Examination

CLAS Examination Policy and Procedures

The Community Language Allowance Scheme (CLAS) is a scheme that provides an allowance, additional to salary, for selected employees of New South Wales Government agencies that use a language other than English to communicate with clients, as part of their normal duties. One of the requirements to be entitled to an allowance is to pass the CLAS examination administered by the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW.

The allowance is superable and forms part of the officer’s annual taxable salary.

This book provides information on the policies and procedures of the Commission for the conduct of CLAS examination. Its aim is to assist agencies and candidates to understand the mechanics and processes of CLAS and help candidates in their preparation for the examination.

It is suggested that this book be referred to in conjunction with the Community Language Allowance Scheme Handbook published by the Commission on behalf of the NSW Government.

Policy

The Commission administers the CLAS examination in a professional manner. It ensures the examination material is relevant and meets industry standards and requirements. In doing so, the Commission contributes to the achievement of the NSW Government’s commitment to provide a world class service delivery by:

1. drawing on and utilising the language skills of NSW Government employees and
2. enabling people who speak a language other than English access to government programs and services

To ensure the examination maintains its quality and standard, the Commission undertakes to conduct a major review of the examination policy guidelines, material processes and procedures every three years.

Eligibility

Only employees nominated by their employing agency are eligible to sit the CLAS examination.

Timetable

The Commission normally conducts the CLAS examination once a year. The important dates relating to CLAS examination are:

• May
  Commission issues invitation to nominate for CLAS examination
• June
  Nominations close
• August
  CLAS examination
• August/September
  CLAS results forwarded to CLAS contact officers of each nominating agency
  CLAS contact officers inform candidates of the examination results
  Agencies commence payment of CLAS allowance to candidates who passed the examination
  Commission issues CLAS certificates to candidates who passed the CLAS examination

Nomination

Agencies are responsible for nominating employees for the CLAS examination. Nomination to a CLAS examination may be initiated by the agency or the employee.

The agency initiates nomination by reviewing the agency’s need for CLAS services and then determining the languages, locations and number of employees necessary to meet the client needs for CLAS assistance. This should lead to the calling of nominations testing by employees who meet these criteria.

An employee who is interested to sit the CLAS examination may also initiate the nomination by approaching the CLAS contact officer of the agency. The CLAS contact officer will then undertake the appropriate review of the agency’s need for CLAS services and, if the employee meets the agency’s criteria, organise the nomination of the employee to be tested.

Agencies should use the official CLAS Nomination Form when nominating employees to sit the CLAS examination. A separate nomination form is required for each candidate or for each language in which the candidate is being tested.

Nominations for the CLAS examination may be delivered or posted to the Commission, or emailed to clas@crc.nsw.gov.au

The candidate, if successful, is entitled to be paid the CLAS allowance by his or her agency.

Payment of Fees

The examination fee is payable by the nominating agency. An agency may choose to pay the examination fee with the nomination form or the Commission will invoice the agency after the examination. There may be circumstances when Commission will exercise its right to request payment of the examination fee prior to the examination. The schedule of fees is listed below.

The Commission will send a letter inviting the nominated employee as a candidate for the examination. The candidate is required to bring with him/her the Commissions's letter of invitation on the day of the examination together with identification that contains a photograph of the candidate.

Examiners

The Commission engages professional interpreters from its panel of NAATI accredited or recognised interpreters to conduct CLAS examinations. These interpreters are required to complete the CLAS Examiner Accreditation Course to ensure that appropriately trained professionals with the required expertise conduct CLAS examination. The Commission also implements a strict Code of Conduct for CLAS examiners.

Examination

The CLAS examination is a test of a candidate’s competency in assisting clients with routine inquiries in a language other than English. The actual examination takes around 20 to 25 minutes to complete.

The following describes the key competencies being tested in the CLAS examination and the format in which they are presented. In order to maintain the integrity of CLAS examination, the entire conversation during CLAS examination is recorded for future reference. This practice also assists in the review process in case of disputes.

Part 1: Ability to participate in a conversation in a semi formal context.
Part 1 involves dialogue with the examiner in the language being tested.
Duration: 3 minutes

Part 2: Ability to negotiate a complex or problematic spoken exchange.
Part 2 involves simulated role play with the examiner in the language being tested. A role play sheet will be provided to the candidate at the commencement of Part 2.
Duration: 6 minutes

Part 3: Ability to summarise the information contained in a brochure from English into the language being tested.
Candidate will be given two minutes preparation time. Candidate will be given a brochure written in English and will be asked to summarise a text from the brochure into the language being tested.
Duration: 5 minutes

Part 4: Ability to summarise the information contained in a brochure or other work related text from the language being tested into English.
Candidate will be given two minutes preparation time. Candidate will be given a brochure written in the language being tested and will be asked to summarise a text from the brochure into English.
Duration: 5 minutes

Part 5: Ability to read a text in the language being tested.
Candidate will be given one minute preparation time. Using the brochure written in the other language in Part 4, the examiner chooses a paragraph of about 50 words and asks the candidate to read it aloud.
Duration: 2 minutes

Languages for Examination

The Community Relations Commission conducts examinations for the Community Language Allowance Scheme in the languages listed below. The languages have been determined based on past CLAS demands. Languages other than those listed below may be requested for examinations and will attract an additional fee as indicated in the schedule of fees.

