Heavy penalty for bogus qualification

A former trainer has been ordered to pay $120,000 for providing her employer with 11 bogus vocational education and training (VET) qualifications, providing another two bogus qualifications to a co-worker and submitting false qualifications to the national regulator as proof of her competency.

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) successfully obtained declarations from the Federal Court that Synthia Dee M Restar of Beecroft, New South Wales, fabricated the qualifications in contravention of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011.

Between January 2012 and April 2014, Ms Restar fabricated qualifications in aged care, disability and business management in her own name and provided each to her employer as legitimate qualifications. She also provided three of the bogus qualifications to an ASQA auditor in support of an application to become a registered training organisation (RTO).

Ms Restar also fabricated two aged care qualifications for a co-worker and falsely represented those qualifications to be legitimate.

ASQA Chief Commissioner Chris Robinson said the bogus qualifications were uncovered during an ASQA investigation.

“As a result of this investigation, ASQA cancelled the registration of the RTO in question and used the powers available to it to pursue Ms Restar for her wrongdoing,” Mr Robinson said.

Mr Robinson said ASQA had been building its investigative capabilities during the past 18 months.

ASQA is determined to use the powers available to it to ensure learners are getting high quality training and assessment which provides them with the skills that employers are looking for.

The authority has close to 100 officers – including many with specialist investigative skills and experience – who are applying regulatory scrutiny to RTOs across Australia each and every day.

“ASQA will continue to target its resources at RTOs providing poor quality training and seek to remove them from the sector and, where appropriate, seek criminal or civil prosecutions.”

For more Information, visit ASQA’s website: http://www.asqa.gov.au/news/3083/heavy-penalty-for-bogus-qualification.html

August 27, 2018 ASQA, Higher Education, News, RTO, VET Sector Comments Off on Heavy penalty for bogus qualification

Vocational education and training courses behind significant drop of crime rate.

Vocational education and training courses have been linked to a significant drop in Victoria’s crime rates by University of Melbourne economists. They believe the benefits of the controversial education reforms have been overlooked.

“What has been missing is that these reforms did increase access to publicly funded training and that has had positive flow on effects,” report co-author Cain Polidano from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research said.

The paper – A Pathway to the Straight and Narrow – revealed a boost in enrolments was associated with a 12.8 per cent decline in the drug crime rate, an 11.3 per cent drop in property crime and a 4.5 per cent reduction in assaults and other crimes against the person. It compared Victoria to New South Wales, where enrolments remained stable.

The academics focused on the crime rate in Victoria between 2010 and 2013, which coincided with a 75 per cent increase in school leavers enrolled in TAFEs and private colleges.

This followed Victoria becoming the first state to introduce a demand-driven model, with the former Brumby government rolling out a voucher scheme that let students enrol in the course of their choice, including at private colleges.

It estimated that for every dollar spent expanding VET in Victoria, the community saved 18 cents by avoiding crime costs.

“Given the large cost to the community of drug crimes, including lost productivity, health and rehabilitation costs, this represents an important saving to the community,” the paper said.

Vocational education and training had the biggest impact on students aged 26 and above, and steered more females away from crime than men, it said.

It also improved the employment prospects of criminals, gave more structure to the lives of people who could otherwise be vulnerable to drug abuse, and “raised their social status, self-esteem, well-being and life outlook”.

“Education is not the silver bullet but it certainly helps,” Dr Polidano said.

Dr Polidano said his work provided the first empirical evidence of the crime-reducing effects of post-secondary vocational education and training.

It comes at an interesting time, as the federal government redesigns the scandal-plagued VET FEE-HELP student loan scheme.

The Victorian government has also cracked down on rogue providers. Figures released on Monday revealed a 13.2 per cent drop in VET student enrolments in the state in the past year.

Jesuit Social Services chief executive Julie Edwards said that only 5 to 7 per cent of Victorian prisoners had completed year 12.

The organisation has set up a community college to help prisoners develop basic literacy and numeracy skills as they cycle in and out of the justice system. These skills help them transition into mainstream TAFE providers, she said.

“We are talking about people who have missed out on a lot of school, and therefore need to catch up.”

She said education gave these people confidence, a sense of identity and connection and could lead to employment or volunteering work.

