NEC to build Australia's new apprenticeships system

The Education department will begin to wind back its underperforming apprenticeships management system in expectation of having a new NEC-built platform in operation by July next year.

NEC today said the platform will be based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Oracle process automation tools, after it won an open tender from the department last October.

The four year deal is worth $10.8 million. 

The whole project is expected to cost the government roughly $20 million over two years.

However, Education claims the replacement will pay for itself very quickly.

It said it was anticipating savings in the vicinity of $93 million in two years, thanks to greater self-service capabilities and new fully electronic processes.

The existing 14-year-old training and youth internet management system (TYIMS) is a thorn in the side of employers, apprentices and third-party intermediaries that make up the national apprenticeships network.

Past reviews have suggested third-party apprenticeship agents can spend up to 80 percent of their time wrestling with paper-based administrative tasks because of TYIMS shortcomings, at the expense of training and engagement work.

The new system, to be know as the Australian apprenticeships management system (AAMS) is expected to deliver much more self-service capability and will replace paper-based processes with online forms.

It will need to process 100 different allowance payments to apprentices and their employers, through roughly 135,000 transactions per month.

The department expects large organisations who deliver the bulk of Australian apprenticeships will be able to automate many of their current labour-intensive processes as a result.

The new system will also offer network providers a single source of truth on apprentices and candidates, plus a single channel to make contact with young workers.

“This is a critical and incredibly complex solution that will need to interface seamlessly with some of the largest government IT systems in Australia, including Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office,"  NEC sales lead Chris Korte said in a statement.

“AAMS will also support a vast network of interfaces between the federal, state and territory government systems including training.gov.au, the Australian Business Register and Australia Post."