News

2018 student outcomes data now available for RTOs

14 May 2019

NCVER's National Student Outcomes Survey is sent to VET graduates and subject completers who completed their training in the previous year.
The results of the 2018 survey were released in December.
Where enough responses were received to provide accurate results, eligible RTOs can now access free individual reports of employment outcomes, training satisfaction, perceived benefits and relevance of training as reported by their students (alongside state/territory and national results for comparison).

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for a report, your RTO must have 100 or more domestic graduates and/or 860 or more domestic subject completers during 2017, and enough survey responses to provide accurate results.

How to access your report

The reports are available free of charge from NCVER.  Please complete the RTO report form to nominate a representative from your RTO to access the secure portal.

2019 National Student Outcomes Survey

The 2019 National Student Outcomes Survey opens on Friday 31 May for students who completed a training qualification or subject during 2018.
From late December, eligible RTOs will again be able to access data as reported by their students.
Take advantage of NCVER’s free kit to help you promote the survey to former students.

2019-20 Budget Announcement - Skills package

The 2019-20 Budget announced on 2 April 2019 provides dedicated funding of $525.3 million for the Skills Package, Delivering Skills for Today and Tomorrow. The Skills Package will ensure that the Vocational Education and Training (VET) system can deliver the skills critical to the economy now and into the future. This package will also work to create stronger pathways for school students into quality training and apprenticeships and into jobs in areas of skills shortage.

For more information on the 2019-20 Budget and the Skills Package visit the Department of Education and Training website.

Update to questions and answers for trainer and assessor credential requirements

19 March 2019

Recent updates have been made to the department’s questions and answers to clarify the trainer and assessor credential requirements under the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015. These changes specifically address the requirements for individuals working under the supervision of a trainer. Further information is available on the Australian Government Department of Education and Training’s website at www.education.gov.au/trainer-and-assessor-credential-requirements.

Background

The Training and Education Training Package was updated in April 2016. The core units of the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment were updated to include the ‘Design and develop assessment tools’ and ‘Address adult language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills’ units of competency. The core units of the Assessor Skill Set were updated to include the ‘Design and develop assessment tools’ unit of competency.

To ensure the VET workforce has appropriate skills in designing and developing assessment tools and identifying and evaluating LLN requirements, Skills Ministers agreed to update the training and assessment credential requirements in line with the changes to the TAE Training Package. The changes are outlined in the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015.

Change to the level of information publicly available on VET accredited courses

Updated 13 March 2019

On 12 July 2018, the Australian Government amended the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Regulations 2011. This amendment requires the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) to publish certain information about VET accredited courses including:

• the titles and codes of units of competency or modules comprising a VET accredited course for current accredited courses and expired courses with training delivery reported through the Total VET Activity collections since 2015;
• a description of the course for those courses newly accredited or reaccredited from now; and
• a reference to an earlier (previous) or later version of a course that is accredited on or after 1 September 2018.

This additional information will be entered on to the National Register over the coming months. As a result, course owners and registered training organisations (RTOs) with an accredited course on their scope of registration are likely to receive notifications that there has been a change to their course when the regulators enter this additional information. This change however will not be referring to a change to the course, but rather a change to the information available on the course.

Ensuring these additional matters are entered on the National Register increases the transparency of accredited course information and enables Unique Student Identifier (USI) transcripts to include information on units of competency/modules. Once the information has been published on the National Register, it will be used to improve the information available on the My Skills website (www.myskills.gov.au), which will enable prospective students and employers to better understand course content and suitability.

For further information on this measure, please visit the recently updated FAQs on ASQA’s website at www.asqa.gov.au/faqs.

While this amendment only requires ASQA to publish this additional information on the National Register, the Training Accreditation Council of Western Australia will also be entering this information for courses that it has accredited to ensure that the level of information available on accredited courses is nationally consistent. For further details, please visit the Council’s website at http://www.tac.wa.gov.au/Pages/Accredited-Course-Transparency.aspx.

In addition to codes and titles of units of competency, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) will publish a brief description and links to a previous version of each VRQA-accredited course when applicable.