Reference: The Age (Australia)

August 27, 2018 Higher Education, News, VET Sector Comments Off on Vocational education and training courses behind significant drop of crime rate.

The 2016-17 Skilled Occupations List (SOL)

2016-17 Skilled Occupations List (SOL) has been registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. The review of the SOL was conducted by the Department of Education and Training.

The SOL identifies occupations that would benefit from independent skilled migration for the purpose of meeting the medium to long-term skill needs of the Australian economy, where such needs may not be more appropriately met by sponsored migration programs or up-skilling Australians.

August 27, 2018 Immigration, News, Others, VET Sector Comments Off on The 2016-17 Skilled Occupations List (SOL)

Private students to be included in national student survey

For the first time, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research’s (NCVER), major survey of VET students will include fee-paying students at private colleges.

Over coming weeks around 220,000 students will be asked about their recent training experience as part of the Student Outcomes Survey.

NCVER Managing Director Dr Craig Fowler said that, to date, only students who studied with government providers, such as TAFE, or those whose training was funded by governments were included in the survey.

“Now we’re also asking students who paid their own way to rate their training too. This will give us a better idea of how the sector is performing,” he said.

Results from the survey will be available in late 2016.

August 27, 2018 Higher Education, News, Others, VET Sector Comments Off on Private students to be included in national student survey

ASQA News 14-Aug-2018

ASQA given additional powers to seek civil penalties and issue infringement notices 

On 12 July 2018, the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC made the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Regulations 2018(NVR Regulation Amendment 2018).

The NVR Regulation Amendment 2018 allows ASQA to seek civil penalties for breaches of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (the Standards), even in cases where a provider has since rectified that breach.

This legislative change enhances ASQA’s capacity to effectively support the quality of the VET sector by providing an additional mechanism to protect students from poor-quality providers.

ELICOS course template now available 

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has developed a course proposal template for use by providers applying to register English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) on the Commonwealth Register for Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).

ASQA has developed this template in response to feedback from providers seeking guidance and a consistent format for providing evidence to demonstrate compliance against ‘Standard C1—Mandatory requirements for course applications’ of the ELICOS Standards 2018.

The use of this template is strongly recommended but not mandatory.

Cancellation of registration as a provider of vocational education and training (VET) services:

Rejection of application to renew registration as a provider of VET services:

Extension to transition period for Advanced Diploma, Diploma of Accounting qualifications

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has approved an extension to the transition period for the FNS50215 Diploma of Accounting and FNS60215 Advanced Diploma of Accounting.

The qualifications were superseded in February 2018 by the FNS50217 Diploma of Accounting and FNS60217 Advanced Diploma of Accounting, which are not equivalent. As a result, current learners were initially given until 12 February 2019 to complete their training and assessment.

However, learners transitioning to the replacement qualifications must meet additional entry requirements. This would genuinely disadvantage any learners in the superseded qualifications who are unable to complete the qualifications by 12 February 2019.

As such, ASQA has agreed to an extended training, assessment and certification issuance period for these qualifications, which will end on 12 February 2020.

For more information, please visit ASQA’s websitehttps://www.asqa.gov.au/news-publications/news

August 14, 2018 ASQA, News, RTO, VET Sector Comments Off on ASQA News 14-Aug-2018

The Difference Between Compliance and Quality Assurance in the RTO space (Part 2)

When we look at the current Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015, the clauses relevant to Registered Training Organisations’ regulatory compliance, the reporting and governance practice, they all clearly underpin good management practices and effective compliance control procedures—and, as a result, the effective functioning and sustainability of RTOs.

These Standards support RTOs to provide high-quality student experiences and learning outcomes.

Under the Standards, RTOs are responsible for:

  • Ensuring authorised Executive Officers and High Managerial Agents meet the Fit and Proper Person requirements and are vested with sufficient authority to ensure the RTO complies with the RTO Standards at all times (clause 7.1)
  • Satisfying financial viability risk assessment: Your RTO is required to present an acceptable level of financial viability risk at all times (this includes any parent entities). ASQA assesses each RTO’s financial viability risk to evaluate the likelihood of business continuity and the RTO’s capacity to achieve quality outcomes, as outlined in the Financial Viability Risk Assessment Requirements 2011. ASQA considers this against the potential for adverse consequences if your entity collapses or becomes unviable and makes a judgement about whether the level of risk is acceptable, unacceptable, or requires additional controls. To enable a preliminary financial viability risk assessment, the initial registration application requires the applicant to provide:
    • a range of financial sustainability information
    • independent certification.

