VET News – 1st August 2017

Hello and welcome to VET News,

I hope you are all doing well. Ok, I am going out on a limb here so wish me luck! Apart from all of the registration cancellations and the mega RTOs falling over (Careers),, I think we may be re-entering a period of stability and growth. Most RTOs that we are speaking to identify that the 2nd-3rd quarters of 2016/17 (Oct 2016 – Mar 2017) was a very dark time. From about Mar 2017, things seem to be improving and right now, there seems to be a degree of confidence as enrollment numbers are returning to normal. I am receiving more enquiries from clients who need assistance with getting a training product in shape for an enterprise client or targeted funded program. These are a flag for me that we are on the cusp of the next growth cycle. If you stay around long enough you get to see these repeating signs. The thing is this time, we need to prevent the “hyper-entrepreneurs” and low ethic individuals from spoiling the day. We are operating in a different environment to 6-12 months ago, so hopefully this will act as a deterrence.

I would like to come back to a prediction I made back in April 2016 in relation to TAE40116: “It will be interesting to look back in 12 months from now to see how many RTO’s have added it (TAE40116) to scope. I think we could see the current 716 reduced to below 150”. Ok, we are now 14 months down the track and today we stand at only 18 providers with the new Cert IV TAE40116. Now what is causing this? The first thing I would say is don’t blame ASQA. Yes, ASQA are as inconsistent as ever in all other aspects of their operation, but on this particular qualification, they seem to have it together. There is lots of winging on Linkedin about their approach, but really,, do we really,, want them to lower their standards just to increase the number of providers? Absolutely not! What is that saying about the mountain will not come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain? Well ASQA is the mountain, and if those RTOs that aspire to teach the next generation of VET practitioners really want it bad enough, they will need to step it up and go to the mountain. I implore ASQA to hold their ground and not lower the bar, stay the course and all of those great sayings!!

The news article of particular interest is the new Fact Sheet from ASQA regarding addressing non-compliance following an audit. This was released with very little attention and I think it has the potential to have a very big impact of the quality of VET and compliance generally. Scenario,,, you are an RTO that has been found in a regulatory audit to have very serious non-compliance. You receive your audit report and there is a covering letter. The letter says that you have been identified to have very serious non-compliance which have potentially impacted on current or past learners. The letter requests that you identify the impact on learners and carry out remedial action to address this impact. ASQA proposes that this remedial action may require the RTO to conduct reassessment or gap reassessment of current learners who were assessed incorrectly (just as an example). In my view, this new policy is a big deal and worth a read.

Good Training,

Joe Newbery