Arabic, Armenian, Assyrian, Auslan, Bosnian, Cantonese, Croatian, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Macedonian, Malaysian, Maltese, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Tamil, Tongan, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese

Examination Requirements

The examination is usually conducted at the Commission, Level 8, 175 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Candidates for the examination must adhere to the following requirements:

1. Be on time. Candidates for the CLAS examination must be at the test venue at least ten minutes before the scheduled time for the test. This allows time for your attendance to be noted and for last minute instructions. Late candidates will either be re-scheduled or cancelled, depending on the Commission’s examination timetable.
2. Identification. Candidates should bring with them as identification -
   1. the letter from the Commission inviting the candidate to sit for the examination and
   2. identification that contains the candidate’s photograph. Examples are a driver’s licence or a passport. Credit cards or Medicare cards are not acceptable as identification.
3. Candidates will be provided with all material required for the examination. Candidates will not be allowed to bring any belongings into the examination room and will be asked to leave bags and other belongings outside the examination room. This will assist in minimising distracting noise during the examination as more than one examination is conducted at the same time. The Commission will allocate a place where belongings of candidates can be left safely while sitting for the examination.

Assessment and notification of result

Trained CLAS examiners assess the performance of candidates based on a standard marking guide. CLAS examiners are required to complete the assessment immediately upon conclusion of the examination. The assessment result will be handed to the Commission’s CLAS examination officer immediately upon the conclusion of the examination. The Commission’s CLAS examination officer will advise the CLAS contact officer of the nominating agency in writing within four weeks of the conclusion of the CLAS examination period. Certificates of achievement of candidates who passed the CLAS will also be forwarded at this time.

The result will be either pass or fail.

The CLAS contact officer of the nominating agency is responsible for advising a CLAS candidate of the outcome of the examination.

Confidentiality

The result of the CLAS examination will be disclosed only to the candidate through the CLAS contact officer of the nominating agency. Likewise all tapes used in CLAS examinations, which contain a record of the dialogues between the candidate and the examiner, will be treated as confidential. This procedure is intended to protect the details of the test from unauthorised access.

Cancellation

A formal notice of cancellation from attending the CLAS examination is required from the nominating agency. A formal notice of cancellation should be received at the Commission 24 hours or more before the date of examination. The notice in writing may be sent to the Commission’s CLAS examination officer by mail or facsimile. The Commission will not issue an invoice for the cancellation if the formal notice of cancellation is received 24 hours in advance.

Where notice is received by the Commission less than twenty-four hours before the date of the examination, the nomination fee will be forfeited to cover administrative and associated costs.

In case of a cancellation by the Commission, an examination will be arranged within two months.

Information on outcome of the examination

Candidates who failed the examination may obtain information on the areas of the examination where they were unsuccessful. The cost of obtaining the information appears in the schedule of fees below. It is paid by the agency requesting the information on behalf of the candidate.

Information will be provided to the agency on the candidate’s linguistics and results in key competencies.

Candidates should be aware that this process provides no guarantee of the upgrading of the result to pass level.

The CLAS contact officer will be sent four reports on the candidate’s performance. They are:

1. Overall result
2. Details of performance
3. Key competencies in CLAS
4. Speech variety report

A candidate may request information on the result of the CLAS examination by completing the Request for Information on CLAS Examination Result form and submitting it to the agency’s CLAS contact officer. The CLAS contact officer must submit the form to the Commission together with payment within thirty (30) days of the date of advice of the result of the examination. It is therefore important that CLAS contact officers advise candidates of the result of the examination immediately upon receipt of the result from the Commission.

When the payment is received at the Commission, it will issue a receipt and confirmation of the request. The result will be sent to the CLAS contact officer within thirty (30) days of the date the Request for Review form was received by the Commission.

Re-mark of result of examination

If after receiving the reports the candidate is not satisfied with the result, the candidate may request the Commission to engage a third party to conduct a re-mark of the candidate’s examination result, using the cassette tape utilised during the examination. The result of a review by a third party is final. No further correspondence will be entered into by the Commission on the outcome of the review.

Schedule of fees

The CLAS examination is a service offered by the Commission for a fee. All fees are to be paid by cheque, made payable to the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW.

Contacts

The first contact point for employees are the CLAS contact officers of their respective agencies.

At the Commission, the contact for any requests for information regarding the CLAS examination program and its administration is the CLAS Examinations Officer. Contact details for the Commission can be found on the Contact CRC page.

Further information about CLAS can be found in the Community Language Allowance Scheme Handbook

Forms

The Commission has also developed standard forms relating to the CLAS examination.