ASQA may also require your RTO to undergo a financial viability risk assessment at any other time. (clause 7.2)

  • Compliance and reporting: The RTO must make sure it complies with the SRTO’s 2015, other Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation and regulatory requirements relevant to its operations, at all times, including where services are being delivered on its behalf. The RTO is required to provide an annual declaration on compliance to confirm whether it:
    1. currently meets the requirements of the Standards across all its scope of registration and has met the requirements of the Standards for all AQF [Australian Qualifications Framework] certification documentation it has issued in the previous 12 months.
    2. has training and assessment strategies and practices in place that ensure that all current and prospective learners will be trained and assessed in accordance with the requirements of the Standards.

RTOs are also required to make sure its staff and clients are informed of any changes to legislative and regulatory requirements that affect the services delivered. (clauses 2.1 and 8.4 to 8.6)

  • Recording, monitoring and reporting third-party arrangements: All third-party arrangements must have a written agreement, the RTO must have sufficient strategies and resources to systematically monitor any services delivered on its behalf, and notifies the Regulator:
  1. of any written agreement entered into under clause 2.3 for the delivery of services on its behalf within 30 calendar days of that agreement being entered into or prior to the obligations under the agreement taking effect, whichever occurs first, and
  2. within 30 calendar days of the agreement coming to an end.  (clauses 2.3, 2.4 and 8.3)
  • Holding public liability insurance: RTOs are responsible for ensuring they hold public liability insurance throughout their registration period. Your RTO must hold public liability insurance to cover all training and/or assessment activities it provides as an RTO. (clause 7.4)
  • Meeting Data Provision Requirements:

RTOs are responsible for providing accurate information about their performance and governance in accordance with clause 7.5.

The Data Provision Requirements outline information that your RTO is required to submit. Apart from information required with applications, this falls generally into two categories:

Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) data

Quality Indicator Data.

Data such as national training activity is very important—this informs decision-making about policies and funding for the national VET system and allows measurement of the system’s performance.

The quality indicator data provides information for RTOs about their students’ experiences of their services and can be used to continuously improve the quality of the training for students and employers. (clause 7.5)

Providing requested information to ASQA:

RTOs are responsible for:

  • Cooperating with ASQA
  • Ensuring any third party delivering services on the RTO’s behalf is required to cooperate with ASQA.

Your RTO and any third parties delivering services on your behalf must cooperate with ASQA in responding to requests for information, undergoing audits and managing records. The information you and third parties provide to ASQA must be accurate, truthful and authentic. Any documentation provided at audit must be an accurate representation of your RTO’s practices.

You must notify ASQA within 90 days of the following:

  • Changes to executive officers or high managerial agents
  • Changes to financial administration status (e.g. liquidators being appointed)
  • Changes to legal name or type of legal entity
  • Changes to ownership, directorship or control (including changes to parent entities)
  • Significant mergers or associations with other RTOs
  • Registration (or application) with other education regulators (e.g. higher education provider with the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency)
  • Anything that may affect the fit and proper person status of an influential representative of the RTO
  • Changes to any fundamental funding/revenue source (e.g. access to or loss of government funding contract allocation)
  • Changes to the RTO’s business strategy (e.g. more to online delivery, assessment-only delivery, offshore delivery)
  • Delivery to apprentices or trainees employed under a training contract
  • Any other significant event.

(clauses 8.1 and 8.2).

In the next post we will look into the “quality assurance” requirements and obligations for your RTO.

To be continued…

August 7, 2018 ASQA, News, RTO, VET Sector Comments Off on The Difference Between Compliance and Quality Assurance in the RTO space (Part 2)

The Difference Between Compliance And Quality Assurance in the RTO space

When you plan to run a registered training organisation (RTO), you may find it difficult to know:

  • the complete regulatory framework and environment 
  • your legal obligations and
  • everything else required to run a successful, compliant Registered Training Organisation.

