- A very good afternoon and happy Friday to all the Provider representatives joining us here for the Marketing and Promotions webinar. My name is Alex Sweetman, I'm a senior project officer with the department, and I'll be your host for today to drive the presentation and the short quiz. And shortly, I'm going to hand over to our subject matter expert, Mr. Andrew Clements, who is the manager for Smart and Skilled, to co-present. In addition, in the background, to help manage your questions in the chat. If we just have a look at the numbers. So we've got... We're rising. So look, I think there's a reasonable amount of people in the webinar. It is 12:02, so I'm just conscious of managing everyone's time. It's a very short and sharp presentation today. So look, I will just keep going. Today's webinar, it represents the first in the new series of ongoing Provider education support, and this follows on from the Smart and Skilled Onboarding webinars that were delivered earlier in the year. There will be a short survey when you exit the webinar at the end, and that's going to give you the opportunity to provide suggestions on the topics that you'd like to see covered going forward. So that could be webinars, videos, face-to-face days, even, but we certainly welcome all your feedback. The intent behind this Marketing and Promotion webinar is to get you to review your marketing and promotional content from the perspective of a student. And that's to ensure it supports the student with clear and easy-to-find accurate information that helps them to make an informed choice about their vocational education and training options and also the costs associated with the study. The format for today, I'm just going to run through the presentation and the quiz, and then at the end, we'll have some time for questions and to review the chat. A copy of this presentation will be available on our website under the 2023-2024 Smart and Skilled Provider Information webinars, which is the repository currently for them at the moment. Okay, so look, without further ado, let me hop on and share the presentation with you. Okay. Here we go. Now, that looks like the screen has come up. Very good. As I said, welcome everybody. Marketing and Information on Smart and Skilled, the dos and the don'ts. With the acknowledgement of country. Very important. So I acknowledge that I'm hosting and recording this webinar from the lands of the Wiradjuri people in Albury. I also acknowledge the ongoing custodians of the various lands on which you all work today and pay respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to other First Nations Peoples joining us today. So the purpose of today's session, we're gonna review the marketing and information requirements of Smart and Skilled with the firmly the focus on the students, giving them the best accurate information that we possibly can to help them make an informed choice and get their education, get them enrolled. So what are the dos of marketing? What are the don'ts? And we're going to give you some examples that meet and do not meet the requirements. And there will be a little bit of interactivity there. There will be a poll that you can run through with some questions. All right, look, without further ado, I might hand over to Mr. Andrew Clements to take over the presentation.

- Thanks very much, Alex. Good afternoon to all our Smart and Skilled Providers, quite a few of you online this afternoon. A little bit rainy out there, at least where I am. So hopefully a good time to go through some information with respect to marketing and communication. So, yeah, just to start, you may recall from the Smart and Skilled Contract webinar that there are a number of obligations in the Smart and Skilled contract. And the one that overarches and underpins the rules around marketing and communication is Clause 7M. There's a little hyperlink there at the bottom of the slide if you want to go to that at a later point. But essentially, like Alex was saying, when we wrote the Smart and Skilled contract, we wanted to specify the what, if you like, the what it was that Providers are really required to do. So that Clause 7M addresses the overarching what's required, if you like, for marketing and communication under Smart and Skilled. And there was a big focus at the time in terms of the accurate and current information for prospective students to make the best informed decision that they could make about the type of Subsidised Training that benefited them and that they wanted to pursue. So like Alex mentioned, overarching marketing and communication is really all about the information and the types of activities and the wherewithal, if you like, for a prospective student to understand what it is that they may be wanting to get into and wanting to sign up to. So it's all about the prospective students. So the contract itself, it looks at only marketing or publicizing or communicating in connection with accordance with the Operating Guidelines. So while the contract specifies some of the main requirements in terms of what the Provider must do, a big part of that links into our Operating Guidelines, which highlight how a Provider should go about meeting those requirements. So many of these marketing communication requirements are listed in Clause 1 of our Operating Guidelines. And we'll go through and outline and do a little bit of digging in terms of what they actually mean. Right up front, too, in terms of the prospective student, it's really making them aware of what in fact is an approved qualification by the Provider. So this year, in the '23-'24 activity period, there is a number of new Smart and Skilled Providers, and that