Participation in Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) 001-02170030

If the customer:

• advises they are enrolled in Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP), go to Step 2
• requests a transfer to Skills for Education and Employment (SEE), go to Step 7
• advises they have exited from AMEP, see Step 1 in Table 2
• advises they have recommenced in AMEP, see Step 2 in Table 2

Customer advises that they are enrolled in AMEP.

The customer is considered to be participating in the program if they have:

• been assessed as being eligible for AMEP by the Department of Home Affairs, and
• commenced participating

• Go to the Referral Summary (RRSUM) screen, or
• Select > Participation Summary > Activity type/Non-applied exemptions > Referral summary
• Check for the Adult Migrant English Program Referral on the RRSUM screen, or
• If there are no AMEP details on the RRSUM screen, seek permission from the customer to release details and contact the Department of Home Affairs AMEP Recording System (ARMS) helpdesk
  always include the following to assist ARMS to identify the customer and respond in a timely manner:
• Service Officer's contact details
• Customer's first name, last name and date of birth
• Customer's visa information (e.g. visa grant number, passport number or immigration card number)

If the customer has not given consent to the sharing of information from the Department of Home Affairs, users with Process Direct Job Referral Updates access can manually code the Referral Details screen.

Verify customer's enrolment in Special Preparatory Program (SPP), AMEP Extend or Settlement Language Pathways to Employment and Training (SLPET)

Service Officers can confirm participation in these programs by contacting the Department of Home Affairs ARMS helpdesk or customers can provide a copy of the Client Profile Report, which is issued to all AMEP customers at commencement. It outlines personal details, AMEP timetable, previous activities including start and end dates, achievements and remaining entitlement. Participating in SPP, AMEP Extend or SLPET is considered to be part of AMEP.

Participation of 20 hours or more per week is regarded as full-time participation. The 20 hours may consist of up to 15 hours face to face and five hours of independent learning per week.

Anything less than 20 hours per week is regarded as part-time participation.

• Ask customer to provide a letter from their AMEP provider advising the hours they are studying, or
• Phone AMEP provider to verify details over the phone. Customer will need to be present in order to overcome any privacy requirements
• Record the details in a DOC on the customer's record

Next steps:

• If the customer is a newly arrived refugee post their refugee exemption and is eligible to remain Centrelink managed. See Refugee entrant service offer for newly arrived refugee Centrelink managed eligibility, go to Step 5
• For all other customers, go to Step 6

Ensure that 'Refugee Activities' is added to the Activity and Exemption Summary (AEX) screen on the customer's record.

To record an approved activity in Process Direct:

• Go to the Activity and Exemption Summary (AEX) screen
• Select Add
• On the Create Activity and Exemption Summary (AEX) screen, complete:
• Activity Type
• Start date
• End date
• select Save
• Complete the Receipt Date and Channel fields, select Save
• Select Assess and address any errors/warnings
• Finalise the transaction by selecting Assess again, then select Finish. Record details of the update on the Finalise screen
• Select Finalise to complete the transaction

The approved activity will be added to the customer's Job Plan. See Negotiating Job Plans for newly arrived refugees following the 'Refugee in First 13 Weeks' (REF) exemption for further details.

Go to Step 7.

The job seeker must remain connected to an Employment Services Provider, undertake job searches, and attend provider appointments and job interviews in addition to AMEP, to satisfy their mutual obligation requirements.

The job seeker's Employment Services Provider will include AMEP as an approved activity for their mutual obligation requirements.

Note: the following job seekers must be referred to an Employment Service Provider, if not already connected:

• refugee job seekers no longer in the Better Targeting of Support for Refugees (BTSR) measure, due to their arrival date being more than 12 months in the past
• Early school Leaver (ESL) and non-refugee job seekers participating in AMEP full time

The Activity and Exemption Summary (AEX) screen will be updated with information from the RRSUM screen when a placement in AMEP is recorded for job seekers. See the Resources page for the process of manually recording AMEP.

The AMEP activity will be recorded on the AEX screen for a 12 month period from the date of commencement in the program.