Take compliance and quality assurance, for example, you may have heard about them, but do you know what they mean?

What is compliance?

Numerous legislation, regulations and guidelines in Australia regulate the way we run an RTO such as:

  • Australian Consumer Law (ACL),
  • the Racial Discrimination Act 1975,
  • the Sex Discrimination Act 1984,
  • the Disability Discrimination Act 1992,
  • the Age Discrimination Act 2004,
  • the Child Protection Act 1999,
  • the Work Health and Safety Act 2011,
  • the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986,
  • the Privacy Act 1988 and
  • the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011. 

This is not an exhaustive list. These legislation, regulations and guidelines specify the framework and the obligations to operate an RTO.

A number of these obligations are applicable on all business entities that operates within Australia and are overseen by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The law does not allow you to be an officeholder or manage a company (without court consent) if:

  • you are currently bankrupt
  • you are still subject to a personal insolvency agreement or composition under the Bankruptcy Act 1966, or
  • have been convicted of offences like fraud or breaching your duties as an officeholder.

If you are member of ACPET or other industry bodies, they may also have codes of conduct and specific guidelines that you must follow to continue to be a member. These requirements and obligations come under “compliance”. Failing to meet all state and federal guidelines for compliance can result in serious consequences for your registered training organisation (RTO). Along with altering your company’s legal status, which may leave you vulnerable to lawsuits, government agencies may conduct audits, enact fines or even dissolve your business entirely. 

What is quality assurance?

Standard 2 of the SRTOs 2015 (Standards for Registered Training Organisations, 2015) states that the operations of the RTO must be quality assured. Quality assurance refers to “meeting and delivering intended performance according to certain benchmarking standards”.

Let’s look at Standard 2:  Clause 2.1 – 2.4

2.1 The RTO ensures it complies with these Standards at all times, including where services are being delivered on its behalf. This applies to all operations of and RTO within its scope of registration. 

2.2 The RTO:

  • Systematically monitors the RTO’s training and assessment strategies and practices to ensure ongoing compliance with Standard 1; and
  • Systematically evaluates and uses outcomes of the evaluation to continually improve the RTO’s training and assessment strategies and practices. Evaluation information includes but is not limited to quality/performance indicator data collected under Clause 7.5, validation outcomes, client, trainer and assessor feedback and complaints and appeals.

2.3 The RTO ensures that where services are provided on its behalf by a third party the provision of those services is the subject of a written agreement. 

2.4 The RTO has sufficient strategies and resources to systematically monitor any services delivered on its behalf, and uses these to ensure that the services delivered comply with these Standards at all times

While Standard 2 of SRTOs 2015 addresses the key client criteria of quality training and assessment strategies and practices there are many other quality considerations that make up a quality-assured RTO business.
Every RTO must have a system (often referred to as a ‘business or quality management system’) to manage its operations. The system should provide the basis for quality assuring a business.

Quality assurance is maintained by ensuring that:

  • The organisation understands the relationship and differences between Quality Management systems, Quality standards and Regulatory standards.
  • Understand how a properly implemented business (quality) management system can help improve fundamental business performance well beyond just meeting compliance/regulatory requirements
  • Use quality assurance techniques to help review their existing system and processes
  • Revitalise their existing quality management system
  • Organisation participate in professional networking with colleagues across RTOs and wider industry.

To be continued…

July 12, 2018 ASQA, News, RTO, VET Sector Comments Off on The Difference Between Compliance And Quality Assurance in the RTO space

ASQA News 12-Jul-2018

Definition of Enterprise RTOs updated

ASQA has recently updated their guide for the Application of Initial Registration with changes taking effect as of the 1st of July, 2018.  You can find this and download for your own reference here:
https://www.asqa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3521/f/application_guide_-_application_for_initial_registration.pdf?v=1525230496

Once of the changes noted, has been to the definition of an Enterprise RTO.  ASQA now deem an Enterprise RTO to be:
 
“An enterprise or the training function or department of an enterprise that is registered to provide nationally recognised training. Training is delivered only to its employees. 

