Consulting Services – Terms and Conditions

 

Please take the time to read through these terms and conditions carefully. These are not your typical legalistic terms and conditions. They explain how we will work thogether and yours and our responsibilities. They will help you make a decision about proceeding with this service or not. Make a list of questions and if you are keen to have a discussion with Joe, submit an enquiry and we can set that up on phone or Zoom.

1. Agreement

1.1 When you submit the purchase for the Consulting Services, you are required to indicate by ticking the checkbox that you have read, understood and agree to these terms and conditions associated with the RTO Consulting Support service. Evidence of this acknowledgement will be retained within Newbery Consulting client records. These terms and conditions came into effect on the 30th June 2018 and remain current.These terms and conditions are applicable to consulting services advertised on this website such as RTO Consulting Support, Change of Ownership, Rectification Support, Audit, Desk Audit and Accredited Course Concept Proposal.

2. Objective and time allocation

2.1 Consulting Services is simply a way of allocating an amount of time to be used by the client to obtain advice from Newbery Consulting. Consulting Services Terms and Conditions cover a range of consulting services listed at section 1.1. These services therefore have different time allocations with some on a day rate per cost and others on a fixed rate. The following time allocation apply:

2.1.1 RTO Consulting Support – 8 hours

2.1.2 RTO Change of Ownership – No limit, until the application is accepted

2.1.3 RTO Rectification Support – No limit, until the rectification is submitted

2.1.4 Rolling Review of Compliance – 32 hours

2.1.5 Course Accreditation – No limit, until the course is accredited

2.2 The objective of this package is to provide the client the necessary tools and timely advice to navigate their compliance responsibilities. You may utilise these hours at any time during this process; however, you are recommended to take a planned and deliberate approach to gain the maximum benefit from this time. Consulting Services is delivered remotely typically using teleconference and videoconference. You are recommended to schedule support sessions of a one-hour duration at certain points where you have evidence to review or particular advice to seek. For RTO Consulting Support, you are able to purchase additional support time at any point .

2.3 The Consulting Services expires 12 months after the date on which it was commenced. Any unused portion of the consulting support is forfeited.

3. Costs

3.1 The cost for services covered by these Terms and Conditions are as follows:

3.1.1 RTO Consulting Support – $1,650.00

3.1.2 RTO Change of Ownership – $5,720.00

3.1.3 RTO Rectification Support – $8,580.00

3.1.4 Rolling Review of Compliance – $5,720.00

3.1.5 Course Accreditation – $7,150.00 as an upfront payment and $3,300.00 on course accreditation.

4. Type of support that can be provided under RTO Consulting Support

4.1 RTO Consulting Support is particularly useful to undertake the following:

4.1.1 providing advice about the development of a training and assessment strategy

4.1.2 review of learning and assessment resources for compliance and quality

4.1.3 responding to questions about the regulatory process

4.1.4 educating the client on the requirements of the RTO standards

4.1.5 preparing the client to engage in an ASQA performance assessment

4.1.6 reviewing and providing advice on application evidence (excluding RTO Registration applications)

4.1.7 responding to non-compliance identified during an ASQA performance assessment

4.1.8 assistance with preparing an application for a funding contract or expression of interest

5. Preliminary activities

5.1 Get in contact first. Before you commence this service, it is recommended that you get in contact and schedule a discussion with Joe to discuss what you have planned and how the service works. Joe will ask you lots of questions about the purpose or objective of the work and what approach he would recommend. Sometimes, these discussion can identify that what you had in mind is not possible or may require a different service.

5.2 Skill and Capacity. It is important to note that Consulting Services is a support service that provides you with high level consulting advice about your RTO compliance and development.This does not include Newbery Consulting taking over and doing the work for you. We just simply do not operate like that. You will need to have people with skills that can perform the work in response to the advice that we provide. It is important that you employ or otherwise can engage suitable persons with skills and knowledge within your organisation to prepare learning and assessment material to meet the requirements of nationally recognised training. You are recommended to establish a solution or arrangement for this prior to commencing this service. We are experienced at providing advice toward this work, but if the person performing the work does not understand how to apply or respond to our advice, it will seriously impact on the time needed to achieve your desired outcome. If you plan to develop learning and assessment resources yourself, it is critical that you have access to a competent person to perform this work.

5.3 Registered business. This services is only delivered as a business to business transaction. A valid ABN, entity details and contact details must be supplied in the purchase form.

5.4 File sharing. We will often want to set up a shared dropbox with you so that we can share files and colaborate in their development. If you do not currently have an account on Dropbox, you can establish a free account here (click).

6. Communication

6.1 During this service, we are going to be communicating a lot. It is important that we have some ground rules for how communication will work and what to expect. In general, we have the following preferences and guidelines for communications:

6.1.1 The preferred method of communicating with the consultant is email. We use email to give advice, receive your questions and documents for review. If you send a document to the consultant for review, maybe allow 3-4 days for a response with feedback.

