Higher Qualification Pathways Project Case Study:

Developing Aged Care Leaders

Aged and Community Services Tasmania & GlobalNet ICT, Tasmania June, 2012 Developing Aged Care Leaders

Background

About Aged and Community Services Aged and Community Services Tasmania (ACST) is the peak body in Tasmania for aged care, representing residential care, housing and community care services organisations. Over 90 per cent of providers are members of ASCT. These organisations are a mix of church, charitable, community based, State Government and for profit companies and:

 We are part of a national body (Aged and Community Services Australia);  We represent over 46 organisations across Tasmania;  We represent a workforce of over 9000 people  These organisations provide accommodation and care services to up to 20,000 older people, people with a disability and their carers in their own home or in a residential care home.

The sector faces an era of great challenge and change particularly in ensuring an appropriately sized workforce with the required level of skills and knowledge to deliver quality services. Given Australia’s aging population, we currently find ourselves in an environment where demand for services will grow significantly while the availability of labour will diminish. The Aged Care Service Sector in Tasmania recognises that if is to address this issue and the imminent changes to Aged Care Services delivered in Australia as a result of recommendations from the recent Productivity Commission Report1, there will be a need to proactively ensure a workforce that has the required level of knowledge and skills to lead and drive change into the future. To achieve this these leaders will rely increasingly on leveraging the use of innovative super-fast broadband internet based technologies. Our target group was current and emerging leaders of our sector. Many of our members deliver their services in rural and remote areas. The cost associated for organsiations and/or indvidiuals to participate in training and professional development opportunities is quite often prohibited and therefore a barrier to participation. The use of ’techology’ within our sector continues to grow e.g. Electronic Health and Medication Management System etc. Inline with the growing use of technology the e-literacy skills of our workforce has dramatically increased. However the increase of e-literacy is not reflected in the participation in e-learning professional development and learning opportunities and the associated use of technologies. In fact, evidence indicates that this has remained static or slightly reduced. By participating in the program individuals were educated in the opportunities/benefits of e-learning. Through the program we explored emerging technologies and used e-portfolios to assist individuals to identify their current level of skills and knowledge and identify appropriate pathways into higher level qualifications. Individuals who participated have agreed to become ‘Industry Champions’ a key factor in ensuring the ongoing development and viability of the program.

About GlobalNet ACST chose the GlobalNet Academy as our registered training organisation (RTO) because they had a proven e-learning technology delivery capability.

1 http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/aged-care

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ACST knew that as part of the project, they would be able to bring a suite of resources, including

• Their learning management system (LMS) (Moodle) and eportfolio system.

• Alfresco collaboration software for document and records management

• Their knowledge of social media tools

• The ability to align to the e-standards requirements when possible

For this pilot, GlobalNet configured and deployed a dedicated ACST LMS environment that could be then be enhanced based upon pilot feedback and used across the wider ACST jurisdictions in phase 2.

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The strategy connection This case study was developed by ACST (with support from GlobalNet) with funding and support from the national training system’s e-learning strategy, the National VET E-learning Strategy (Strategy).

The Strategy provides the VET system with the essential e-learning infrastructure and expertise needed to respond to the challenges of a modern economy and the training needs of Australian businesses and workers.

The objectives of the Stage 1 of the ACST Innovative Leadership training program was to trial the use of superfast broadband enabled technology to provide access to a rich range of e-learning technologies and resources. This was achieved by the development of capability and capacity of the identified Aged Care Sevices Sector participants.

The key to this was:

 Providing the opportunity for the selected ‘current and future leaders’ to participate in Round 1 to access their pathway to higher education. This was achieved through the delivery of selected units from the BSB51107 Diploma of Management qualification. It will also provided an opportunity to explore the use of the National Broadband Network (NBN) and associated technologies.

 Increasing the leadership capability and awareness of the Aged Care Services Sector in the application and benefits of innovative e-learning technology in the strategic delivery of higher vocational education and training (VET) qualification training opportunities.

