National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Amendment Bill 2019
The National Vocational Education and Training regulator Amendment Bill 2019 has been lodged in the senate. The proposed amendments are intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the ASQA’s regulation of the sector. The changes strengthen registration requirements, modernise information and data sharing and improve the administrative efficiency of the NVETR Act. Key reforms […]
Read MoreASQA’s slash and burn approach on Registered Training Organisations
An approach that is not very well thought out can cause significant knee jerk reactions. This is exactly what we all are experiencing from ASQA. The poor implementation and monitoring of VET FEE-HELP scheme and the way a few private and public organisations took advantage and rorted the funding is still causing significant nightmares […]
Read MoreVictims of ASQA: The Real stories (Part – 1)
In this section we explore stories of how a regulatory body is destroying Australia’s education and training sector, the livelihood of people and causing immense stress and loss to the individuals working in the training organisations. Our first guest in this series is Brett Hilder. Brett Hilder is a businessman with extensive experience drawn from […]
Read MoreHas the Australian Skills Quality Authority taken Australia back 30 years?
The effects of the VET regulator’s actions on our industry and Australia’s reputation with regards to innovative learning has been detrimental to what is internationally seen as best practice. The attitude towards learning methods that are applied outside traditional face-to face classroom based training have put our education system at risk. We are not reaching […]
Read MoreWhere are we going and why are we here?
If you have followed the recent discussion on social media ASQA’s practices, RTO closures, TAFE non-compliance, rorting of government funding (by now this is historical data being republished) it is one thing that stands out; students are not part of the discussion. How did we arrive where we are at this point in time? ASQA […]
Read MoreIs natural justice or procedural fairness possible with the current set up of ASQA?
We have evaluated how fair and transparent the internal workings of Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) is. Where can an RTO go to complain and seek justice? How effective are the “external avenues”? ASQA’s auditors on the day of the audit Please note: ASQA has engaged some very professional officers and auditors as well and […]
Read MoreConcerns about the competency levels of Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) officers and auditors
The VET industry has some serious concerns regarding the competency of ASQA’s officers and auditors. We would like to look into this with some facts, records and figures. Qualified auditors with Senior VET Experience – are they qualified enough? Unfortunately, the regulatory body has moved away from recruiting officers with a background in the education […]
Read MoreFinancial Viability Risk Assessment (FVRA) tool has changed again, version 3.1.
The financial viability risk assessment (FVRA) tool has been changed again by ASQA to make it more user friendly. The latest change was implemented on October 4, 2019. The changes have been made to make the FVRA tool more user-friendly and in cases where it is incomplete, provide additional guidance to identify items missing. The […]
Read MoreASQA has changed the rules for purchase and sale of RTO’s
Australian Skills Quality Authority has made it crystal clear that “Registered training organisations (RTOs) and Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) providers are not permitted to transfer their registration from one legal entity to another. However, where a change of company shareholdings occurs, but the ABN/ACN of the entity registered with […]
Read MoreBeware of FAKE certificates and unregistered providers
ASQA published the following media release on October 4 2019: ASQA is aware that unfortunately, there are unqualified organisations issuing fake certificates in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. Whether you are a student signing up for a course in VET or a business seeking a training provider for your employees, make sure to […]
Read MoreUpdates to USI transcript for closed registered training organisations
Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) published the following news on October 4 2019: As part of a collaboration between the Australian Department of Education, ASQA and the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), ASQA is now able to upload the academic results from closed RTOs to students’ Unique Student Identifier (USI) transcripts outside the […]
Read MoreUnpacking ASQA audit reports and files (Part 4)
This is part 4 of a series. We are referring here to cases from different audits conducted by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). 1. Units made compliant, qualifications become non-compliant ASQA making decisions, where individual units were made compliant but qualifications including the very same units were made non-compliant. When we read auditor’s response […]
Read MoreUnpacking ASQA audit reports and files (Part 3)
Let’s look into what is actually going on in the audits and ASQA practices. This is part 3 of the ongoing series. We are referring here a number of cases from the different audits conducted by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). 1. ASQA officers justifying their statements using information that contradicts all documented and […]
Read MoreThe implications of ASQA being moving to a full cost recovery agency
ASQA and TEQSA are required by the Australian Government to transition from partial cost recovery to full cost recovery by 2020-21 making charging activities more consistent with the other areas of Government and Australian Government Charging Framework. Currently, neither regulator recovers the full cost of their regulatory operation or the full cost of legislative activities. […]
Read MoreHow will ASQA move from its current practices?
Pic: Courtesy @edissuesaus Note: The pic includes the famous saying of Ex-Chief Commissioner, Australian Skills Quality Authority in the Independent Tertiary Education Conference, Itec 2019 that held on 21-23 August 2019 at Marriott Surfers Paradise, for more information, please refer https://itec19.com.au/program/program/ Yes, you heard it right. The chief commissioner of Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has […]
Read MoreRTO experiences with ASQA from the front line-Part 2
We are continuing to share the RTO experiences from the front line with the current regulatory body of vocational education and training, Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). 1. Completely unjust and untrue grounds used by Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) for RTO rejection 2. No exit meeting with the RTO, no information regarding where […]
Read MoreA potential audit of the Australian Skills Quality Authority by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO)
The Australian National Audit Office is the national auditor for the Parliament of Australia and the Government of Australia. It reports directly to the Australian Parliament via the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate. ANAO has scheduled a potential “performance audit” of Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) for its […]
Read MoreVET ministers announce changes to the Australian Skills Quality Authority
Sharing the most recent announcement from the Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business and The Hon Steve Irons MP, Assistant Minister for Vocational Education, Training and Apprenticeships. The Australian Government today announced reforms to the agency responsible for regulating the vocational education and training sector, the Australian […]
Read MoreUnpacking ASQA audit reports and files (Part 1)
Let’s look into what is actually going on in the audits and ASQA practices. We are referring here a number of examples from the audits conducted and the matters discussed in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal by the Australian Skills Quality Authority. 1. ASQA Auditor considering online documents on a Google drive as “Student Portal” and […]
Read MoreConducting validation in your training organisation
What is validation? Explanation: Checking that the assessment tools, methods, judgement, evidence and processes to ensure that the training product meets: Principles of Assessment – i.e. valid, reliable, flexible and fair Rules of Evidence – i.e. valid, authentic, current and sufficient The judgment made by the trainer/assessor is benchmarked* with colleagues or industry experts There […]
Read More