School to Work information session
[On-screen text]
School to Work consultation outcomes and next steps
Potential program providers
[Natalie Garcia de Heer, Executive Director, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
Hi folks, thank you very much for making time to talk to us today about the reshaped School to Work program, which is the Victorian Government's investment in supporting access to work-based learning and in particular placements for our students. My name is Natalie Garcia de Heer. I'm the Executive Director in the Department of Education responsible for what we call Senior Secondary Pathways Reform. That includes all aspects of the careers and pathways student journey including work-based learning. And I'm joined by my colleague Richard Duke in the room who is the Director responsible for all aspects of work-based learning, and colleagues Ash Field and Sharon Blair, who are joining us online. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that we are meeting on unceded lands in various or from various parts of Victoria and I'm really appreciative of and celebrating the fact that many of you are joining us from areas that are quite far away from, the Wurundjeri lands, from which I'm meeting. So, I'd like to pay my respects to Wurundjeri elders and acknowledge them as the original educators on these lands and also pay my respects to elders past and present of the various lands from which you meet and acknowledge and pay my respects to any Aboriginal people here today.
The purpose of this conversation is to provide you with further information about the competitive funding process that we will use to secure the School to Work program. For 2027, that process will commence in 2026. We'll also be able to answer any initial questions about the process via the Webex meeting chat. And we understand that some of you have some background on these changes in this process because you're here. So, thank you very much for joining us, and you might have seen some of this information previously on DE Web materials or emails and so on that we have shared. So, to contextualise this work, the vision of the Victorian government, and in particular our part of the Department of Education is a secondary school system where more students or all students are able to successfully complete secondary school, and in doing so are able to choose and engage in a pathway that best fits them or meets their strengths and aspirations. The students are able to finish school confident and prepared for what comes next, and that enables them to progress into further study, whether that be kind of education or training or jobs and roles that align with their strengths and interests contributing to thriving in their adult lives.
Over the next few years, our priorities within that are details here, and we think the School to Work program plays a really important role here. So just briefly, our first priority is to make sure that students have access to core career and pathways, programs, and activities.
So, work-based learning, including work experience, structured workplace learning for VET, SBATs, exploratory activities prior to senior secondary is critical to that access goal. We want to make sure that experiences are high quality. We want to make sure that the work we do addresses the kind of issues with biased perceptions around the options available to certain young people or the hierarchy of different pathways so that the community and all actors we engage with understand and value all pathways equally.
That the programs we deliver really explicitly support the system to overcome historic and entrenched disadvantage and that we focus our efforts there, that experiences are aligned both to students interests and aspirations and to economic priorities, and that the system is efficient and easy to navigate.
So, late last year, we collectively learned and many of you will have seen that, that the silver review recommended or had a recommendation around the School to Work program. In response to that, the government committed to making the School to Work program more efficient and effective, and as a result, our team undertook a really extensive consultation process. Many of you were involved in this to really understand the options there. We've published a report on the Engage Victoria website, so really welcome people to have a look at this, and this may be particularly relevant to supporting you to understand some of the context for the work we're doing as well as some of the aspirations for School to Work and shape up a proposal should you seek to make one. This includes insights from a broad range of stakeholders, including schools, industry, and other members of the community on the role of the importance of work-based learning, barriers to access, challenges for equity, challenges for employers and what employers need, you know, and, what role School to Work can play within that, and the expertise required to engage with employers. So, thank you to those who participated in that consultation. Really appreciate it, Ash has pasted the link in the chat and really welcome you to have a look at that for further detail on the context of this work.
So, in response to this, the government has made a decision to reshape School to Work from 2027, and the purpose of this reshaped program will be to support access, equity, quality, and supply of work-based learning experiences for students across the state from year seven to twelve.
So first of all, School to Work providers in the program will primarily focus on attracting and supporting employers to provide work-based learning experiences. And we've articulated a few types of those experiences here. So, career exploration activities with employers for groups of students between seven to nine.