 Building capacity/capability in the sector to ensure that the skills and knowledge gained through the program is sustainable.

 Providing pathways from VET to higher education for the Aged Care Services leadership group.

 Promoting the benfits in using e-portfolios not only in relation to qualification based training but also in the ongoing development of our workforce and to support organisational compliance requirements.

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What was done

How did the project commence? The project commenced by bringing the group together in Campbell Town – a town effectively in the middle of Tasmania. The project objectives were reviewed and participants were introduced to the delivery strategy and the technologies that were going to be used as part of the project.

The delivery strategy

One of the challenges that we face in Tasmania is that for a small island we’re spread out all over it. There are a number of regional towns that do not often get access to the networking and professional development opportunities that are available in the bigger centres have – not without travel. Consquently, the delivery strategy focused on using technologies that were easily accessible, easy to use and very affordable. We needed technologies that could:

1. Act as a repository

2. Promote interaction and networking; and

3. Provide face to face communication

What we wanted to avoid

One of our core objectives was to avoid the situation where all the knowledge and learning is captured in a tool that is not owned by the learners or the group. One of the issues going forward for both trainers (whether organisations or otherwise) and learners will be how to manage learning in such a way that it is portable and stays with the owner.

Acting as a repository - the LMS

A dedicated and secured LMS was configured and deployed for the pilot project to allow access to resources and e-portfolio repository storage as it allowed the participants to have:

 A central area to access learning and assessment activities;

 A place to record responses to group learning questions

 Their own portfolio storage area; and

 Blog postings (personal and public)

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A place to respond to group learning: The Blog

The LMS blog was used to support the learning activities that were conducted throughout the project. Participants were invited through our video collaboration sessions and through Facebook to review the activity tasks, reflect on what was being asked and then contribute to the discussion. In some cases, the discussion was in the blog, in other cases, Facebook was used. Both worked well.

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Promote interaction and networking: Facebook

The participants were introduced to using Facebook for:

 Growing the existing online community

 Sharing and collaborating in a public space about developments and opportunities in the Aged Care Sector through the use of video, photos, question and anwser polls and events tools.

Promote interaction and networking: LinkedIn

LinkedIn was used to support:

 The development of participants online resumes (resumes are a useful tool for evidencing work role and to provide a good overview of an individual’s skill set)

 The fostering of group discussions and collaboration that could be used as e-portfolio evidence attached to real work outcomes and;

 The creation of connections to other likeminded professionals who could provide referee referrals for them using the tool

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Provide face to face communication

As part of our delivery strategy, we scheduled fortnightly face to face meetings. To support the face to face collaboration, we chose GoToMeeting (http://www.gotomeeting.com.au/fec/). This application offered us a range of tools, including

 High definition video conferencing

 Audio conferencing via phone and computer

 Desktop sharing

 Specific application sharing (we used this to share PowerPoint applications)

 Web and audio recording

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 The ability to change facilitators (this was a useful tool as we could invite others to share a presentation etc)

 Both Mac and PC support

 Text Chat

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All of the learning strategies and tools have been linked to learning pedagogy and e-portfolio methodology, designed (as demonstrated in the first phase of the pilot) to engage, motivate and enhance participation and completion for higher qualification participation and completion using the tools of the future that leverage the capacity of the NBN and superfast broadband as shown in figure 1 below.

It is important to note that the primary value for this e-portfolio approach is that the learner owns the access and has complete control of their eporfolio of learning and their preferred tools and techniques making it easier for them to transport their evidence to other higher qualification contexts and assessment options including RPL.

Figure 1 – Our project blue print for a cycle of learning that engages, motivates and retains learners

The cycle has the capacity to be self sustaining and assist purposefully with the goal of innovation and a sustainable workforce that is highly skilled. This skill and knowledge can then be demonstrated through the application of their e-portfolios to access higher qualification pathways whilst still working in their leadership roles and being prepared for succession planning and coaching and mentoring into the future to help the next cohort.

