27 Sep 2023 - New Skills Tasmania Agreement

Skills Tasmania has been consulting with endorsed Registered Training Organisations to understand the factors currently impacting the Tasmanian vocational education and training market and to seek the sector’s insights on how we could move to more contemporary and simplified grant funding arrangements.

This work aligns with the Ministerial Priorities for the Training and Workforce Development System which commit to delivery of an accessible pipeline of investment in skills and training aligned with industry training needs and targeted towards unemployed and underemployed Tasmanians.

A fundamental component of our grant funding process is the Skills Tasmania Agreement, which sets out the terms and conditions for accessing Tasmanian Government funding programs.

The current Skills Tasmania Agreement is up for renewal and Skills Tasmania has been working to ensure a refreshed Agreement that will enable us to move towards a more strategic approach to working with Tasmanian private registered training organisations and streamline our funding process whilst also continuing to comply with requirements for State Government grant documentation.

It is anticipated that a new Agreement will be rolled out from October this year and will apply to successful applications through the Building a Skilled Workforce grant program. The information below outlines a summary of the changes.

We will provide you with a copy of the Agreement and other example templates for your information shortly.

If you have any concerns or require support to understand the changes, please contact the Manager, Grant Programs and Compliance on 03 6165 6037.

What does it mean for you?

• Simpler arrangements for Grant Deeds

  Instead of signing and renewing a Skills Tasmania Agreement and signing multiple Schedules each time a new grant is issued, we will move to single grant agreements for each grant program.

• Simplified Grant Deed content

  New Grant Deeds will contain program specific details with a separate manual containing a more streamlined suite of standard conditions. This will provide flexibility and a simpler mechanism to update standard conditions from time to time in response to changes in national policy settings or reporting expectations (e.g., visa requirements or AVETMISS reporting).

• Agreed Budget

  The Agreed Budget will be a PCID Report attached to the Grant Deed. This will provide greater clarity on the details for each funded training product.

• Streamlined variations

  Variations to the Agreed Budget will be considered through written communication with the Grant Program Manager.  Most changes will not require a separate formal Grant Deed variation and signing. This will speed up and simplify the variation process.

• Annual Outcomes Summary

  You will be required to submit a short Annual Outcomes Summary that relates to your active grant agreements in the calendar year. We will provide you with a short template for this. You will be asked to submit this report early in the following calendar year. This summary report will help Skills Tasmania to measure the impact of our funding and also fulfil a grant acquittal function.

• Removal of requirement to hold Professional Indemnity Insurance

  In the process of updating the Agreement we have brought our insurance requirements into line with Australian Skills Quality Authority requirements. Under new Agreements you will be no longer required to hold Professional Indemnity Insurance to access government subsidies for training.