This includes, for example: 

Enterprise—government (for example, Department of Defence) 
Enterprise—non-government (for example, Woolworths, Qantas)”

Issuance of false qualifications leads to $31,400 penalty
A Queensland man who misled three individuals into providing payment for false qualifications has been ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty of $31,400.

On 5 July 2018, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) successfully obtained a declaration from the Federal Court that Scott Andrew Jones created false qualifications concerning “Engineering—Fabrication Trade”, in the names of three different people, and provided those documents for a fee.
 
The court found that Mr Jones falsely represented to these individuals that each qualification was a legitimate vocational education and training (VET) qualification issued by a registered training organisation (RTO).
 
ASQA Chief Commissioner Mark Paterson said ASQA began investigating Mr Jones following a complaint.
 
“The investigation identified that Mr Jones had offered to assist work colleagues by enrolling them with TAFE Queensland to seek recognition of prior learning for engineering qualifications. Mr Jones took money from these individuals and then copied a legitimate qualification in order to issue documentation, which he purported to be from TAFE Queensland, to his colleagues. 
 

As a result of its investigation, ASQA commenced a civil prosecution against Mr Jones.

Read more
July 12, 2018 ASQA, News, RTO, VET Sector Comments Off on ASQA News 12-Jul-2018

Reporting obligations for Registered Training Organisations

Under the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015, all RTOs are obliged to provide accurate and complete data. 
 

All ASQA-registered training organisations RTO must meet mandatory annual data submission requirements, including:

  • Submitting the annual declaration on compliance to ASQA
  • Submitting total VET activity (TVA) data, including the reporting of unique student identifier (USI) data.

There is a limited number of exemptions for some short courses and eligible RTOs, however, if you are delivering training under a funding agreement you are required to report all of your contracted delivery to the relevant Department. 
 

Organisations are, therefore, responsible for a number of reporting requirements under the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015. The reporting requirements include:

The annual declaration on compliance

The Standards require each RTO to provide ASQA with an annual declaration on their RTO’s compliance.
The annual declaration must be signed by the principal executive officer/chief executive officer registered with ASQA as listed on training.gov.au.  


If you are the RTO CEO or PEO, ASQA will notify you by email of your obligation to complete the declaration and provide you with a link to the online form. You can check your details on training.gov.au to ensure that ASQA has access to your current email address to ensure you receive this invitation.


When you submit the declaration, you are confirming to ASQA that you:

  • Systematically monitor your RTO’s compliance
  • Implement preventive and corrective actions where considered necessary.

The declaration also asks you to confirm that records pertaining to your RTO, as reflected on training.gov.au, are accurate and up to date.

 

Reporting requirement: Total VET Activity (AVETMISS and USI) 

The Australian Vocational Education Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) for VET Providers is a national data standard that ensures the consistent and accurate capture of VET information about students, their courses, units of activity, and qualifications completed. It provides the mechanism for national reporting of VET activity. 


Provides information through NCVER to Industry stakeholders about: 

  • Statistical information captured for national reporting 
  • Unique Student Identifier and all award issuance activity conducted in the previous year

Reporting requirement: Quality Indicators 

These include learner and employer survey data to collect evidence-based and outcome-focussed continuous quality improvement, and assist the VET Regulator to assess the risk of an RTO’s operations:

Other information you must submit:

You must collect AVETMISS-compliant records for all students, and for all competency enrolments and outcomes achieved, throughout the calendar year.

Early in the following year, you must report this data to the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) unless you have previously done so through existing contractual arrangements.

RTOs should refer to NCVER’s publications AVETMISS 7.0 VET Provider Collection Specifications and AVETMISS data element definitions which describe the AVETMISS data to be collected.

There are a number of student management systems that can record and produce AVETMISS data files for reporting. A register of data entry tools and student management systems is available on the NCVER website.

NCVER has developed a free AVETMISS data entry tool for RTOs with less than 100 students and an AVETMISS validation software for RTOs to validate their data before submission. Both tools are available on the NCVER website.

