I will discuss the changes to the Fees Schedule in the next post. Today I want to focus on the hidden costs. The transition will mean you may need to update one or more of the following: internal policies/procedures, manuals, forms, website information, trainee information booklets or brochures, and most documents that relate to terms and conditions (including enrolment forms). Where documents are used in hardcopy, many will need to reprinted (a reason to make policies and forms available electronically or use Green JIT printing). Here are a few examples:

• Any policies, procedures, forms etc which refer to a particular standard or condition by number will need to be updated to refer to the new NVR standards. Those RTOs that have purchased “off the shelf” sets of policies, procedures and forms may find this particularly onerous.
• Your complaints procedure should include information for stakeholders on how to progress a complaint if they are not satisfied with the RTO’s response. For many matters, the Quality Directorate was formerly the appropriate mechanism: they are now ASQA’s responsibility.
• Terminology – AQTF under NVR is now the VET Quality Framework. Given your core business, it is not surprising that much documentation refers to the AQTF.

I have heard people say that changing all these documents, if the standards are so similar to the previous standards, is a waste of time. Remember an auditor will be looking for evidence that you are fulfilling your responsibility to remain compliant and UP-TO-DATE with changes in the VET sector. Documentation that does not reflect that you are aware of changes is not sufficient evidence of that.

Sam

Sam

Common concerns revolve around questions such as: “Have the conditions and standards changed?”, “Will my application or change to scope take longer now?”, “Will we have to make substantial changes to our policies and procedures to remain compliant?”, “Will we be audited more often?”, “Are they making it harder to be compliant?’, and “Is being registered going to cost more?”. I will address some of these concerns here and continue to post on an ongoing basis.

All currently registered training organisations in SA have been sent an information letter and a fact sheet outlining how the transition will affect RTOs. If you have not received yours by now, contact ASQA on 1800 701 801 (http://www.asqa.gov.au/contact/contact.html). Note, at the time of this post, the Adelaide office contact details were not yet available on the ASQA website.

In essence, there will be little change required for your practice as an RTO as there are no significant changes to the nature (and most of the wording) of the old system of conditions and standards for registration and the “new standards” known as the Standards for NVR Registered Training Organisations. The Conditions, Standards for Initial Registration and Standards for Continuing Registration have been consolidated into one set of standards - The NVR standards.

The NVR standards, along with (for SA RTOs) your existing obligations in relation to: the AQF, Fit and Proper Person assessments, Financial Viability reporting and Data reporting have been grouped together to form the VET Quality Framework (replacing the guidelines and AQTF).
Nevertheless, there will be costs for RTOs in transitioning that I will discuss in depth in future posts.

The most immediate issue facing existing RTOs, and those applying to become RTOs, will be the delay in processing applications for changes to scope and new applications. The ASQA information letter states “Due to the current high volume of applications being processed by ASQA, including a backlog of pending applications transferred to ASQA from other states, timeframes for processing applications may be longer than with DFEEST”.

Among my clients are two who have recently had differing experiences with DFEEST applications.
One client, expecting a slightly longer processing time as SafeworkSA formed part of the audit process due to the industry area, found the DFEEST process unacceptably lengthy. The client submitted their application in early APRIL 2011, was audited at the end of JUNE 2011, with a few minor non-compliances (expected in high risk training industries). Some of the alleged non-compliances were actually errors by the auditors, such as incorrectly deciding the student record system was not AVETMISS compliant. The client waited months for the audit report and responded almost immediately but did not receive final registration until early NOVEMBER 2011. This was due to a SA backlog! Seven months is NOT acceptable.

The second client, training in a straightforward office environment, submitted their application at the end of December 2011 and was audited and passed in early March 2012 with no non-compliances at all. However, as the ASQA transition started at the end of March, they were informed they would have to wait until ASQA registered them and that this could “take some time as there is a backlog”. In the meantime, of course, they cannot operate as an RTO.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for Adelaide ASQA to get through the backlog and return to the usual (and acceptable) time of three months or less for processing applications. We were promised this would be a benefit for RTOs!

Sam Horrocks

We found this theme to be highly customisable without resorting to coding (although it did required some editing of png files to get our particular look). The Options theme comes with considerable documentation and video tutorials – online support and answers to FAQ are available at :

http://themeforest.net/item/options-business-corporate-premium-wordpress-theme/533599?WT.ac=search_item&WT.seg_1=search_item&WT.z_author=CurtyCurt

Our site is hosted by iSeek at http://www.iSeek.biz

We had fun developing it, hope you find it useful.