RTO Registration

Create the training business you have always wanted. We love helping people achieve their dreams to register their RTO.

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RTO Registration

Create the training business you have always wanted. We love helping people achieve their dreams to register their RTO.

Learn More

RTO Data Cloud

We have supplied AVETMISS compliant student management software for over 10 years. We are proud to introduce RTO Data Cloud.

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RTO Data Cloud

We have supplied AVETMISS compliant student management software for over 10 years. We are proud to introduce RTO Data Cloud.

Learn More

RTO Webinars

Get tuned-in to our pre-recorded webinars. Make Newbery Consulting part of your professional development plan. All webinars cost only $25.00. Watch at your convenience and receive your PD certificate the next day.

Learn More

RTO Webinars

Get tuned-in to our pre-recorded webinars. Make Newbery Consulting part of your professional development plan. All webinars cost only $25.00. Watch at your convenience and receive your PD certificate the next day.

Learn More

Observation Assessment Webinar

Gear-up your Observation Assessment skills today!

This webinar is aimed to increase your understanding of observation assessment. Joe will explore the common problems with observation assessment, explore criterion referenced assessment as a foundation assessment method and talk through designing observation tools and mapping observation assessment. Benchmarking will also be discussed, along with the dos and don’ts of recording observation evidence. This webinar is packed full of valuable information that will help ensure that your students are receiving the benefit of valid criterion referenced assessment according to a nationally consistent standard and of course to develop a proactive and positive RTO compliance culture.

Admin in support of compliance

New webinar on Strengthening your Administration Compliance

This webinar focuses on the Standards for Registered Training Organisations directly relevant to RTO administration including marketing, pre-enrolment engagement, student rights and obligations, fees and payments, fee protection, credit transfer, assessment quality control and lastly issuing AQF certificates. The admin team perform a critical role in the RTO to process applications, assist in quality control and undertake student engagement. This webinar unpacks the responsibilities of the admin team in contributing to and maintaining the compliance of the RTO.

Competency Based Course Design

Read this series on unit-by-unit course design

Have you ever been tasked with developing a nationally recognised course to deliver a qualification? If you have never done this before and have not particularly had any formal training, it can be a very daunting task. I regularly encounter people working on a course development and this primarily has them customising commercially acquired learning / assessment resources without much thought to the actual course design. This is common. In my view, the skill of “course design” has been lost to our sector and I think it is something we need to find and develop as a capability within every RTO. In this article series, I want to try and address this and provide an easy to follow guide for designing a basic unit-by-unit VET course in support of achieving a qualification.

Enrolment Models

Compare your options between a cohort and rolling enrolment.

When we begin working with a client to develop a course offering, one of the very first considerations is the enrolment model that is best suited to the course delivery. It is such an important early consideration and it is amazing to me that there doesn’t seem to be any written guidance for RTOs on this subject. In this article, I share my experience having reviewed, audited, built, advised on many hundreds of enrolment models and pathways with clients over almost two decades as a VET consultant. My hope in providing this information is that you can give informed consideration to your enrolment model so that it works not only for your business but results in a better and more supported learning experience for students. It is another one of those things in an RTO where we are trying to find that sweet spot between quality and efficiency.

Newbery RTO Compliance Quiz

Are you an RTO Compliance Guru? Take the Quiz!

Are you a guru in RTO compliance? It's time to put yourself to the test and take the Newbery Compliance Quiz. This 10 question quiz will be refreshed once each fortnight with new random questions drawn from a bank of over 200 questions and growing.

Test your knowledge and understanding of RTO compliance. The quiz is time limited and you have only 5 minutes, which is actually heaps of time if you know your stuff. Good luck.

RTO Self-assurance

Consider this systems approach to RTO self-assurance.

Self-assurance simply means to be confident. It means having confidence in your systems to ensure your compliance with regulatory requirements and having confidence in your service delivery and resilience. So, it’s not just about compliance. Being self-assured means that we can have confidence in the whole business with quality service delivery as the primary objective and compliance achieved as a consequence of systems working together. This focus on systems and taking a “systems approach” to viewing and managing your RTO is critical to enable self-assurance. We need to shift the thinking from viewing the RTO operation as a lineal service delivery operation from marketing to completion, to view the RTO as a system of interacting components.

Observation Assessment

Check out our recent article on observation assessment.

Observation assessment is one of those classic functions within the RTO where there is a constant competitive dynamic between quality and efficiency. It is efficient to purchase commercially designed assessment tools and not waste additional time and resources on pre-assessment validation and customisation and to allow these assessment tools to be administered by assessors without oversight. Of course, this generally results in assessment tools being utilised which were not compliant to begin with and assessment recorded by tick and flick. I have just described the single most prominent systemic risk to the quality and reputation of VET. On the quality side of the dynamic, it requires an investment in time to validate and improve the observation assessment design, to educate trainers about their use and to establish assessment quality controls to ensure that no assessment gets through to outcome reporting unless it is right. 

Assessment Quality Control

Watch our new webinar on Assessment Quality Control

This webinar focuses on Clause 3.1 of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations which says: “3.1. The RTO issues AQF certification documentation only to a learner whom it has assessed as meeting the requirements of the training product as specified in the relevant training package or VET accredited course.” Assessment is the core business of an RTO. This webinar will explain the obligation for an RTO to conduct quality control of assessment before any assessment results are accepted. The webinar unpacks the responsibilities of the assessor and the admin team to ensure assessment documentation is accurately and sufficiently completed and in participating in the assessment quality control process.

