Newbery’s Audit Guide – Clause 1.5/1.6
What the clause requires:
1.5 The RTO’s training and assessment practices are relevant to the needs of industry and informed by industry engagement.
1.6 The RTO implements a range of strategies for industry engagement and systematically uses the outcome of that industry engagement to ensure the industry relevance of:
a) its training and assessment strategies, practices and resources; and
b) the current industry skills of its trainers and assessors.
What is this clause about:
These clauses are about ensuring that the training and assessment services the RTO delivers is relevant to the needs of employers. At the end of the day we deliver skills and knowledge to people so that they can go and perform work. That work is performed for employers who have requirements in each of their workplaces and want employees who have the skills and knowledge to work effectively in their business. So, to achieve this, the RTO needs to get out and talk to employers and establish what employers need so that this can be integrated into the training and assessment services the RTO delivers. This clause goes to the core of what we do in the VET sector and it also makes good business development sense.
You must be able to demonstrate that:
The selection of units of competency was informed by advice provided by industry
The mode of delivery and the structure of learning activities is consistent with what industry needs
The assessment tasks used within the course are consistent with the way that the relevant tasks are performed in the workplace (principle of assessment – validity)
Nominated trainers and assessors current skills and knowledge is consistent with current industry requirements such as codes of practice, work procedures, equipment usage and operating requirements, et cetera
You have hard or electronic documentary evidence to demonstrate all of the above. Your verbal assertion that you engage with industry will not be sufficient
You apply a range of strategies to engage with industry and have a systematic process to act on the outcomes from industry engagement
Evidence to prepare:
Evidence of the strategies the RTO applies to engage with industry. This may be in the form of the policy or other strategy document that details the methods the organisation applies to engage with industry to ensure that its training and assessment is relevant to industry requirements. The standards themselves have a nice list in the glossary of what constitutes industry engagement Click Here.
Evidence of industry engagement that has informed the following outcomes:
- the selection of units of competency;
- the allocation of learning methods and assessment tasks;
- the incorporation of selected equipment and resources in training; and
- the maintenance of current knowledge and skills of training staff.
It is valuable during a regulatory audit if you have hard evidence of the persons you have engage with in industry and can identify specific outcomes relating to these meetings. The evidence should substantiate how the outcomes above were informed.
It is nice to have this all organised in a register but any documentary evidence is acceptable such as emails, meeting minutes, interview records, site visit records, post activity reports, industry participation in validation activities, service proposals.
Don’t forget the corresponding documents in your training and assessment materials and strategies. If you identified in a meeting with industry representative that a particular unit of competency needed to be included as an elective, then the relevant evidence to demonstrate how this need was adopted will be within the training and assessment strategy and the relevant learning and assessment resources for that unit.
You should prepare for these types of questions:
Can you talk me through what strategies you apply to engage with industry?
Who do you identify as industry (ideally “industry” is the likely employer of your learners)?
Do you have a program or schedule of activities that guides your industry engagement?
Can you provide any examples or evidence of how you have engaged with industry and the outcomes it resulted in?
So, happy with what you have explained but do you have any documentary evidence or other information that supports this?
I you able to show how the engagement you have been undertaking with industry has informed the development of your trainer and assessor industry currency?
Have you identified any specific equipment or resource improvements through your industry engagement?
Published by: Joe Newbery, released 2nd May 2017
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