In a recent ASQA session they provided infoprmation on the following areas that consistently come up in all of the intelligence gathering. Current risk areas (according to ASQA):
- Informing and protecting learners
- Amount of training
- Capability of trainers and assessors
So what can you do about number 1 informing and protecting learners? Provide to the students:
- information that specifies content, location, duration and timeframe of the training course.
- Information on how they can complain and appeal and what happens
- Any Entry requirements for them to get into the course
- Information on any cooling off periods for your RTO.
In addition it has been found that RTOs need to step up here:
- cost of training; not suggesting courses are free,
- equipment costs
- if there is any work placement
- Not enrolling students in a superseded qualification
- inform the students of the timeframe they need to complete the course.
- Where a course is developed specifically for an employer, you need to demonstrate the employer has disseminated the information to the students prior to training. (Thoughts as I write this – interesting trying to get evidence of this)
When you are considering setting up an RTO, RTO Mentor has RTO Systems that provide you with detail on all the areas. So if you are looking for a quick fix in the Policy and Procedure department, it is easy to purchase ones that are ready made, and can be tailored to suit your specific situation. Click here for more information.
The above information came with statistics of what they have been doing recently. Basically they have been very busy and placing resources across 7000 registration applications. These applications vary from initial RTO, to changes of scope and renewal of registration. That equates to around 27 applications per day! Along with the 170 Accreditation applications per year
ASQA says they have many queries from people wanting to set up RTOs.
So with all of this activity they are placed to show the areas of risk in having an RTO.
Next week’s blog will talk about number 2 the Amount of training.
