. I also want to highlight that individual providers need to apply themselves, so even if you're part of a group of institutions you need to be applying individually yourself to be on the panel. And all of the details of the NETM RFT are available on the New South Wales eTendering website you can see the link there, and as mentioned the submissions are currently open and will be open until the 5th of November at 2 pm Sydney time. They will close at 2 pm Sydney time on the 5th of November and they must be uploaded via the eTendering portal.

So who should apply? We want to make sure before you respond to the tender that you are well placed to deliver the objectives of the NETM, so there's a checklist for you to have a look at here. You will need to demonstrate that you have technical excellence in one of the industry specialisations that I talked about earlier and they are listed there on the screen. You will need to demonstrate that you have existing industry partnerships - and you'll also need to demonstrate you've got existing capability and capacity in those sectors. And importantly you will need to be able to provide face-to-face learning in Western Sydney, either through your own campus, your own organisation or through existing partnerships that you can demonstrably leverage.

So there will be four parts to the RFT there are four parts of the RFT and part D is the Response Schedule - so that's the one that you need to respond to and they must be completed by all tenderers, and forms for the proposal for your organisation have to be returned with the tender.So key dates and time frames - the RFT opened on the 8th of October last week, this briefing today on the 18th of October is taking place.

There is a questions, a process for asking questions and I'll talk about that in a moment but we will receive questions up until the 29th of October at 5pm Sydney time and then the RFT will close itself on the 5th of November. The questions close in order for us to be able to provide responses and I'll talk about the process for that in a moment. And then we will once the RFT closes on the 5th of November we'll go through the evaluation process which we expect to last throughout November and then we hope to have to be in a position to execute the Deeds of Standing Offer to those providers that have been invited onto the panel by let's say late November, early December and we're hoping that we'll have all the Deeds commenced by the middle of, or potentially even later in December.

As I mentioned before Tenders received after closing date may not be considered, so please make sure you get your Tender in on time. Looking at the evaluation criteria I won't read these out line by line, but the weighted criteria on this page looks at both capability and capacity. And on this is a second part of it here also looking at SME participation and sustainability commitment, indicative cost and risk, as well so you'll need to respond to all of that evaluation criteria.

So part D the technical response speaks to that evaluation criteria and I should highlight here that Tenderers are welcome to provide the response in their own format but you need to maintain the structure provided in the RFT and follow the page and word limits that have been outlined throughout the Tender Response Schedule. So questions - as mentioned we can't take questions today as the session is recorded but any after the session today if you still have questions any questions and you know communications inquiries need to be directed through theprocurement@wpca.sydney address that you can see there on the screen.

I mentioned before that we will be looking at all of the questions that come in and we'll collate those actually on a weekly basis and provide answers to those questions and they will be uploaded to the eTender website as an addendum, and we'll do it on a weekly basis most likely on a Tuesday and that's why we're closing off questions on the 29th of October to give us time to be able to provide responses so everyone can see all of the questions that have been asked and all of the answers to each of those have been provided through the eTender website.

So thank you very much for attending today I hope you found that informative and i wish you all the best. Thank you.

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