is a shift in many ways in terms of the business model that they may have previously undertaken in terms of commercial fee for service. So these requirements are all about approved qualifications. Then you'll recall that an approved qualification is a qualification that was applied for in terms of the Smart and Skilled application and actually sits on contracted Provider's approved qualification and activity schedules. So in other words, it's those qualifications that are approved as part of the offer and acceptance process of the contract. So that's really important in terms of making sure that that information, the marketing information, relates to approved qualifications. So I mentioned that the Operating Guidelines is it really houses the details of the requirements for marketing and information. And a big part of that is Providers should, in fact, have their own strategies for marketing and information to prospective students. So there shouldn't be a sole reliance on, for example, the Smart and Skilled website for marketing information. We do expect that strategies will be developed by Providers and customised to best serve those accurate and full information requirements. So this is just a little bit of an overview, and that's really important too in terms of developing those strategies and keeping a record of what, in fact, they are, just for the record. And there is a requirement under the contract that Providers do record what, in fact, those strategies are and how, in fact, those strategies may change to meet their changing needs. It's really important that there's an acknowledgement of the source of subsidies to adhere to restrictions on promotions. So what we really want to do is make sure that the source of the subsidy, otherwise being a New South Wales Government has made really clear in terms of what happens on, for example, a Smart and Skilled Provider's website. So there needs to be an acknowledgement of the New South Wales Government, and it shouldn't be implied that the subsidy comes from the Provider itself or, in fact, the third party associated with the Provider. So making that really clear is important. Another requirement is actually to maintain a current and accurate website, and a review of that currency is very, very important. We all know that vocational education and training is very dynamic, it's changing all the time. So there needs to be strategies in place where that currency is kept up to date. And that will lead, all other things being equal, to the most accurate information being passed on to the clients and what we call prospective students. There's another requirement that is also linked in, and you may recall from our discussion on the Smart and Skilled Contract and Operating Guidelines about maintaining accurate data within the STS online portal. So there's a whole host of data that needs to be entered and kept up to date by Providers through the STS online portal. And there's a tab in there, which you may recall, about data maintenance. So really important to keep that up to date because that information is not only used to populate other information that the department has in terms of its websites, but also for other information associated with relevant personnel in terms of the management of the organization. So for example, the chief executive officer details are populated automatically through training.gov.au into our Data Maintenance menu. And very, very important to keep that data up to date through training.gov.au because it feeds into our information sources. There's a whole lot of other information in there about management structure and personnel within the organization. That's very important to keep up to date, as is obviously other details around account details, bank details for payment purposes. So there's no slippage there when it comes to the submission of training activity data, which is the first step off the rank prior to payments being considered and then made. So yeah, very, very important to keep that data up to date. So just going into some of the dos, and what we're trying to do here is just give some practical examples associated with what represents compliance with the contract versus what possibly may not. But yeah, we'll start with some dos. So in terms of the Provider's website guidelines, we mentioned that the Provider must maintain a current and accurate website. It's really important that that website contains a link to the Smart and Skilled website, and we'll explore what the Smart and Skilled website actually means in a little bit later. But most importantly, a Provider's website needs to include all the details of those approved qualifications that we mentioned that the Providers actually contracted for. Needs to reference details of not only the Smart and Skilled notification of enrolment process, but also the Provider's enrolment process. So a prospective student understands what the requirements actually are in terms of those processes. So in relation to Notification of Enrolment, there's some important things the student needs to be aware of. There's some consents they have to provide, there's some declarations they need to make for things like eligibility. And also the consent of information that's linked into Schedule 1 of the Operating Guidelines where they are happy, in fact, to provide their personal information for use by the department, for example. Details of obtaining a unique student identifier. That's really important, so that a student understands what that process is. And other information which we categorise as student information. So what they need to know in terms of important attributes, like fee arrangements, what happens with