Microsoft Australia Education - Further Education - Case Studies

Discover how TAFEs have applied Microsoft technologies to adapt their IT infrastructure, help streamline administration and enhance vital functions. These institutions also raised academic standards by helping students better learning resources.

Box Hill Institute (BHI) in Melbourne prepares students for Australia’s workforce by ensuring that they have the skills employers need now and in the future. As a partner in the Microsoft IT Academy program, BHI helps students develop a high level of IT skills literacy. Along with other program benefits, students earn industry certifications which help qualify them for the workplace or count toward higher-education courses. For students earning Advanced Diplomas at BHI, certification and other program strengths have led to a job placement rate of more than 90 per cent.

Box Hill Institute believes strongly in Microsoft certification for skills for employability. We see it as a great addition to our vocationally focused programs, as well as a way to differentiate ourselves in the training market.

Simon Taylor, Manager, Centre for Information & Communications Technology, Box Hill Institute

Box Hill Institute is one of Victoria’s leading vocational education providers. The process for accrediting new courses with the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority was highly complex and subject to stringent regulation. To complete this process, the Institute used hand-written forms that were forwarded through numerous departments via internal mail. This method was slow, difficult to track and created uncertainty around whether new courses would be approved on time. In 2009, the institute deployed Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, with electronic forms, designed in InfoPath Form Services, directed automatically to staff according to predetermined workflows. Since the status of each file is instantly visible, managers are in better control of course accreditation, and have greater confidence that courses will be promptly approved and available for students when needed.

Having validation fields mean that most form-filling errors are avoided. So less time is wasted sending the file backwards and forwards through the internal mail.

Simeon Amor, IT Project Manager, Box Hill Institute