6.1.2 We prefer not to use text messages to communicate unless it is something super urgent like letting us know you are running late for a zoom or something like that. The consultant may send you a text if they are running late. We do not provide consulting advice over text and if you send the consultant a text asking for this, the consultant will revert you back to email.

6.1.3 We do not communicate through any form of social media (such as Linkedin chat, Facebook Messenger), ever.

6.1.4 All scheduled meetings are conducted on Zoom. Sometimes depending how the data is performing, we may talk on the phone and share a screen on Zoom. We can also use Teams, but prefer Zoom. We generally have a 30-60 minutes meetings on a frequency based on your needs. Most clients like to schedule a meeting week-to-week or we can schedule a fixed reoccurring meeting. If you have some burning issue, we can generally schedule an ad-hoc meeting most days, even if for 15-30 minutes. The consultant schedules meeting Mon-Thu 9:00 am to 4:00 pm and Fri 9:00 am – 2:00 pm. These meeting are your meetings. So, you drive the agenda to discuss the issues and questions you have based on your requirements.

6.1.5 Timings, you can send us an email anytime you like. The consultant will often respond to email early morning between 4-7 am. The consultant will monitor emails virtually every waking hour but will generally not respond to emails after 5 pm. The consultant also will generally not respond to emails on the weekend unless it is something super urgent.

6.1.6 Please be aware that the consultant may use voice recognition software to write. This includes emails and whilst a quick proof read is typically completed before sending, sometimes emails may include minor software interpretation errors.

6.1.7 We use email, phone, Zoom and Teams to communicate. That’s it. Please do not request that we subscribe to some new collaboration platform as this will be declined.

6.1.8 We all need to keep our communication courteous and professional. We should give each other the time to talk and make their point and try to avoid talking over the top of each other. We will have robust discussions and sometimes we may not completely agree. That is ok, as long as we respect each other’s opinion and work toward finding a middle ground way forward.

7. What we do not do in supplying RTO Consulting Support

7.1 It is critically important to note that Newbery Consulting provide advice only during this service. In addition to our advice, we are happy to provide examples of documents you are working on to guide your development but only if we have these available at the time. We are expert consultants in vocational education and training and compliance with the Standards for RTOs 2015 and the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018. We are not business consultants, financial advisors, realestate agents, building certifiers, legal advisors or accountants. We are very disciplined at staying in our lane and recommend that you always seek advice from those qualified and experienced to provide it. If you seek advice about something that is outside our area of expertise, we will simply advise you that this is not something we can advise you on.

7.2 It is also important to note that Consulting Services is not a substitue for the RTO Registration service that we offer. If you are looking for consulting support for your RTO registration, then please consider the RTO Registration project. If you purchase this service and it becomes clear that your objective is to register an RTO, we reserve the right to terminate the service.

7.3 It is important to note that during this service Newbery Consulting do not:

7.3.1 develop your learning and assessment strategies, tools or resources,

7.3.2 customise your policies and procedures or forms and tools,

7.3.3 provide advice or support in business development or financial planning,

7.3.4 provide advice on building approval for BCA or local government requirements,

7.3.5 provide advice on building rental or lease terms and agreements,

7.3.6 provide advice or support to your financial viability risk assessment,

7.3.7 provide support or consultation on site or at your premises,

7.3.8 develop application evidence on your behalf,

7.3.9 provide RTO registration support or services;

7.3.10 provide advice on migration to Australia or visa conditions,

7.3.11 provide advice on industrial relations or worker rights and entitlements,

7.3.12 provide legal advice,

7.3.13 provide consulting support toward any government funding contracts,

7.3.14 communicate on your behalf to the National VET Regulator,

7.3.15 represent you at or attend audits conducted by the National VET Regulator, and

7.3.16 provide services which can be construed as a High Managerial Agent.

8. Disclaimer

8.1 Newbery Consulting makes the Consulting Services available on the understanding that Clients’ exercise their own skill and care with respect to its use. Before relying on the advice provided in this service in any important matter, clients should carefully evaluate the accuracy, completeness and relevance of the information for their purposes and should obtain appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.

8.2 In relation to providing support to apply for a funding contract or expression of interest. Whilst Newbery Consulting can assist you in preparing the application evidence according to the application criteria and eligibility requirements, we have absolutely no control over the assessment of the application or the considerations that a department may give to the evidence. There are many reasons why an application for a funding contract or expression of interest may be rejected. Some examples of these may include:

8.2.1 the applicant’s performance or inexperience

8.2.2 the applicant’s delivery of quality services

8.2.3 the applicant’s teaching and leadership practices

8.2.4 the applicant’s competitiveness with other high quality applicants

8.2.5 the applicant’s approach to individualised support for students

8.2.6 market conditions relating to supply and demand for training products

8.2.7 the applicant’s innovative approaches to training

8.2.8 the applicant’s financial viability or operational structure

8.3 Newbery Consulting will certainly assist you to present your application in the best possible light to maximise your competitiveness in the application process. In choosing to proceed with this service you acknowledge that there is a high degree of risk in applying for any application and the application will be judged on its merits based on factors that are outside the control of Newbery Consulting. You acknowledge that we have no control over the applicants past performance, current ability to deliver quality services, the current market conditions, the applicant’s financial viability, operational structure or any other random consideration that a department may give to application evidence.