Finding work experience and structured workplace learning students and matching them with students who can't find them independently and finding school-based apprenticeship and traineeship employment opportunities for students who wish to undertake an SBAT pathway. Additionally, the reshaped School to Work will provide further support, not directly through the School to Work procurement process we're talking about now, but it will also provide support for regional and rural students through transport and accommodation funding and also, explore opportunities for metropolitan placements for regional students who wish to have city type experiences and also an equity and innovation fund to support providers to improve placement supports and programming for disadvantaged students over time. So, the structure of School to Work will also change from 2027. So, we will run a competitive grants process, which is the subject of this briefing today that will be delivered through 17 separate funding agreements aligned with the 17 areas in the DE regional model. And so, we'll be selecting or the process will be selecting a School to Work provider for each area through this competitive funding proposal process. The term of this, process and selection will be three years from 27 to 29. It's also possible for lead organisations to deliver through formally documented partnership arrangements with other organisations. And the program will incorporate access to those core program elements as well as opportunities for regional students that I've discussed previously. We've included here a list of LGAs in each area because we understand that the DE regional and area model might not be that familiar to all of you. It does align with kind of service delivery models and organise geographic organisation of other service systems, but we'll share a link to that one, in the chat as well so you can understand which LGAs are included in each of those 17 areas.
So, I think it's probably also worth contextualising this School to Work program in the context of the broader kind of suite of programs and opportunities that are part of the department runs. Now this is a limited selection, but we think it's really important to emphasise that the focus of School to Work will be on providing tiered supports with more attention, investment and effort in providing placements for students who need additional support. So, we currently have a Universal Government school career education program called My Career Insights. From 2027, career diagnostic testing and group unpacked sessions will be part of the program available to all students, and we'll be providing more targeted supports to students who need it with individual career meetings, planning, goal setting, as well as and really important for School to Work, work-based learning readiness and support. So that by the time students have referred into the School to Work program to be matched to placements or for providers to find and match placements for them, they are more ready to participate in those work-based learning experiences. School to Work will provide a universal service to students in both career exploration activities, so for any student as well as sourcing SBAT placements. So, all SBAT placements will be delivered via the School to Work provider in each area. With respect to work experience in SWL placements, we acknowledge that some students are really able to find those placements themselves, and sometimes that's actually a really important part of their career exploration and work readiness journey. But that's not the case for all. And so the School of Work program will deliver placements for students who are not able to find themselves. So that'll be done in two ways. So firstly, there'll be placements which will be provided online via a portal, where school staff are able to connect them to students who need it. For students who need even more support, School to Work providers will be expected to both source and match those placements. So, engage with industry to understand opportunities and connect them with specific students who need them. Headstart is the Government's program to support SBAT students, and SBAT also includes a tiered model for support. From 2027, all of the industry engagement and opportunity sourcement activities associated with Head Start will be delivered by school to work providers. And so, the Head Start workforce or program will be really focused on working directly with SBAT students. So, for all SBAT students, that'll include providing information, readiness assessments, administrative reports, and check ins for those students while they're on apprenticeship and traineeship placements. For some students, they'll be providing additional support for readiness and employability skills and then they will be tailoring SBAT support, connecting with other supports for students such as at home care or koori cohorts or students facing disability.
So, we thought it would be worth, letting you know a little bit more information about eligibility for grants to deliver to School to Work. So, we are inviting organisations to apply. They must be not for profit organisations who are incorporated legal entities with ABNs. They will be required to apply for a fair jobs code pre assessment certificate, which is just part of a standard Department of Education contracting and procurement requirements. They'll need to register their grant with the industry capability network and obtain an interaction reference number as part of local jobs first requirement against standard expectation, and they'll be required to comply with the Victorian standard funding guidelines for services to children by providing relevant information. So preferred applicants following the process will also need to undertake a security risk assessment. So, indicative timeline and next steps is probably the piece that's most of interest to you at this point. We are obviously moving very fast to turn this decision of government which was communicated last week into a viable program and process over the next couple of months. So, in a couple of weeks’ time, we will be able to update the website with additional FAQs and information session recordings as well as this LGA list.