For further information, and a range of fact sheets, about Total VET Activity data, please see the:

Visit ASQA website for more information  https://www.asqa.gov.au/vet-registration/meet-data-provision-requirements

July 12, 2018 ASQA, News, RTO, VET Sector Comments Off on Reporting obligations for Registered Training Organisations

Record breaking number of overseas students are selecting Australia as their education destination

Figures released recently showed a 12% increase in the number of foreign students in Australia compared to the same period last year, more than 500,000 for the year, according to new government figures. 

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said Australia has taken in some 510,000 international students from over 190 countries this year. 

The number of Nepalese students jumped 54%, while there was a 29% increase in students from Colombia.

The number of Brazilian students bound for Tasmania more than tripled, and Western Australia saw a one-third jump in its number of Bhutanese student arrivals.

China makes up the largest proportion of students from a single country at 31%, followed by India, Nepal and Malaysia at 12, 5 and 4% respectively.

Mr Birmingham said international students are extremely valuable to Australia.

“International education is vital to the people-to-people links and knowledge sharing between Australia and the rest of the world,” he said.


“Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown the value of international education jumped 22% from 2016 to $32.2 billion last year.” 

Universities Australia’s chief executive Belinda Robinson said the growth in the international student market reflected the quality that was on offer.

“We have almost doubled enrolments over the past decade and built international education into Australia’s third-largest export sector,” Ms Robinson said.

“This supports Australian communities, jobs, regional economies and our relationships in the world.

“These half a million international students will become tomorrow’s global leaders, returning home as informal ambassadors for Australia and extending our nation’s worldwide networks in business, diplomacy and politics.”

The number accounts for students enrolled in higher education, vocational education and training (VET), Schools, English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) and non-award sectors.

June 8, 2018 Higher Education, News, VET Sector Comments Off on Record breaking number of overseas students are selecting Australia as their education destination

VET Industry News 8-Jun-2018

ASQA is increasing scrutiny on new applications for registration from 1 July 2018. Vocational education and training (VET) and the education of overseas students make a significant contribution to Australia’s economy. More than four million people undertake VET qualifications in Australia each year and the quality of the training sector has a direct impact on students, the workforce and the Australian community. To further protect the quality and reputation of the VET and international education sectors, from 1 July 2018, ASQA will apply even greater scrutiny to all applications to establish new training providers. 

Read more information from ASQA’s website Please find attached the latest presentation by Compliance and Quality Assurance on the changes by the regulatory body.

Apprentice and trainee commencements are up

The latest apprentice and trainee data shows there were 35 945 commencements in the December 2017 quarter, up 7.6% compared with the same quarter in 2016.

Trade commencements increased by 9.3% in Dec 2017, with the main increases seen in automotive and engineering (up 20.9%) and construction (up 12.3%).

However, completions decreased by 8.4% in the Dec 2017 quarter to 25 105 when compared with Dec 2016.

To find out more, view the full report and data slicer on our Portal.

A range of related products, including the estimates review dashboard and the apprentice and trainee outcomes data visualisation, are also available.

How satisfied are our international VET students?

New data reveals 85.3% of international students who graduated from an onshore Australian vocational education and training (VET) program in 2016 were satisfied with the overall quality of their training. Read more information

Download Presentation

June 8, 2018 News, VET Industry News, VET Sector Comments Off on VET Industry News 8-Jun-2018

Industry Expert reveals lessons learnt from 65+ ASQA Audits

Sukh Sandhu’s Interview conducted by EduTemps

During his 20 years in the VET and Higher Education sector, Sukh Sandhu has witnessed a radical shift in compliance landscape. Here he shares his experience on how VET organisations can adapt and thrive in a challenging environment.

Few industry professionals have seen the revolution in VET compliance as closely as Sukh Sandhu. Over a 20-year career in the sector he has worked with a myriad of national and international organisations, including Navitas, MIT, Franklin Scholar, The Malka Group, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne Institute of Technology, Federation University, Gowrie Victoria, TAFE Queensland, Webcom Technologies USA and a number of other educational institutions, universities and RTO’s. He has even worked within Australian Government’s regulatory body ASQA, which served to deepen further his understanding of how RTO’s can successfully navigate the compliance minefield. With 65 regulatory audits and a 100% compliance record under his belt, it’s little wonder that his services are in hot demand. 

The compliance revolution

We began by asking Sukh to outline the key changes he has seen in the compliance environment over his career.