9. Refunds

9.1 If you wish to cancel the service you can simply advise Newbery Consulting of this decision via email at: enquiries@newberyconsulting.com.au.

9.2 No refunds whatsoever will be given for a cancelled services where initial consultation has already commenced. Prior to any consultation being provided, you are entitled to receive a full refund of the payment made to Newbery Consulting. Consultation includes any meeting via phone or video conference or providing advice via email. If you change your mind and would like a refund prior to any consultation being provided, then notify us immediately. Businesses should be aware of their rights as a business consumer by reviewing the information at the ACCC Business Rights page (click).

9.3 The following are not valid grounds for a business to request a refund:

9.3.1 has changed its mind,

9.3.2 has experienced a change in circumstances,

9.3.3 failed to plan prior to commencing the service,

9.3.4 has experienced a change in market conditions,

9.3.5 has insufficient time and resources to progress,

9.3.6 could not satisfy fit and proper person requirements,

9.3.7 could not demonstrate financial viability,

9.2.8 do not have sufficient skill and capacity,

9.3.9 could not recruit competent and current trainers,

9.3.10 has decided to engage a different consultant,

9.3.11 chooses not to use either part or all of the  services, or

9.3.12 have discovered a new business opportunity.

10. Refusal, Cancellation or Cessation of Service

10.1 We reserve the right to refuse, cancel or cease the service for any reason we deem appropriate. The following are some examples of why we may refuse, cancel or cease the service:

10.1.1 Rude, offensive or abusive behaviour. Rude, offensive or abusive behaviour toward Newbery Consulting staff by you or any representative from your organisation, will not be tolerated and will result in immediate cancellation of the service without warning.

10.1.2 Breach of terms and conditions. Breach or failure to comply with these terms and conditions or any other terms and conditions of related products and services will result in immediate cancellation of service without warning.

10.1.3 Failure to follow advice. Failure by the client to follow the advice provided by Newbery Consulting will not be tolerated particularly where the actions of the client are likely to result in non-compliant arrangements being presented to the national VET regulator. Failure to follow the advice provided by Newbery Consulting will result in the cancellation of the service after fair warning has been provided.

10.1.4 Failure to protect the interests of students and consumers. Any action taken, or arrangement implemented by the client that Newbery Consulting consider fails to protect the interests of prospective learners of the client or consumers will result in the cancellation of the service after fair warning has been provided.

11. Confidentiality

11.1 Newbery Consulting agrees that any information received by it during the provision of services relating to your organisation, operational or commercial affairs is “Confidential Information” shall be treated by Newbery Consulting in strict confidence and will not be revealed to any other persons or organisation unless compelled to do so under the law.

11.2 Newbery Consulting acknowledge that the Confidential Information that is held or owned by the Client is valuable proprietary information and that harm may be caused to the Client by its disclosure.

11.3 Newbery Consulting agrees to hold in strictest confidence the Confidential Information and not to divulge, provide or otherwise make available or to allow any of its employees, agents, sub-contractors or representatives to divulge, provide or otherwise to make available to any person in whole or in part, any of the Confidential Information other than:

11.3.1 with the prior written consent of the Client;

11.3.2 by operation of law provided that all available legal steps have been taken to prevent or limit such disclosure;

11.3.3 to use and to ensure that its employees, agents, sub-contractors and representatives use the Confidential Information solely for the purpose of this agreement.

11.3.4 to take or cause to be taken such precautions as may be reasonably required by the Client to maintain the secrecy and confidentiality of the Confidential Information and to prevent its disclosure.

11.4 Newbery Consulting may be compelled under s 62 of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (Cth) to provide information to the National VET Regulator by issuing a written notice to Newbery Consulting to give information and documents. It is an offence under s 64 of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 to not provide information and documents when requested to do so. Newbery Consulting will comply with written notices issued by the National VET Regulator.

12. Waiver of Liability

12.1 By accessing the Consulting Services, the Client waives and releases Newbery Consulting to the full extent permitted by law from any and all claims relating to the usage of product or the provision of advice and under no circumstances whatsoever shall Newbery Consulting be deemed to assume any responsibility for or obligation or duty with respect to any part or all of the Client’s business.

13. Acknowledgement of Terms and Conditions

13.1 By purchasing the Consulting Services you acknowledge that you on behalf of your business entity understand and agreed to these Terms and Conditions. These Terms and Conditions should be read in-conjunction with the other related Terms and Conditions. Acknowledgement of these Terms and Conditions implies acknowledgement of all related Terms and Conditions.

Published – 30th June 2018

Updated – 5th October 2022 – Inclusion of clauses 8.2, 8.3 and related sub-clauses

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