By the start of June, we will be able to provide potential applicants with application submission details. We'll run online provider briefings with grant details and further responses to FAQs from early June and close grant submissions on 26 June with then the period for the panel to review applications, negotiate with preferred suppliers, and notify and contract with preferred suppliers between July and September with the expectation that contracts are executed from October. Now this is really important because it will ensure that providers are given certainty that they will be delivering the program from October for the beginning of the 2026, (correction 2027) year. So, moving on to the next one, we just wanted to say thank you and now we're creating some space for any questions that we can answer. You've been invited to put questions in the Webex chat and so Richard, and I will collate them and respond to key themes as they come up. So, we'll give you a few moments to put questions in the chat.
[Richard Duke, Director, School Industry Engagement, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
Okay. I can say whilst you're adding questions, I thought I got one question through in relation to SBATs, so happy to take that question. Yes, so as part of the 2027 School to Work contract, there will be a partnership with the Head Start program where SBATs for Government and Non-government schools probably in a slightly different way but will be delivered through the School to Work program in terms of the finding employer hosts whilst the Head Start team will continue to support students in terms of the support that they need through and through their SBAT journey and I think there's a subsequent question in terms of that. I think that through the consultation, it is fairly clear that the complexity that's created and by having to engage from an employer perspective, but also from a school and student perspective to engage with different parts of funding arrangements in terms of whether that's through the School to Work provider or through the Head Start program was confusing and created sometimes tensions in certain parts of the state.
In terms of VET cluster coordination, as some will know that is part of the current School to Work contract, we will be in touch in due course as to whether that will be an expectation to be delivered by the School to Work providers later in 2026, but it is not as outland and in the proposals at the moment, there's the part of the proposed contract.
A question in terms of probably a follow up to my only question will Head Start be managed or report to the School to Work provider? They will work in partnership both reporting through to DE, but there'll be an expectation that the School to Work provider will service the requests from the school via Head Start for employer hosts.
In terms of whether the TAFEs are eligible to apply was a question, any organisation that meets the criteria that was set at an earliest slide absolutely will be eligible to apply. So, but hopefully that answers that question.
We've also been asked a question which we might have to get back to you in terms of kind of not-for-profit lead organisation have a for profit partner? I'm not sure we've explored that as a question so far, so we will set up a timeline for when we would answer all answer these questions in the next week or so, we will make sure we give the firm answer on that.
[Natalie Garcia de Heer, Executive Director, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
We've got a question on Engage Victoria, so I might jump in on that one and give you a little bit of colour and movement and then provide time for others to add additional questions because I can you know acknowledge we're kind of firing answers to you and we'll kind of curate them accordingly. So, as we flagged, we did really extensive engagement, both via focused conversations that we had with over 200 stakeholders and also via Engage Victoria. I'd say that there were probably three key themes, but welcome Richard on others and obviously we've got a report which summarises this in much more detail. The first was a resounding acceptance that work based learning is a really critical part of the students’ careers and pathways journey and secondary journey and experience overall and that schools and students needed support to connect with quality work-based learning opportunities so that there was a role for a program like School to Work to meet that need, that it was very difficult for all students to access placements and that this was also a difficult task for schools and not within the kind of expertise of some of them. Acknowledging that there are large schools who do have capacity to do some of this work. I think the second piece, was an acknowledgement that there were gaps in access, so not all students were accessing quality work-based learning experiences. The School to Work program as it stood was not meeting all of that need. And in particular, there were challenges around access for certain cohorts of students. So, we had a lot of conversation around the need, needs associated with students in rural and regional areas which speaks to our decisions to focus on transport and accommodation for those students as well as metropolitan placements for students in rural and regional areas where, where needed. There was a lot of conversation around the greater difficulty that certain cohorts face in finding work-based learning opportunities and students with disability, in particular, a cohort that was called out quite a lot. And then I think finally, and we have very much responded to this part of the feedback as well. There was a bit of a theme around, and this is obviously anchored in the Helen Silver recommendation around efficiency and effectiveness, but there was a bit of a theme around needing to really clarify and reinforce the role of School to Work, make it more effective so that it could meet that need, but also address challenges with boundaries with other programs and so on. And so, you know, for that reason obviously we've redesigned the program to align with the department's broader operating model in 17 areas which creates kind of a lot of efficiency and more straightforward operating model and engagement and accountability models. We've also incorporated work-based learning, sorry, the, the sourcing, placement sourcing activities in Head Start into the School to Work program, and we thought really carefully about the role of careers education in supporting work-based learning readiness before students need to source placements. Richard, would you add anything there?