“The changes have certainly been profound. At the core, we have seen ASQA come in as the regulator and together with other government departments, the VET sector is now more closely scrutinised than ever before. At the same time, the sector has become a lot more competitive, with RTOs challenging TAFEs, as well as each other for market share.”

Sukh expanded on major shifts he has witnessed.

“Reforms have been transformative in terms of industry responsiveness, quality and regulations, data and customer information and scrutiny of who is a fit and proper person, to name just a few. Government funding is now more targeted and efficient too and we have seen a much greater degree of collaboration and information sharing between regulatory bodies and government departments.”

“The VET sector has experienced tremendous growth in the number of providers. There are now around 4500+ providers, and around 40% of them have less than 100 students, which is a very different scenario from days gone by. Along with this growth, there has been the collapse of some major organisations, which has been a real wakeup call for the industry.”

The good, the bad and the ugly

In his broad experience, he has certainly seen the best and the worst of the industry.

“It’s true that a few bad apples have tarnished the VET sector in some respects, but there has been a genuine desire to weed out the bad ones, and the regulator has continually updated their approach. There has been a succession of legislative changes introduced since the early 2000’s and along with this the improved collaboration between the regulatory bodies. This has helped clean up a lot of the practices which were dragging down the sector’s reputation.”

Identifying the gaps

So for those RTOs who want to thrive in this regulated environment, what does Sukh see as the main areas to be addressed?

“In my experience, the key areas are assessment and training resources and the strengthening of the capability of trainers and assessors. RTOs must pay particular attention to their trainers’ VET qualifications, their industry currency and their VET currency because this is where major non-compliance issues can emerge. Then there are issues such as short course duration, validation not being done correctly and training assessment strategies and practices not being given proper consideration.”

An active regulatory regime

Sukh observed that ASQA had taken a very proactive approach in enforcing regulations in recent years.

“ASQA has imposed a lot of sanctions on those operators who fail to maintain standards. They are determined to pursue their agenda to maintain the quality of providers in the market and that means RTOs need to be on top of their game.”

He went on to highlight the focus placed on international providers.

“ASQA is looking at the international market in their 2017-2018 regulatory strategy, and this is having an impact. International education is a huge export market worth $28.6 billion a year, and these international students can be very vulnerable.”

Sukh went on to emphasise some other areas in which RTOs must be vigilant.

“There is an overall focus on literacy, language and numeracy and ASQA is reviewing providers who deliver offshore courses. They are looking at how they market their qualifications, how they give students information at each stage of the process and how the agreements are structured. There is also scrutiny on how education agents are approved and how they are reviewed, trained and managed.”

So what advice would he give to an RTO that has a re-registration audit scheduled within the next 12 months?

“RTOs should focus on all the regulatory requirements, SRTOs clauses and standards for domestic and international students, the National code and ESOS for International students, The National standards for ELICOS providers and courses (ELICOS Standards) for organisations delivering ELICOS courses, etc. The main areas of concern will be training, and assessment resources, trainer quality, marketing practices including their website, validation of resources, industry consultation, policies and procedures for governance, administration and operations, training and assessment strategies and the pre-training and enrolment processes are the main areas that need close attention.”

A man on a mission

Sukh’s commitment to the industry stems from a deeply held belief on how vital it is in Australia’s shift toward tertiary and service industries.

“The VET sector is vital for our economy. It plays a really significant role in the job market, by giving students an edge in a competitive market, through the development of skills and clear progression routes. I think we all have a responsibility to ensure that students’ best interests are served, and I feel that the work I do really does help RTOs to provide a quality service that equips students well, at the same times as developing the organisation’s effectiveness and prosperity.”

Read More here…

Tags:vet sectorCompliance

May 11, 2018 ASQA, Audits, News, RTO, VET Sector Comments Off on Industry Expert reveals lessons learnt from 65+ ASQA Audits

VET student loans to support only genuine students.

The education minister, Simon Birmingham, has revealed strict new rules for courses and training organisations in the VET student loans program that will penalise colleges with less than 75% pass rates by restricting enrolments. 