RPL, how do they go about that, whether or not the Provider, in fact, is a VET student's loan authorised provider. And also information regarding consumer protection, and importantly, that's not only the Smart and Skilled consumer protection strategy and what that means, but it's also the Provider's consumer protection policy, which is very important in the first instance in case there's a need for clarification of a particular service delivered by the Provider. And look, last but not least, very important to have information, particularly in relation to what the Provider can offer students by way of other services. And an example there. Those students who may have some disadvantage to enable them to understand what it is that they may be able to receive or obtain to supplement mainstream vocational education and training. So those components are really important in terms of the Provider's website. So the link to the Smart and Skilled website, it's actually two websites per se, although the website on the left, which is effectively the New South Wales government website, which accesses education and training, contains a sub-link, if you like, to what we call Skills Compare. But to make it really clear for a student, it may be a good idea to include both links. So for clarity. So those are the links that are really important, and those links are defined in our Operating Guidelines of what constitutes the Smart and Skilled website. The one on the left, which was the New South Wales Government website, that, in fact, has a range of other supplementary information in terms of the broader context of VETs and other links in terms of relationships to occupations and other types of resources that might be helpful for a student. The one on the right, which is Skills Compare, enables a student to dig a little bit deeper in terms of what qualifications may be available, some information on eligibility, and also some preliminary information on whether a fee may be involved or not. So some other dos there in terms of what should be on the website. You can see there in this example that there is a list of approved qualifications under Smart and Skilled. So that clearly identifies with the requirement. There's a list there of future information, and that also links into to the range of particular services that the Provider may be able to offer. And it's clear for the student in terms of what they may be able to receive or where they need to go. The other aspect there, too, you can see, which was on the last slide, and it's a clear link to the legal name of the Provider and also the National Code. So the legal name and National Code are really important to have on your website as well. So in terms of acknowledging the source of subsidies, so it needs to be really clear that there's an explicit acknowledgement in terms of information provided to students on the availability of subsidies from the New South Wales government. And what we ask is that there's an acknowledgement there in terms of any communication provided by the Provider. With that phrase, "This training is subsidized by the New South Wales Government." So that's the acknowledgement that makes the provision of subsidies, which is effectively the money that the New South Wales Government contributes to Subsidised Training. It makes that really clear. So some acknowledgement examples, you can see in this website. This is some examples of good practice and compliant approaches. There's a clear acknowledgement of New South Wales Smart and Skilled. There's a bit of background there in terms of what it tries to do in terms of Subsidised Training and gives an overview of the requirements and the nature of Smart and Skilled itself. There's also some list of approved qualifications on how that can be delivered. And also another acknowledgement in terms of specific course, in this case, a certificate for training assessment and how it relates to Smart and Skilled. So that's a clear acknowledgement. Some other examples here. This is just a fairly straightforward one, but an important one in terms of the recognition of the Subsidised Training is, in fact, subsidised by the New South Wales Government. So that's the phrase we would like to see. So a couple of examples regarding the don'ts of Marketing and Promotion. And we can see here that there are some restrictions on promotion guidelines. So we can't, and this requires a little bit of explanation, but essentially with Smart and Skilled, the concept is that Providers compete on quality and not price. So we try and avoid any misunderstanding that the Subsidised Training is free of charge, per se, it's discounted or subsidised by the Provider themselves or any third party. And it's a little bit of a nuanced point, which I'll, draw out in a tad. So there's a really a requirement that there's not a per se specification that Subsidized Training is free of charge. The other important point is regarding inducements. So there's a range of requirements in terms of making sure that we're not providing different information to students regarding how, in fact, they may be able to obtain access to Smart and Skilled and not providing inducements to enrol by particular date, for example, reference points for students to a Provider, or other inducements like physical items such as an iPad. So we don't allow that in terms of that approach. And just before we get to this particular slide, I'll just go back and explain this a little bit because it's important. So you might be wondering, "Well, why are the requirements saying, well, we can't promote Smart and Skilled free of charge?" Well, the main reason for that is in a per se sense, that's exactly