Let me talk to you about our 3 things that I'm here to talk to you about in the brief 15 minutes that I have. I'm going to be talking about licensing and registration today, and I'll be really frank with you about things that aren't working. I'm going to talk to you about building design and what we've got underway. There is a really urgent need for change in this area. For those of you who aren't aware, we've had recent corrupt activities that are before the courts at the moment. Some have been finalised and some are still before the courts. A majority is still before the courts, so we can't discuss them. But that was the real driver behind a really deep review of operations. I joined the BPC, then VBA, in December and since then we've undertaken extensive research into what's working and what's not working. We found high levels of variability. So this person may be assessed by that particular assessor and get a certain outcome. The same person, if we put them in front of a different assessor, may get a completely different outcome which is just not how it should be working. We found that there's a heavy reliance on judgment during interviews which is very subjective, and if you're having a decision made about your livelihood and your next career step or your future career, you don't want subjectivity and inconsistency to be the driver behind the decision.
Most exams can be compromised. Many years ago, there used to be a banner on all of our signature blocks, and it used to say as soon as this document is printed, the integrity of the document is compromised. Most of our exams are printed, so therefore the minute they're printed, the integrity behind that exam is completely compromised and we don't know where it goes. The current assessment framework asks a lot of applicants and I'll go into a little bit further detail in a moment. So, you're put through the absolute ringer as an applicant regardless of whether you're high-risk, low-risk, or somewhere in between. Many applications are still paper-based, mutual recognition, building design, and almost half of the plumbing licence renewals. It takes about 230 days to process a DB-U, and that's a ridiculously long amount of time. It's just not good enough. We currently ask for DB-U applicants to upload about 40 documents. And of the plumbing apprentices who complete their apprenticeship, only about 75% are registering to become plumbers. Now, we're hoping that that may be because they're going on to do further training such as fire protection, but we just don't know. Those numbers have increased significantly over the last few years by 20 plus % but still there's that 25% gap between those who finish their apprenticeship and register to become plumbers. eToolbox is absolutely at the end of its life and we need to fix that for both our people internally and for plumbers who are accessing it on the other side. Now is the time. We need to update. We need to change, and we need to revamp our whole practices. We need to lure people into becoming registered and licensed with the BPC. We need to become more modern. We need to update our digital tools and provide a greater experience for the applicants.
Our exam platform needs to become modern, up-to-date and remove all paper-based models. Our people are ready for change. We've been engaging with them since the start of this year. Every time we've done hundreds and hundreds of hours of research with hundreds and hundreds of meetings, workshops, etc. And every single staff member has said it is time to change. The industry, you've told us that it's time to change. So, we are changing and we're going to make it future-proofed so that we don't need to then change again in 5 months or 5 weeks or some future period. We need to bring the industry and the practitioners along with us. Now we know that not everybody loves computers and digital processes, but we need you to come along with us. There are 9 principles that we've been using since about March to guide our future state model. First one is about trust and verify. We're going to trust that the information that people are providing us is correct. We're going to trust you because right now we put every single applicant through the ringer. Then we're going to verify through various processes on the higher trust models. We'll be verifying just superficially, making sure that your RTO's registered, that your technical referee is registered with the BPC and all those basic verification processes. We're going to enable an early ‘yes’ and just as importantly an early ‘no’. So one of the big problems I mentioned a few slides ago, it's taking about 230 days to tell you the outcome to your application. That's even if it's a ‘no’ and that's just not good enough. We need to increase the administrative efficiency, and we need to motivate, we need to get people on board to be registered. We need to fairly distribute the risk across the regulatory life cycle. So what that means is that BPC is not just about licensing and registration. BPC is also about disciplinary units. It has compliance and enforcement sections. It has investigations units. It has all sorts of other areas that can support the consumer and the practitioner to make sure that everybody's getting the right outcome from their licensed or registered practitioner.