• Make sure the AEX screen is updated for a Centrelink managed job seeker placed in AMEP
• Reiterate the job seeker's mutual obligation requirements for JobSeeker Payment (JSP), Youth Allowance (job seekers) and Parenting Payment Single (PPS) customers
• The system will determine if a job plan needs updating by displaying an action item in the Key Information tab of the Participation Summary screen within Process Direct.
  Note: the Action Item 'Customer is Centrelink managed and has no current Job Plan. Negotiate Job Plan with customer', may appear for ESL job seekers who are participating full time in AMEP, and, are yet to be referred to an Employment Services Provider. These jobseekers:
• are not Centrelink managed, and
• must be referred to a Provider, and
• once referred, will display as Provider managed. See Step 6 in the current table
• Once commencing the job plan update, the system will automatically add the Job Plan item ‘I will meet my agreed mutual obligation requirements by undertaking approved activities and report my participation in them to Centrelink’. If the job plan has been:
• updated in person, have the job seeker sign the plan and hand the job seeker a copy of the Job Plan
• negotiated over the phone and the job seeker is able to use Centrelink Online Services, request they agree to their job plan online
• Explain the job seeker's rights and obligations including:
• they must notify Services Australia if they stop attending the training
• they must also notify the agency of changes in their circumstances and comply with the terms of their Job Plan
• they can request a review of the Job Plan at any time
• the review of decision process
• Answer any queries the job seeker has

AMEP Referral and placement details can be checked in Process Direct:

• Go to the Referral Summary (RRSUM) screen, or
• Select Participation Summary > Activity type/Non-applied exemptions > Referral summary

Procedure ends here.

Check that the job seeker is eligible for SEE. See Eligibility for Skills for Education and Employment (SEE).

Once the job seeker commences training in SEE, the system will automatically close the AMEP referral and placement with the reason 'Participating in Skills for Education and Employment'. This will not prevent the re-commencement in AMEP following exit from SEE, if the job seeker has unused AMEP hours left. SEE must be finalised before recommencing in AMEP.

A manual follow up (MFU) review (I002RR) will be created when the placement in AMEP has been recorded, and will mature one month prior to the placement end date. Service Officers should check the MFUs when the end date has been reached to confirm the customer has been exited from AMEP. The MFU can be completed/finalised once the exit has been recorded.

A participant may withdraw from AMEP for a period of time. The AMEP referral will be automatically finalised with the reason 'Withdrawn'. The date of effect of this finalisation may be up to three months in the past.

When AMEP is finalised on the Referral Summary (RRSUM) screen it will also finalise the AMEP activity on the Activity and Exemption Summary (AEX) screen. This will allow the job seeker to be able to recommence AMEP at a later date if they have unused AMEP hours left.

Participants will exit AMEP on achievement of Vocational English.

When the job seeker is no longer eligible and not participating, the system will automatically update the referral to 'Finalised' (FIN) and the level of achievement in an applicable Curriculum will display on the RRSUM screen.

Procedure ends here.

If a customer wishes to recommence in AMEP and they are:

• not participating in another English language program, go to Step 3
• participating in another program, go to Step 4

When an AMEP placement is finalised for the reason 'withdrawn', a participant may recommence in AMEP.

When the participant resumes AMEP, their record will be automatically updated to 'placed' in the Referral Summary (RRSUM) screen.

The AEX screen will be updated with the information from the RRSUM screen. The start date of the activity on the AEX screen will be the date of the recommencement and the activity will have an end date 12 months in the future.

Procedure ends here.

If the job seeker is placed in SEE, the SEE referral must be finalised before recommencing in AMEP.

The AMEP recommencement will not be automatically updated in the Referral Summary (RRSUM) screen if the customer is participating in another program that is not an allowable combination with AMEP.

A RFL/AUT MFU with keywords I08IRR and AMEREC will require the Service Officer to contact the Employment Services Provider and confirm which program the participant is attending. If the job seeker is attending AMEP, the provider is to exit them from the SEE program. AMEP recommencement is then to be manually coded by staff with Process Direct Job Referral Updates access.

If the customer wishes to continue attending SEE then the AMEP MFU can be cancelled. A DOC is created with help text explaining the course of action that needs to be taken.

For job seekers who have their SEE placement withdrawn by the Department of Home Affairs (indicating that the customer did not start in SEE) subsequent to AMEP finalisation with the reason 'Participating in Skills for Education and Employment', a RFL/AUT MFU with keywords I077RR and AMEFIN is created.

This requires the Service Officer to contact both the SEE and AMEP providers and confirm which program the job seeker is participating in. If the job seeker continues AMEP participation then a Service Officer with Process Direct Job Referral Updates access will need to delete the AMEP finalisation status that was coded as 'Participating in Skills for Education and Employment'.

For job seekers who have their ARM Id unlinked by the Department of Home Affairs, a RFL/AUT MFU with keywords ARMDEL and I078RR will be created. This requires investigation of the AMEP referral that was associated with incorrect ARM Id and deleting the AMEP referral if necessary. A Service Officer needs Process Direct Job Referral Updates access to delete an AMEP referral.