Equipping Trainers: ASQA Standards for Quality Training Resources and Facilities

Introduction

Are you worried about the quality of your RTO’s training resources? Do your Trainers struggle to deliver high-quality sessions to learners? Are you thinking if your training resources and facilities are ASQA approved? All these questions are valid as RTOs maintain VET programs’ integrity through their delivery.

In this blog, we will be discussing ASQA’s standards for quality training resources and facilities. This will help your RTO and its trainers provide the best quality learning and assessments compliant with ASQA Standards.

Let us start by answering some key questions.

Who is ASQA? What is the relationship between ASQA and Standards? What is the purpose of the standards?

ASQA stands for Australian Skills Quality Authority. They are a national governing body for Vocational Education and Training Courses in Australia.

The VET Regulator’s Standards are called the Standards for VET Regulators 2015. These standards mandate ASQA to implement risk-based approaches to assist, manage and regulate Registered Training Organisations.

The purpose or aim of the Standards is to create a workforce that has VET qualifications which match the level of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). To achieve this goal the Standards, regulate nationally certified courses that meet the expectations of the government, community, new ventures, and existing high demands of the industry. The courses should prepare learners with VET qualifications that align with the requirements of national quality assurance.

So, RTOS must develop and provide trainers and assessors with quality RTO training resources and facilities.

ASQA has issued a User’s Guide to the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015. It guides RTOs to apply the Standards for RTOs 2015.

Let us now look at what are the ASQA Standards for quality RTO training resources and facilities.

RTO Training Resources and User’s Guide to the Standards for Registered Training Organisations for RTO 2015.

The User’s Guide is divided into different Chapters and Clauses. We will be only focussing on Chapters and Clauses that are relevant to develop quality RTO training resources and facilities.

We will start with the Standard 1 of the User’s Guide:

Standard 1 state Registered Training Organisations must develop and implement those approaches and actions that meet the learner’s needs and industry demands while following the Training Package requirements.

The RTOs must always meet the requirements of the VET qualifications on their scope of registration to be compliant with ASQA Standards.

The Training resources form a basis and act as a leeway to ASQA compliance whilst enabling learners to gather enough expertise to grow their careers.

1.3 of the User’s Guide adds the list of requirements for training and assessment planning, that need to be uniform across an RTO’s entire scope of registration.

1. An RTO must employ enough trainers and assessors to deliver training and assessment.
2. The learners can learn fully from the training and support resources to be able to qualify for assessment and achieve a VET qualification.
3. All the learning resources(offline/online) are compliant with a unit of competency mentioned in their respective Training Packages. These learning resources are easy for learners to access and are available through multiple modes of delivery.
4. All and any form of equipment and facilities (physical/ virtual) are capable to accommodate and facilitate learners’ training and assessment.

These requirements are the North Star for training and assessment planning. All Registered Training Organisations strategise their training and assessment development resources following the above-mentioned requirements to stay compliant with National Vocational Education.

For further explanation, we will now discuss another chapter of the User’s Guide. The User’s Guide to RTO Standards 2015 has given guidelines for the same in Chapter 4(Training and Assessment). The chapter lays in detail all the requirements for RTOs to seamlessly execute their training and assessment planning. We will discuss how the training and assessment planning is executed here

ASQA must meet the demands and needs of learners, so it consults learners on what they needed.

According to consultation with the learners ASQA has found out that:

• Learners want their trainers and assessors to be learned and professional in their respective subjects and industry.
• Learners want a sufficient amount of training to practise and perform their skills in assessments and an actual workplace.
• Learners have easy access to high-quality learning resources and supporting material irrespective of the mode of delivery. And they have access to equipped facilities that support the learning material and their qualifications.
• Learners want all and every assessment activity (offline/online) to be fair, detailed and supported with valuable feedback from the assessors.

It is clear from these points that ASQA Standards and learner’s needs reflect each other and an RTO aiming to comply with ASQA will equip its trainers with quality training resources and facilities.

Now, let us look at the steps RTOs should take to provide quality in its training and support services, other resources, and facilities as well as workplace training and assessments.

RTOs primarily should provide easy and free access to all their students including disadvantaged learners promoting inclusivity. They should provide access to contextualised educational resources, support services and facilities. The mode of delivery or delivery location might be online or blended or offline the resources and delivery should meet the demands of the learners and the Training Package. If the RTOs do not possess the required resources or facilities they should purchase, rent, or lease them. If that is not possible the RTOs should make other arrangements for better accessibility.

(Note- If the RTOs have any limitations regarding training and assessment, the students must be informed in their pre-enrolment. This would help students to make informed decisions about RTOs and courses aligning with their needs.)

Regarding work placements and assessments, RTOs might have many resources available to them but in case of non-availability, they should inform about those gaps.

RTOs should inform adequately concerned employers and supervisors about details related to training and assessments (For example- A list of things for observation for observers, Record book with criteria for performance)

RTOs should develop a method to find the best work sites for work placements and workplace assessments.

RTOs should also inform the concerned employers of a list of equipment and facilities. They should also know the job tasks (in different contexts) to achieve units of competency.

RTOs Should form third party arrangements when they do not have sufficient training and assessment materials, resources, and facilities. The third-party agreement should clearly state the list of resources, materials, and facilities along with the methods and processes that the third party would use to conduct the tasks.

These steps will provide a step-by-step action plan to RTOs for delivering their training and assessment. These steps cover the necessary measures RTOs should take when they are making third-party agreements and when they are executing their own training and assessment strategies. Apart from this RTO sometimes require specialist resources or facilities to reach competency levels while delivering VET certified courses. Standard 10.14 in the User’s Guide to RTO Standards 2015 explains specialist facilities and resources.

Let us look at them now.

Specialist Facilities and Resources

Standard 10.14 demands RTOs to specify their list of specialist facilities and resources. RTOs should also enlist the eligibility criteria needed for the specialist trainers and assessors to deliver the qualifications. The requirements must follow specifications from the User’s Guide to RTO Standards 2015. If the RTOs want to give out generic criteria, they may do so using the information mentioned in Section B: 6.2 and 7.2 from the National course document template.

How do RTOs decide what can be specialist facilities and resources?

The specialist facilities and resources are decided by major stakeholders while developing the qualification and units of competency. These specialist facilities and resources are relevant to either the implementation guide or the Training Package.

Section B: 6.2 states that “The eligibility criteria for assessors conducting or observing one or any assessment should comply with requirements stated in the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015.”
Section B: 7.2 – All delivery must be undertaken by trainers who meet the requirements stated to apply under the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015.

Conclusion

RTOs shoulder the career growth of the country and student experience with their high-quality training and latest resources. As we saw in the blog, ASQA through its risk-based approach and User’s Guide to RTO Standards 2015 has laid out all requirements that truly reflect learners’ needs. If you are an RTO, you must develop education resources and assessment resources that truly reflect these Standards for training. Equipping your trainers with quality training resources and facilities that comply with ASQA standards will definitely enhance your course standards.

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