The Department of Education expects the reforms, which begin at the start of next year, to remove about a third of all private colleges from access to the loans scheme. The new criteria – which only provides provisional approval – could cut eligibility completely for more than 60 colleges whose students are currently approved under the existing system for access to loans. And colleges with higher pass rates and better results will be able to enrol more students who will be covered by government loans. 

For private colleges:

  • If the pass rate of the approved course is 75% and above, the college will be able to enrol 10% more students than their existing numbers in that course. 
  • If the pass rate of the approved course is between 50-75%, the college will be able to enrol 25% less students than their existing number in that course.
  • Courses with a pass rate below 50% will not get access to loans.

Around 478 of the current 800 VET FEE-HELP courses will be excluded for the new student loan – which is due to come into effect from 1 January, 2017.

These subjects include diplomas in: musical theatre, journalism, mind body medicine, clinical hypnotherapy and creative arts in christian ministry, circus arts, facilitation, life coaching, butler service management and dance movement therapy.

Labelled “lifestyle courses” by the government, they had low enrolment rates and were unlikely to directly lead to employment.

Department of Education figures show that there are currently around 144,000 students enrolled in VET FEE-HELP course in Australia. Of those, about 7,000 (5%) will be affected by the changes to which courses are eligible for VET Student Loans

The government has left open a two week period for feedback and consultation to see if a case can or will be made that any of these courses would have strong employment outcomes.

One college that has already collapsed, the Australian Institute of Professional Education, had a course completion rate of just 1.3 per cent, court documents show.

Another big provider, Evocca College, had a course completion rate of 20.4 per cent last year, according to Education Department statistics, while its competitor Study Group had a completion rate of 27.9 per cent.

“These provisional approval requirements will ensure that high-quality vocational educa­tion providers can continue to delive­r courses that students and employers value while those providers apply for longer-term access­ to vocational education student loans,” the minister said.

While all public providers will be approved under new transition scheme, similar rules will apply to set public course caps except where public colleges have a course pass rate of below 50%. In the transition period, those colleges will be able to enrol students covered by loans but their cap will be cut in half.

Birmingham said the provisional rules were designed to reward providers who have high student completion rates and proven links to industry and business.

“These provisional approval requirements will ensure that high quality vocational education providers can continue to deliver courses that students and employers value while those providers apply for longer-term access to VET student loans.”

Public TAFEs with a course completion rate of below 50 per cent will still be allowed to enrol students into that course, but the number of enrolments will be halved compared with this year.

“Vocational education student loans will only support genuine students to undertake industry-linked and value-for-money courses at quality training providers,” Senator Birming­ham said.

Reference: 

The Australian 

November 17, 2016 Higher Education, News, VET Sector Comments Off on VET student loans to support only genuine students.

The new VET loan scheme to exclude shonky providers?

The new VET loan scheme to exclude shonky providers?

From 1 January 2017 VET FEE‑HELP will cease and VET Student Loans will commence. 

Tougher restrictions on eligible private college courses, loan caps and student engagement requirements are among the changes due to come into force in 2017. The new scheme will have a maximum $15,000 cap on loans, which is less than the typical price for, say, a diploma of nursing. The existing VET FEE-HELP scheme has no loan caps. Under the new system, courses will be sorted into bands with fees covered by the government capped at $5000, $10,000 or $15,000 depending on delivery costs. 

Public VET providers, including TAFEs, will automatically be able to offer the revamped commonwealth loans but all private providers will have to reapply to be eligible.

The government’s plans also include bans on using recruitment brokers or cold-calling potential students; requirements for students to log in to an online student loans portal to ensure they are active and legitimate and a much higher bar for providers that want to offer government loans, including examining their relationships with industry.

Senator Birmingham wants the new system of VET student loans in place by the start of next year.

If legislation passes the Senate, the new VET Student Loans program will start on January 1. The 144,000 students with existing VET FEE-HELP loans will be grandfathered to the end of 2017.

A compulsory review will be held after 12 months of the new scheme with the minister able to change the loan caps at any time during the first year. 

Do you have any questions regarding VET FEE‑HELP? Contact one of our consultants at 1800 266 160  to assist you with meeting your compliance and quality assurance requirements.

October 6, 2016 News, VET Sector Comments Off on The new VET loan scheme to exclude shonky providers?
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