right, but we do acknowledge that many of the initiatives that do occur, and look, some of these initiatives are quite dynamic and there's new initiatives arising all the time. Our Part Qualifications Program through the targeted priorities. Pre-vocational and Part Qualifications Program is fee-free. So Providers might be saying, "Well, how do we get around that and how do we make that clear to the Provider, to the student from the Provider?" So what we're actually looking at very shortly is just trying to clarify that a little bit more for a Provider, make it a little bit easier to navigate that. So one of the things we're doing is looking at a change to the Operating Guidelines, where in fact we might be able to come up with a new phrase in terms of specifically identifying Smart and Skilled fee-free initiatives like the Part Qualifications Program. With that phrase there, that's just down the bottom of the screen in terms of the training is fee-free, and it's subsidized by the New South Wales Government." But what we'll do there, when we crystallize that, we'll communicate that through a Smart and Skilled update. We'll adjust our Operating Guidelines and make that a little clearer for Providers. So thanks, and thanks Alex. So look, some restrictions on promotion. Just some quick examples. These are some examples of don'ts. From left to right there, cashback offers doesn't really fit with the requirements. So we don't really want to see that in terms of financial exemptions or financial incentives for cashback offers, announcements about free iPads, that can be very problematic. And also no inducements in terms of friends doing referrals or earning rewards, initiatives like that. So they're examples of some of the don'ts. So intellectual property that the department has. So it's a little bit of a complex one in some ways. However, we're trying to make this very straightforward. We're saying that the Provider shouldn't use any logo, or product name, or intellectual property of the department or the New South Wales Government in relation to marketing or promoting Smart and Skilled, unless it has its explicit permission from the Department of Education and/or the New South Wales Government. And what may happen if that is actually the case? New South Wales Government or the department can issue guidelines from time to time. So there may be some initiatives that we roll out, where in fact we could prepare marketing and promotion materials. And if that's the case, we would provide express permission to Providers to use that. But if we don't do it that way, what we're saying is that, we require Providers not to use things like the New South Wales Government logo and other trademarks, other product names. So that's an important one as well. So some examples of relating to intellectual property. This website's got the New South Wales Government logo on it. That's not appropriate, unless in fact, as I said before, there was expressed permission. It's interesting too, I often see... Not that I'm necessarily qualified to comment, although I guess from a common sense point of view, sometimes I see Provider websites having the old Australian National Training Authority logo, the ANTA's logo on it. So that may not necessarily be possible in relation to other requirements in the NVR standards. So something to have a bit of a look at as well. But what we're saying in terms of New South Wales Government logo, that shouldn't be used unless we give express permission. So just a couple of other examples that fall outside the guidelines. We can see here in the center diagram, there's a bit of an omission there in some of the key requirements regarding enrollment processes, both no reference to our Notification of Enrollment or the Provider's enrollment. So that's a little bit lacking and no information regarding additional student support. So one way, I mean one way we... One way we do try and facilitate some of this is a lot of those requirements around Notification of Enrollment, for example. And what may, in fact, be available for students is actually in the Smart and Skilled website anyway. Some, but not all. So one of the things you Providers could think about to make life a little bit easier is have a good look through there and perhaps customise leading information on a Provider's website to link into what is already available in those websites. And that may make it easier for Providers, reduce a little bit of red tape, which we're always trying to think of. And it may actually improve the student's experience too, in understanding what the logical flow of information is that may need to consider an enrollment. Look, just an idea, not necessarily a requirement, but anything we can do to practically make it easier for Providers, but still assist with compliance is a good thing, right? Because there are a number of complexities in all those processes, and we wanna make it as straightforward and as easy to use for both Providers and students. Yeah, there's a couple of other little examples here. Look, this particular website, there was an omission of a link to the Smart and Skilled website, so there was no a clear linkage or referral there. This particular website had a couple of links that were out of date and didn't work. So it wasn't current as such. So it didn't fit the bill. And in this particular website, there was no reference to the RTO, the Provider's National Code, which means that there was no reference point to who this particular legal entity actually was. So a couple of examples there of some don'ts. So I'm gonna hand back to Alex now. He's just gonna do a little bit of a test. I hope you find it useful. Thank you very much.