RTO Registration Checklist

Use our checklist to navigate your RTO Registration.

Registering an RTO is a complex undertaking. There are many requirements in the application evidence which rely on in-depth knowledge and experience in RTO compliance for a successful RTO registration. Our strong recommendation is to get some experienced advice, keep your application as simple as possible and be prepared to provide evidence of your readiness to deliver your nominated courses on request. Do not submit the application until you are ready. We have prepared this checklist to provide you a guide in navigating the RTO Registration process from start to finish. We hope this information is helpful and would ask that you consider our various products and services in the registration of your RTO.

Equivalent Vocational Competency

What is equivalent vocational competency?

One of, if not the most subjective compliance issues that we encounter is how RTOs and auditors consider the concept of equivalent vocational competency. What is equivalent vocational competency and what clause does it relate to? Let’s start with the second question first to put things in context. Clause 1.13 a) of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015 requires the following:

1.13. In addition to the requirements specified in Clause 1.14 and Clause 1.15, the RTO’s training and assessment is delivered only by persons who have: a) vocational competencies at least to the level being delivered and assessed;

Fees Paid in Advance

Are you charging the rights amount of fees at the right time?

The most recent of these trends is the regulatory focus on fees paid in advance for services being delivered. In the past three or four months, I have noticed a spike in audit outcomes that include findings in relation to fees paid in advance. I have also received an increased number of questions from clients about the rules relating to students paying fees in advance for services being delivered particularly in relation to the shift toward virtual service delivery. Clause 7.3 of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015, specifically says the following:

“7.3. Where the RTO requires, either directly or through a third party, a prospective or current learner to prepay fees in excess of a total of $1500 (being the threshold prepaid fee amount), the RTO must meet the requirements set out in the Requirements for Fee Protection in Schedule 6.”

Cost of setting up an RTO

How much will your RTO Setup Cost?

A question that I am asked regularly is, what is the cost of setting up an RTO? It is one of those questions that is big and difficult to answer, hence the reason for this article. Sometimes, I think potential clients asking me this question are just wanting a simple answer like “$80,000”. It is just not possible to actually answer the question accurately without giving consideration to many factors. This article will focus on those factors and give you the tools to identify the set up costs applicable to your planned RTO. This article will focus on the costs associated with preparing and submitting the RTO application to the point where you have achieved registration and are listed on the national training register.

Introducing RTO Data Cloud

It seriously is a no brainer!

Newbery Consulting has been supplying student management software for over 10 years. Our RTO Data Desktop software has been hugely successful and much loved by the many RTOs that have used it to operate their RTOs and comply with reporting requirements. But, it was time for us to move to the next stage of this system’s evolution and it was a logical progression to redevelop our software as a cloud based service. This has been two years in development and takes account of over a decade of lessons learned and understanding client requirements. We think that RTO Data Cloud will change the landscape of the Australian student management system market. We are proud to offer it to you and it would be our pleasure to offer you access as a trial user and if you like what you see, come on over.

VET News

Catch-up on the latest news in our VET sector

Since 2011, Newbery Consulting has published a monthly newsletter on all the major happenings in the VET sector. VET News includes articles about compliance and regulatory news, training package updates, recently published VET research publications / reports and other news that we think you need to know about. We are sorting through the huge amount of information that released each week to identify those information gems that are important. We are sorting the wheat from the chaff! The best part about VET News, it is free! There is no cost for the subscription, it is a service that Newbery Consulting provide to our wonderful VET sector and we love doing it. Click on the link below to review our news articles. You can also subscribe here: Subscribe.

Newbery's Audit Guide

Let us guide you toward your next audit.

Newbery Consulting is sincerely committed to supporting the Australian VET Sector and promoting high quality training and assessment. We are also committed to enabling RTOs to deal with the subjective nature of regulatory audits conducted by the National VET Regulator. Your readiness to deal with not only the core evidence requirements applicable to the standards but being ready to deal with the auditor’s personal preferences that they will no doubt impose on the audit, will mean the difference between a positive or a negative audit outcome. Check out our free guide to compliance with the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015.

Need a good news story?

Meet Brian and hear about his journey.

Once upon a time there was a man named Brian. Brian is a mild mannered man who wanted to deliver industry training to the next generation. You see, Brian really believes that if you give a person skills and knowledge to perform a job, this is the best gift of all. But, Brian was finding that the regulatory requirements were making it very difficult to concentrate on the actual training he wanted to deliver. He is constantly buried in paperwork and compliance. Something needed to change!! Watch the video to see how this story ends. :)

Newbery Webinars

Access professional development at your convenience

Newbery Consulting is please to offer our pre-recorded webinars on compliance and training and assessment best practice. These webinar sessions allow you to access professional development aimed at those who manage compliance in their RTO and for trainers and assessors. Participants will receive a certificate of achievement following the session which will assist in meeting their professional development compliance obligations. Once you have registered, you will receive an email that provides you a link to register for the webinar and what follows, is pure PD bliss! Check out the next scheduled session.

Designing your own RTO system?

Customise our RTO System to your operation.

For over a decade now, Newbery Consulting has been developing and improving our RTO System for the benefit of clients. Comprised of policies and procedures, forms and tools and RTO Data, our system is perfect for those starting an RTO or renewing an RTO operation. These products are exposed to regulatory audits about 2-3 times a week. This means that, if there is feedback available, we get it and this is used to constantly improve these products. Designed to comply with the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015. Check it out today and get started with RTO System.

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