What issues surfaced? The biggest issue faced was the short timeframe of the project and the fact that as participants had key roles within industry they were time poor.

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How did we overcome them? We adapted and utilised communication techniques and delivery methods to fit into the required time frame and suit the needs of the individual paticipants.

What worked really well and why? Based on their ability to be leaders ‘champions’ and/or mentors for both e-learning and the use of the NBN and the associated efficiencies into our sector, participants were identified and invited to attend. This approach produced great outcomes, with this group of leaders wanting to remain networked and continue on with further training and professional development as well as act as mentors for the next group to participate in this program.

The opportunity to explore existing and emerging technologies that would bring benefits to their organisation was embraced by the group. Many have identified areas where they would like to make changes and implement the use of technology from the simply using SMS to notify staff of extra shift opportunities to fingerprint identification for time logging and payroll.

What would do differently next time and why? The group thought having the opportunity to get together face to face and to brainstorm and discuss the program and what each participant/organisation was doing was beneficial. In line with this we would include more face to face sessions.

Benefits experienced by …. From an Industry persepective the biggest lesson learnt is that in order to move the provision of Aged Care Services in our State into the future it is essential that our workforce becomes e-ready. This project identified to a group of our sectors’ leaders the benefits that can be gained through the effective use of e-techologies in workforce development and learning and the delivery of quality services to our clients.

One facility found the use of Facebook was significant within a particular cohort of their workforce (90%) and as a result of greater awareness about how to use the application considered how it could be used in an innovative application as part of their assessment evidence.

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Lessons learnt Some of the lessons learned included:

1. Creating more momentum within the participant group by bringing the group together more often. Although GoToMeeting worked really well, there is no substitute for physical face to face networking and discussion during a project such as this.

2. It is helpful to have a portal technology when using multiple technologies. The use of distributed technologies (such as Facebook and LinkedIn) brings an additional management overhead and managing how evidence is collected (in the case of training) requires some thinking. Participants need to be able to use the technology, but the technologies need to be easily integrated into the portal or other evidence collecting application for ease of management

3. It’s important to manage learner and participant expectations right from the beginning – particularly when time frames are short and work commitments may be high. Time was against us in this project, so strategies need to be in place to ensure that a sense of urgency is created.

4. The NBN and e-technologies has a big role to play in bringing the Aged Care Services Sector into the future. We need to continue to look for workforce development opportunities that ensure that our workforce is e-ready

5. The ‘creative’ use of e-porfolios and LMS can be benefical across the sector not only for training and professional development but in providing evidence of compliance

The results Key outcomes from an industry perspective were:

 Number of participants that remained engaged and completed the program

 Uptake and exploration of new technologies

 Understanding of NBN and what it can bring to the Aged Care Services Sector

 Understanding of e-porfolios and how they could be used in areas other than ‘learning’ e.g. evidence of compliance

 The development of an enthusiastic network for ‘Leaders’/’Mentors.

 The understanding of our sector by our partners ICT Global Technologies

In this first phase only one participant from the pilot group of twelve decided to not continue. Three of the pilot group were undertaking other qualification programs at the time of the pilot and have already made strong linkges to their higher qualification pathway benefits as a result of the first phase.

This is an outstanding result given that the participants hold senior leadership positions (ranging from CEO’s to Clinical Care Specialist) within their organisation and not only were they eager to participate they are united in their agreement to continue and to support their phase two colleagues.

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Acknowledgement This is a Higher Qualification Pathways Project output, developed by Aged Care Services Tasmania and the GlobalNet Academy, with seed funding from the Strategy.

For more information

For more information on the Aged & Community Services Tasmania: Lee Veitch Workforce Planning & Development Consultant Aged Care Leaders Program Phone: 0409 415 923 Email: [email protected]

For more information on the National VET E-learning Strategy: Email: [email protected] Website: flexiblelearning.net.au

With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, the Department’s logo, any material protected by a trade mark an d where otherwise noted all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Au stralia (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/) licence.

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