This is to ensure that the information available about these courses is nationally consistent. For more details, see the information on the VRQA website

The Foundation Skills Assessment Tool (FSAT) is now closed

The Australian Government Department of Education and Training (the department) advises that the Foundation Skills Assessment Tool (FSAT) has closed from 1 July 2018. To those organisations that registered for an account to use the 2016 version of FSAT, the department thanks you for this and appreciates your interest.

Further information regarding the closure, including answers to frequently asked questions, is available at the department’s website.

Registered Training Organisation status: Withdrawn

From March 2018, Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) that withdraw their registration will be listed on the national register, training.gov.au, with the status 'withdrawn'. Previously these RTOs were updated with the status, 'cancelled', and end reason, 'registration period was cancelled with consent of the organisation'.

This update aims to allow for a more accurate reflection of the type of closures and to better inform the public and relevant stakeholders.

The 'withdrawn' status will be applied retrospectively.  Link to ASQA announcement: https://www.asqa.gov.au/news-publications/news/update-listing-format-providers-withdraw-registration-traininggovau.
 

New National VET Data Policy

A new National VET Data Policy (the Policy) was agreed by Skills Ministers at the COAG Industry and Skills Council meeting on 24 November. The new Policy sets the framework for reforms to help students make better decisions, have a more complete official record of their training, and to simplify regulation for RTOs. It will enable reforms under the Performance Information for VET (PIVET) initiative, which will transform the data available to consumers, governments and regulators.

The Policy comes into effect on 1 January 2018, with a six-month transition period until 1 July 2018. A copy of the Policy is available on the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training’s website: www.education.gov.au/national-vet-data-policy-0

RTOs may have to take action to update student enrolment processes and the wording of their Privacy Notice and Student Declaration. RTOs delivering VET courses in a single day or less are reminded the temporary exemption allowing the issue of a VET qualification or statement of attainment to a student who has not provided their Unique Student Identifier will lapse on 31 December 2017, as scheduled.

The Policy is the result of a sector-wide public consultation process, and closes information gaps by reducing reporting exemptions. Key changes in the new policy can be summarised into three categories:

• consolidation of the policy to provide guidance on all national VET data collections in one document
• reduction of some reporting exemptions for community service organisations and RTOs delivering short courses, but exemptions on the basis of national security are largely retained
• more transparent and defined rules in relation to disclosure and use of data from the collections held by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

The provision of more accurate and comprehensive VET data by RTOs helps to build a stronger VET system in Australia. Closing information gaps on short courses as well as longer courses, improves the transparency of training delivery, which supports confidence in the VET sector and makes more information available to training consumers, industry, RTOs, regulators and governments.

Comprehensive information on students improves understanding of how different types of vocational training are used by different segments of the population, and this supports demographic analysis for workforce planning, policy development and consideration of potential market interventions.

The inclusion of USIs in all data submissions will give students more complete information about all the nationally recognised training they have undertaken since January 2015, regardless of where it occurred, which RTO delivered it, or the type of course.

More information on the Policy can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions document available on the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training’s website https://www.education.gov.au/national-vet-data-frequently-asked-questions

Updated trainer and assessor credential requirements

The Training and Education Training Package was updated in April 2016. The core units of the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment were updated to include the ‘Design and develop assessment tools’ and ‘Address adult language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills’ units of competency. The core units of the Assessor Skill Set were updated to include the ‘Design and develop assessment tools’ unit of competency.

To ensure the VET workforce has appropriate skills in designing and developing assessment tools and identifying and evaluating LLN requirements, Skills Ministers agreed to update the training and assessment credential requirements in line with the changes to the TAE Training Package. The changes are outlined in the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015.

Skills Ministers agreed that trainers and assessors who do not hold the relevant units will have until 1 April 2019 to meet the new credential requirements. Trainers and assessors may use this training to contribute towards meeting professional development requirements outlined in the Standards for RTOs 2015.

Further information is available on the Australian Government Department of Education and Training’s website at https://www.education.gov.au/trainer-and-assessor-credential-requirementsv.au/trainer-and-assessor-credential-requirements