MATE captures comprehensive and relevant data on candidates, apprentices and organisations (including host companies). The system differentiates between an ‘applicant’ and a ‘candidate’. An applicant is known as someone who has registered interest in gaining a positionthrough the Group Apprenticeship Program but has not completed the registration process. A candidate is someone who has completed the registration process and is ‘job ready’.

Information recorded against a candidate is as follows:

• The option for the candidate to choose up to three job (vocation) choices. A minimum of one job choice must be selected.
• Desired work location with the option of working anywhere in the region (in any area covered by the regional office at which they are applying) as well as the option of working outside of the region (indicating they are prepared to move to take up a position).
• How they heard about the GAP.
• Key attributes and skills possessed (as confirmed by the interviewer).
• Aptitude and/or psychometric test results.
• Education details (such as where they went to school and what level of schooling achieved as well as any pre-apprenticeship courses or similar they may have undertaken.
• Work experience and employment history details.
• Interview notes.
• There is the ability to prioritise candidates and give them a ‘high’ or ‘normal’ priority. Someone would be given ‘high’ priority if they have recently applied for a position with a competitor and are an outstanding candidate.
• Transport details.
• Contact details, both of the candidate themselves and of a parent/guardian/emergency contact person.
• From the candidate screen you have the ability to view all pending actions for that person (known as the ‘placement plan’). Viewing this tab will show what jobs they may have already been put forward for, for example.
• There is also the ability to view all file notes for a candidate. This will show in detail all the jobs they have previously been put forward for and the result of this. Essentially the ‘file notes’ tab shows everything that has happened in the past with this person while the ‘placement plan’ shows everything that is to happen in the future for this person.
• The ability to attach documents to a candidates file, such as their resume, school reports etc, virtually eliminating the need to maintain paper files.
• There is the ability to ‘deactivate’ a candidate when they are no longer seeking a job with the GAP. At this point we capture the reason why, such as returned to school, found employment outside of vocation etc.
• Once a person has been deactivated, has been cancelled from an apprenticeship or traineeship or has completed an apprenticeship or traineeship, they can be reactivated as a candidate and eligible for future jobs should you so wish them to be.

An example of a candidate summary screen is as follows:

Information recorded against an apprentice or trainee is as follows:

• Their name, date of birth and contact details.
• Field Officer and Regional Office assigned to.
• Job type with auto populated course, apprenticeship name. This means the person commencing the apprentice only needs to choose the job the person is starting in and the rest of the details will automatically appear as they are linked behind the scenes in the system.
• Commencement/progression and completion date/s.
• Host details are hyperlinked, meaning from the apprentice/trainee summary screen the host record can be accessed quickly and easily
• Payment rate, including if they are employed under a workplace agreement,
• Parent/guardian/emergency contact details.
• College or Training Provider being attended as well as their contact person.
• Health and Safety training attendance
• From the summary screen you can view the ‘hosts’ tab, which shows all the hosts that apprentice has ever had, including status changes and periods of suspension etc.
• Details captured at the point of activation can also be viewed, such as bank details.
• The ‘file notes’ tab shows everything that has ever happened with that apprentice. Effectively this displays the history of the person since registration with the GTO.
• The ‘supervision plan’ tab shows all the meetings that are to happen in the future with that apprentice.
• The ‘documents’ tab shows all the relevant documents that have been scanned into the system for that person, such as the training contract, Training transcripts, Performance Management forms etc.
• The ‘leave details’ tab shows the sick leave and annual leave balance for that person in hours, providing there is integration with the payroll system
• The ‘claims’ tab tracks incentive claims. It can be noted when the claim has been sent to a Regional Office to obtain a signature, when it has been sent to the AAC and is awaiting payment and when the payment has been received.
• Actions from the apprenticesummary screen enable a number of status changes, such as when someone is cancelled, suspended, transferred to the GAP and completed.
• Other actions available are to change progression dates, ‘give notice’ (a host indicates that they wish to hand back the apprentice), complete without formal training being completed, complete formal training, change address, change Field Officer and change supervisor.

An example of an apprentice summary screen is as follows:

Information recorded against an organisation, specifically a host employer is as follows:

• Trading name, registered business name and Company number.
• Contact details, primary contact person, Field Officer assigned to.
• Agreements (host contracts) received and whether or not an Health and Safety site inspection has occurred at their workplace
• Payment terms and payment method.
• The ‘host rating’ tab gives an indication of the risk of working with that particular client. The host rating is based on the OH&S compliance, credit check rating, payment history, the business environment, employee completion rate, level of communication and host survey results. These fields have an implication on the job match process, as if the risk is considered high, the system will not allow a Field Officer to job match a candidate to vacancy with that company.
• The Health ans Safety tab allows the user to view the HS compliance ratings for that host
• The ‘jobs’ tab allows you to view all past and current jobs with that host and copy jobs if they wish to recruit for the same vacancy, rather than enter all the job specifications in again.
• The ‘contacts’ tab allows you to view to all contacts within that organisation along with their position in the company and individual contact details
• From the ‘apprentices and trainees’ tab you can view all past and current apprentices and trainees that company has had.
• The ‘file notes’ tab allows you to view the history of that host, that is, everything that has happened with that host in the past.
• The ‘account plan’ tab allows you to view everything that is due to happen in the future with that host.
• The ‘documents’ tab allows you to view all the documents that have been scanned into the system for that host, such as the host agreement and other relevant documentation.

An example of a host summary screen is as follows:

The screen capturing a specific job vacancy contains the following information:

• The hourly charge rate to the host
• The job vacancy type and job description type (that is, provided by the GAP or the host)
• The preferred commencement date
• The applicable pay rate or industrial agreement
• The attributes and skills required by the successful candidate (as identified by the host)
• Transport requirements
• Education and experience requirements
• Once the vacancy information has been captured in the system, it is mandatory to review the host risk rating before proceeding to job match for the host. Once this is completed, you can then search for suitable candidates using the ‘job match’ function

 An example of a job vacancy in MATE is as follows:

Please note MATE software is only made available to companies that do not intend to offer the Group Apprenticeship Program in London and that sign a non competition agreement with the London Apprenticeship Company.