- Good, thanks very much, Andrew. All right. So now's the test to see how many were paying attention. I'm just launching a quiz, so hopefully on your screens, you should see a Marketing and Promotions quiz that crops up. And so I'll read the questions and one at a time. So there's only five, and I'll give you sort of 20 seconds thinking time to answer and we will share the results at the end. Okay, question one is: Providers' Smart and Skilled marketing must acknowledge... Now, this is multiple choice. You can put in more than more than one answer for this one. So I'll stop talking. Five more seconds. It's an interactive quiz, it should be pretty easy, okay? I'll go to the next question. You can still keep going, I'll just read it out. Second question. The Smart and Skilled website is defined as how many hyperlinks? Oh, this is very pleasing to see. It looks like you're paying attention. We'll go on to question number three. According to the guidelines, which of these statements is false? Okay, coming along. And question number four, the Provider's website only mentions its registered trading name, ABC Training. Is this within the guidelines? I think everyone's one step ahead, so I think you've done that one, I don't need to... I'll move on to question five. It's, the Provider adds the New South Wales Government logo to their website. Is this within the guidelines? Okay, looking good, looking good. Okay, all right, I think it's time to end the poll and share the results. So put in your last request, your last votes. Going, going, gone. Okay, I'm going to share the results now. And let's see. Now, hopefully, you can see that. I'll open that up. So hopefully you can see that. Let's go through the results. Okay, so the first question. The answer is that... So Providers' Smart and Skilled marketing must acknowledge the RTO code. Absolutely correct, 90% got that right, and the availability of Subsidised Training from New South Wales government, 94%. So no, unfortunately, you can't put the New South Wales logo on without express permission. And look, Notification of Enrollment is a part of something that needs to happen, but not in this particular context. Question number two. The Smart and Skilled website is defined as how many hyperlinks? And so the majority got that correct, which is two links, and I've put the links into the chat. Hopefully, they both work and they're defined on Page 1 in the Introduction in the Operating Guidelines, if you're looking for those links. So there is two links. Question number three. According to the guidelines, which of these statements is false? Would it be adhered to the terms and conditions? No. So the answer is correct. So 98% of the people got that provided inducements to enrollment. And I think the slide that we presented there as an example of don't was pretty clear. Question number four. The Provider's website only mentions its registered trading name, ABC Proprietary Limited. No, that is not within the guidelines. So you need to put all the details on there, not just that. And finally, the last question is: The Provider adds the New South Wales Government logo to the website. Is this within the guidelines? And 90% said no, and that is the correct answer. Okay. All right, so now we come to the exciting... Exciting part of the presentation, which is we now open it the floor to your questions. So if I'm going into the questions, let me just open that up and let's just have a look at a few of them here. Oh, there was a good question. Press the Poll button. Thank you. Now, there's a question here from Sarah Smith. Andrew, you might like to take this one. There is a statement in the Operating Guidelines that reads training in priority qualifications is fee-free and fully funded by the New South Wales and Commonwealth governments. And I guess this question is in response to the fee-free. Would you like to make a comment about that, Andrew?

- Yeah, sure. Good day, Sarah Smith. I suspect that that particular phrase may have been from the '22-'23 guidelines in relation to skilling for recovery, where, in fact, that initiative was in full swing. But what I would say is that in '23-'24, we are looking at revising the wording to make it a little bit easier for Providers to navigate around the reference to fee-free training. So like I mentioned, we are looking at the wording there. There's a bit behind that. And what we would do, we'll communicate that exact wording more than likely fairly shortly through a Smart and Skilled update. And like all changes with Smart and Skilled we will also highlight the fact that we'll update our Operating Guidelines if that change is to be made.