[Richard Duke, Director, School Industry Engagement, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
Nope, I think that was a sound summary, thank you Nat.
[Natalie Garcia de Heer, Executive Director, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
Great. So, I'm just trying to think about what we can respond to in the question. Maybe, there's a few that relate to interfaces with our regional and area model as well as, the kind of, how, how we will manage, 17 different contracts. So, the first piece is that the, Regional Pathways Workforce, which, will only mean something to a certain cohort of you. Basically, we have our VPS staff who are employed by the department who are sitting in department regions and areas who are really focused on supporting schools with careers and pathways. That's the Regional Pathways Workforce. They'll have a really important role, but they will not be the contract managers for School to Work. So, the contract management function and activity will sit with the central department rather than with regional and area staff, but they will be a really important relationship manager and interface and kind of support us with implementation as they do. So, there's also a question around the possibility of different services with different organisations with contracts in each of the 17 areas and yep we acknowledge that there will be some variability to some extent in the first period, some of that might drive innovation and we understand that the kind of service model that might meet needs best in Outer Gippsland might be slightly different from the service model that best meets needs in Barwon. So, we really acknowledge difference, but we will have very clear application criteria guidelines and weightings before we do the procurement process, they'll be available in early June, and we'll have obviously clear performance indicators, outcomes, and expectations in each of those contracts to make sure that they're delivering regardless of what area. What would you pick up from the chat Richard?
[Richard Duke, Director, School Industry Engagement, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
Yes, I'm gonna try and summarise a few questions too cause there's some overlap. So, there's a few things around, funding. And so, we obviously have only just received budget outcomes very recently, and you've seen from Nat’s presentation that we are prioritising some other areas as well in terms to support students. And so, we don't know the exact, funding levels, but what we can absolutely say is that we're gonna be prioritising funding to align with student need, thinking about the tiered slide that Nat referenced to make sure that we prioritise funding in the areas in terms of where there's the highest levels of need to make sure that we get those get those outcomes and deliver the equity that that we want to arrive at. Looking, there's a few questions sort of technical questions about process in terms of exact criteria and weightings and things that will not be released until 1 June when the process officially starts.
And there's a, really good question here around contract beyond contract conditions, which I think Nat just referenced how statewide coordination will be achieved and I think probably partially answered by the fact that the con each individual seven of the 17 contracts will be managed centrally, and therefore that team that managed that contract will perform a role in making sure there is alignment and coordination and thinking about how the School to Work providers can work together to deliver some sort of like coordinated approach, but the contract is really, really important here. We value place-based approaches and being innovative approaches in different parts of the state to reflect the needs of individual schools and students in the area whilst also having a consistent framework across all 17 providers to, to make sure there's a consistency in terms of clarity of expectations for schools and the outcomes that are delivered.
[Natalie Garcia de Heer, Executive Director, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
Maybe I'll pick up two more themes that are coming through. So, one talks about whether SWL will be compulsory. The answer is no, this does not bring with it, a change in policy that makes SWL a compulsory component of VET studies.
Obviously, we think that work-based learning is a really important part of all secondary pathways and in particular vocational learning within senior secondary in VET. And so, you know, we think access to SWL is, really critical, but the demand for SWL will be driven by the programs that students enrol in and whether they include SWL components rather than any new requirements there. There's a comment here around the voluntary engagement program for students and I think that is picked up by that SWL comment. So, we, our aspiration is, is that all students have access to exploratory work-based learning prior to senior secondary and that for the vast majority of students, and I think I would be needing to be convinced around exceptions here that includes access to work experience. SWL is obviously kind of a choice that students can make depending on their VET enrolments, and SBATs is obviously a pathway of choice for certain students. So, there's no kind of engagement angle specifically if that question related to disengagement, but there's certainly a level of overall aspiration around the exploratory activities and student choice and agency around the deeper pathways. There's also, a bit of a question around ensuring that we, I guess prevent poor quality provision or the language here is framed in terms of cash grab, and I think that's why it's really important to us that providers are not for profit. We don't think it's appropriate for organisations to necessarily profit off these kinds of programs, our budgets are fairly tight, and we really want to make sure that the program delivers outcomes for young people. So, we'll have a really rigorous competitive application process to make sure that that is, the case.