We need to clarify accountability, particularly for my people that we're going through a whole change model right now that we started last Wednesday and with that will become clearer role descriptions, greater training, greater support and that ability to become more agile if we need to change things in the future. Our staff will be really empowered. We need to make intelligence-led decisions, not on a whim. Not because I did my qualification through that TAFE so therefore, I'm going to give you a bit of a nod earlier on. It's all going to be the same for everybody. And those decisions will have evidence behind them on why we said ‘yes’ or why we said ‘no’. We're going to be building trusting relationships with practitioners in the industry. I've been in the regulatory field for a very, very long time and if there's one thing I do know is that regulators can't do it all. They need the consumers to come on board. They need the industry bodies representing the practitioners and representing the want-to-be practitioners. We need everybody to be part of this solution. We need to recognise that BPC works within a system of other regulators. So, if we've got concerns about a dodgy qualification, we don't take it upon ourselves to consider that. We go straight to, if it's a Victorian qualification, Victorian RTO, we go straight to VRQA. Or if it's an Australia-wide qualification, we go to ASQA. Anna, our CEO, has been developing some great relationships in that area so that we can just know who to go to and not be delayed with our concerns. The most important thing that I'd like you to get out of these 9 principles is the last one: that we want to enable consistency and integrity in both the process and the outcome.
These are our 3 key changes across licensing and registration: risk based, digital first, and efficient and consistent results. So, the risk-based approach, the classes will have different approaches to mitigate the differing levels of risk. The forms and processes will all move online for applicants wherever practical, and that's wherever practical. There'll obviously always be an exception. Only last month, we had an applicant who was a quadriplegic. So we had to adjust our assessment methodology using reasonable needs, you know, to satisfy his reasonable needs and I'm really happy to say that he has passed that assessment process and is now going through the registration process, which is great. But wherever practical, we'll be doing an online digital-first approach. We need the industry practitioners, everybody, to be open to this digital-first approach. The amount of online forms that we get where every second page is scanned and documents aren't certified properly—it's just wasting, delaying your processes, and wasting our time and your time. And of course, our new processes will deliver greater consistency and just as importantly, integrity. What does this mean? So, we're going to have a stronger practitioner focus. We're going to be using a risk-based framework and we're going to be modernising our approach. We'll be a much more modern regulator.
The stronger practitioner focus—first of all digitising our application forms—will be moving from about 40 documents that are required at the moment to 4. No drawings will be required for building designers. Technical referees will now be all online unless there's an exception. I know you may not be as surprised to hear that some technical referees may be being paid to provide the information or they have never worked with the person. They're dodgy information, of course, when we find out about this, we do something about it. But the new process will include that where the technical referee's registered with BPC, we do all the contact through the registered email address, telephone number, etc. that we have on our system. We'll have fewer RFIs (requests for information), so this is where simple things like documents aren't certified properly because you won't be able to submit them unless it's done properly. We're going to have one case management system instead of 3. I mentioned that e-toolbox has had a few heart starters to keep it alive. We don't know how long it's going to last for, but the new one's coming. We'll have fairer, consistent and quicker decision-making, and the building designer architect will now have a restricted class for 1 and 10, which is fantastic. Instead of the whole shebang, they can just do residential.
Risk-based framework pathway varies according to the class of risk. So, every application will be triaged using a risk-based approach and will be processed accordingly. Low risk - we're expecting about 80% based on our research - will be low risk and they will go through the low-risk team. The high risk - we're having a brand-new team set up with highly skilled, better trained, more senior officers who can get across these complex issues and rigor remains the highest, will remain for the higher risk classes. Modernising will be clear, digital and simplified. Best practice exam platform, we're procuring that right now. We're going to have objective risk factors to determine the assessment pathway. Technology advancement - plumbing apprentices will now be engaging with them while they're still doing their apprenticeship and we'll be splitting DB-U into multiple categories. So that means classes 1, 4 and 10 versus class 2. So, an example is DBL will be focused on gates and fences and they may go through without any examination process because of the simplicity of the task.
Here's our future. So, this is our road map for reform. Last month we started actioning and progressing the future state model. We started designing our new exams. By the end of the year, the new online exams will be in place. By January, the new case management system for building enhancements will start stage 1. Stage 2 will be in March. Stage one for plumbing for our case management system will start in May. All exams will be online in June except for those small number where it's not practical. And by October, the final part of the case management system for plumbing enhancements will be introduced. We're still very much in our learning phase as we revamp everything, based on lots of information that we've gathered, industry information, staff information, practitioner information, applicant feedback, and watch this space. It's a fantastic opportunity that we've got to really revamp this licensing and registration area. But just in closing, we need everybody to come on board and that means the industry, the practitioners themselves, etc. Thank you very much.