- Very good, thank you. Hope that covers your question, Sarah. Here's another one from Natasha Pollard. So Slide 18, we gave an example. Can additional student supports be located in the Student Handbook that is listed under Student Resources? Or do they have to be listed separately as referenced in the slide, please? So I guess today is all about trying to help the students make the best possible decision about the training. I might hand that over to you, Andrew, just to clarify.

- Yeah, look, it's a good question. I guess the first thing to say is that we don't want to be prescriptive exactly how Providers need to run their business. What we're trying to do is just put the road signs, if you like, the main requirements of how... How some of these requirements can be addressed. So it's really up to Providers who... Look, there's literally hundreds of Smart and Skilled Providers, and they have different focuses, and they have different target markets. It's about how they best shape the information to a student. And while listing all those services is one option, which would be compliant, perhaps another option, and it's only my initial view, is that a summary of what in fact could be available and a link to your Student Guide or your Student reference points could be one such way of still meeting the requirements by guiding the student as clearly as possible in terms of all the services that they need to be aware of and could in fact be available and appropriate for them.

- Good. Look, I think we've got... There's probably two more questions here, and then we'll wrap it up. Because I'm conscious of the time, any of the questions that you've asked that haven't been covered, we'll take them on notice and put an answer on our website with this presentation, with the video, with the slides, et cetera. So Zarina asked the question. Can we post ads on Facebook regarding Smart and Skilled courses offered by our RTO?

- Yeah, that's a good question. We might take that one on notice and give a full answer, but I suspect that it would be appropriate providing that the necessary parameters are included in that particular advertising, marketing, and promotion in conjunction with all the things that we mentioned through the presentation.

- Yep, excellent. Thank you, Andrew. And lastly, but not leastly. So this one is... Oh, can you elaborate on what is meant by the don't refer students to the Provider slide? And that's from Sophie.

- Yeah, I think I can. Basically what we wanna try and avoid is any sort of activity associated with referrals for a financial gain that may lead to inappropriate or not appropriate referencing of particular students in terms of what they're entering into or understanding in terms of what in fact may be appropriate vocational education or training through Smart and Skilled for them. So it's all about really trying to provide the most primary source of information to assist a prospective student to make the best decision they can and not necessarily a secondary type of referral, which may not be for the primary reason in terms of giving full and frank understanding of what actually is involved. Yeah, there's probably a fair bit more I could say on that, but that's the intent of that particular referral arrangement. I mean, there's nothing to stop word-of-mouth referrals, but if it's a promoted referral with, for example, a financial benefit or a financial inducement, what history has shown is that's not necessarily an effective way of educating and promoting an understanding of what, in fact, a student needs to think about before they make that choice to participate in vocational education and training. Because at the end of the day, in the larger picture, it doesn't necessarily benefit the student because they don't complete. It doesn't necessarily benefit the Provider because they don't get paid for the hard work they put in. And completions is the big thing for the New South Wales Government in terms of getting value for the money that we've invested to gain these outcomes for the economy and for the community.

- Right, excellent. All right, well, look, thank you very much, Andrew. Look, we are out of time, I'm sorry. There are more questions coming through. So Rose and Co. will have to take them on notice and put the answers on the website for further support. If you do have any further questions, you can email us at smartandskilled.application@det.nsw.edu.au or you can contact your Strategic Relationship Manager or Regional Provider Support Manager. All right, so look, that's it. Thank you very much to Andrew Clements for sharing your knowledge today, thank you to Tony Harp and Julie Cunningham for your help behind the scenes, and thank you Providers for your attendance and interactions today. So please don't forget to complete the short five-question survey that will pop up when you exit. And I wish you a very happy, happy Friday and a great weekend. Okay, take care. Bye for now.