Maybe a couple of other things. So, a question around 7 to 9 cohort and the flexible fund. So, I think the first thing is, is that our equity and innovation fund, will be, I guess someone's used the language over and above the School to Work contract yes, that's true. So, we'll be running a competitive process in the 17 areas, and then we will make separate choices which may vary year on year around support for equity and innovation that t maybe statewide or may support particular cohorts or particular needs or challenges. And there's a question around innovation on the 7-9 cohort and there's real openness to innovation around exactly how those kinds of opportunities are offered and sourced and what they look like. We'll provide more information on both of those things as part of the grants process.
[Richard Duke, Director, School Industry Engagement, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
And so again I'm gonna come back to some process questions. There's a question around the application format. We would anticipate there will be a performer document where we invite you to respond to specific questions, that's still being final design at the moment, but I don't think it'll be a completely open document wouldn't be expected to respond. Similar to what Nat was just saying in terms of that we are gonna be really have set criteria to make sure that the providers that are in place are there to support students, we need to make sure we ask the right questions to be able to, to understand that effectively.
I had another question that was related to that, which I'll come back to. Yeah, so yeah, we will be really, really clear about our expectations of delivery. I talked earlier around how we make sure we have a consistent approach across the entire state and how we define that will be through the LLENs and we saw some of these words earlier I think in terms of access quality and equity and supply, they're the things that we really care about. We want to make sure that all students have access to these opportunities, that they're always of high quality and a student’s background doesn't determine their access and quality to that, and so that's a very broad answer, but that's how we would sort of like formulate our approach to how we s see success with the delivery of a contract.
And there's a question here coming back to how School to Work staff will work with Head Start staff. I think the exact detail of how that will work is probably still to be determined but absolutely will be an anticipation that Head Start and School to Work work really closely together to make sure the right employee hosts are found for students that have identified that they want to follow a school-based apprenticeship traineeship route. I believe we've covered most questions as in general, and there might be some specifics that we haven't gone to exactly, but I think we’ve answered the, most of the questions that have come up. So, is there any kind of like final final questions that people want to ask before maybe we call time?
[Natalie Garcia de Heer, Executive Director, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
And if not, maybe, Ash and Sharon, let's re put up the timeline to anchor closing in the next steps and when you will receive further information both in response to specific questions, things that Richard and I weren't able to provide detail to at this point and things that will emerge between now and then.
So, we will be providing additional information via the website, including FAQs, some of which will respond to questions that you have revealed today in the next couple of weeks, which will hopefully support your organisations to consider whether exploring delivery of School to Work is a good opportunity for you. On 1 June, we will provide information around the application process as well as what the criteria are, weightings and further considerations in quite a lot more detail and run briefings with potential providers, some of which may be here with further grant details and responses, and then applications will close on 26 June. So, we're giving those dates now so that you can kind of start to prepare to think about how you will, do that. We have also created, an opportunity for people to register for further information emails. And so, if you could please do that, I think we'll put that, in the chat as well. So, if you'd like kind of regular email updates, so e.g., hi folks, the website has been updated or here's the link to the submission process et cetera, then that would be, really welcome. So maybe we'll pull that down. We'll put that, that link into the chat. Thank you so much, Sharon. We really welcome you to register for more information. We look forward to being able to provide these recordings and further details on the website in about ten days’ time, and to speaking to some of you about the grant process in more detail at the beginning of June. Anything you'd add Richard?
[Richard Duke, Director, School Industry Engagement, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
No, that's, that's great.
[Natalie Garcia de Heer, Executive Director, Senior Secondary Pathways Reform Division]
Beautiful. Okay, thanks so much folks. Have a wonderful afternoon, and we will be in touch.
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