Training Services NSW migrates to nsw.gov.au

Training Services NSW work with industry, training providers and the community on vocational education and training to give people practical skills for the workplace. They support apprenticeships and traineeships for adult and community education by providing funding, guidance and support. 

Training Services NSW also manage Smart and Skilled, a program that provides government-subsidised courses and training provider contracts that support economic, regional and community development. Smart and Skilled was also migrated to nsw.gov.au at the same time.

What was the approach?

The migration goal was to improve the digital experience of Training Services NSW customers by improving findability, readability, accessibility and focusing on the customer’s needs.

The two sites cater for students, industries and training providers. As such, the customers they serve are varied and have different purposes.

Once each stakeholder group was identified, the OneCX program team conducted user research, to unearth their needs and user habits. These insights, along with a full audit of existing content, informed our migration plans. Over 700 pages and documents were audited for either migration, consolidation, uplift or removal. 

Working closely with a large cohort of 60 subject matter experts from Training Services NSW, the audit revealed several opportunities to reduce complexity, simplify content and remove duplication. 

What was improved?

A new Information Architecture (IA) was established for better navigation, making it easier for customers to find and understand information. 

Content was grouped under three common topics: 

• Vocational education and training.
• Apprentices and trainees.
• Adult and community education.

From the content audit, 60 new pages were created. These includes pages for training providers, with its content structured in an easy to follow format. An improved step-by-step guide to obtaining an apprenticeship or traineeship was published and the overall reading comprehension levels are now consistent across all pages. A newly created resource library will house all Training Services NSW publications in an organised, searchable format. 

The migration to nsw.gov.au and the Drupal content management system (CMS) brought enhanced functionality, search optimisation, metadata tagging and access to analytics. These analytics will help to inform future content updates to further improve the customer experience. 

Full training is provided to agencies for the CMS, uplifting the capability of staff. Ongoing support is provided via the OneCX program Learning Management System (LMS) and the nsw.gov.au Help Hub. 

Learnings

From the agency’s perspective, it can seem daunting and overwhelming to pick up and move your entire website. Who’s responsible for what, how will we manage the workload, will we lose ownership of our content? 

The OneCX program will work with your team and guide you, every step of the way. The team will take the time to understand your agency and its business needs. Agencies are still the custodians of the content and once the migration is complete, will have full reign over its pages on nsw.gov.au.

Here’s some tips from John Comino from Training Services NSW:

• Start communications with stakeholders as early as possible.
• Identify subject matter experts (SME) and discuss their role.
• Conduct a content audit and consider accessibility.
• Establish project team and agree on responsibilities.

Check out the Content guidance pages on the OneCX program hub for more information on how you can start thinking about your content, prior to migration. 

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