VETNexus

Adapting to the Outcome-Based Standards for RTOs in 2025

kerri@digitalliteracylicence.com (Kerri Buttery) — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 04:06:57 GMT

Understanding the Shift to Outcome-Based Standards

The landscape of vocational education is undergoing a significant transformation with the introduction of outcome-based standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) set to take effect from 1 July 2025. This pivotal shift from process-based to outcome-based standards aims to enhance the quality of education and training by focusing on the actual results achieved by students rather than merely ensuring compliance with predefined procedures.

RTOs have traditionally relied on a process-oriented approach, where the emphasis was on following specific steps and maintaining extensive documentation. However, the new outcome-based standards necessitate a paradigm shift, requiring RTOs to demonstrate tangible evidence of student success and the effectiveness of their training programs. This change is designed to provide a more comprehensive view of an RTO's performance, ensuring that students acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in their chosen fields.

The New Normal: Online, Classroom or Blended Training? — VETNEXUS | Supporting RTOs for Compliance and eLearning

kerri@digitalliteracylicence.com (Kerri Buttery) — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 14:00:00 GMT

In a post COVID world we are evolving and shifting. The need for adaptive delivery of training has meant a shift that cannot be ignored. Students are now familiar with online training as their preferred method and those who have managed to sustain employment are now prioritising that.

Image by Anthony Gribben

Many providers learnt early on, online learning is not an easy translation from face-to-face delivery. Students studying online may struggle to comprehend key subject matter and may require additional support measures that RTOs have not thought of. They may also require more regular check-ins and contact to ensure comprehension. This is in line with Clause 1.7 of the Standards for RTOs 2015 to ensure that students are well supported throughout their studies.

As we return to a “COVID normal” and our communities and world begin to settle in to a new way of living, blended delivery may be the middle ground to move us forward.

From a business point of view, education institutions are paying for training facilities and buildings to deliver education and it would be beneficial to be utilising this investment. From an education perspective, students will be more engaged and your retention can be increased by face to face workshops or activities.

Blended learning also caters for those students who need to continue working and manage a family. The classroom sessions are minimal but consistent and the online learning can be completed around their other commitments. This style of delivery also means a cohort has less time on campus which can facilitate higher volumes of workshops with less frequency to ensure social distancing and density requirements are met.

COVID-19 has impacted us in many ways, including by changing the way education is delivered and that change is now here to stay.

Please note, ASQA defines a full-time course as a minimum of 20 scheduled course contact hours per week.

Best Practice in Industry Engagement — VETNEXUS | Supporting RTOs for Compliance and eLearning

kerri@digitalliteracylicence.com (Kerri Buttery) — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 23:21:59 GMT

Industry engagement goes beyond the requirements of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015. Meaningful engagement with industry can give your students direct access to employment outcomes and ensures that your training reflects current industry best practice.

Image By Parham Marandi

Industry engagement should not purely consist of a few consultations to review your Training and Assessment Strategies. Industry engagement should be an evolving relationship between a training provider and key employers, industry members or peak bodies. These relationships should inform the way in which providers train their students. From input into delivery methods to ideas on new practical elements to ensure job ready graduates, industry engagement is far more crucial than just meeting the requirements of the Standards. Meaningful engagement with employers can mean employer support and preferred enrolment for your courses as well as increased employment opportunities for students.

Engagement can come in various types:

Quarterly meetings
Surveys
Best practice forums
Industry breakfasts or luncheons
Meetings with employers during practical placement visits
Ad hoc phone check ins
Training organisation expo with industry invited
Employability seminars

Training organisations should choose a way of measuring industry engagement and industry feedback. This way performance can be measured year on year and issues and comments can be highlighted. This is also a way of defining success for your organisation.

Industry engagement does not have to sit within one area of your business. It can be a decentralised and dispersed approach to fully capture the different elements and feedback of different industry voices. For example, your executive team may have high level contact with the owners and leaders within organisations, but trainers may have contact with staff on the floor who provide a different level of insight. This also empowers all staff to recognise the importance of industry collaboration and encourages them to put this at the forefront of their “business as usual” activities.

For assistance with capturing Industry Engagement evidence for your RTO - refer to our Industry Engagement Suite of templates in our Products for RTOs section.

First Impressions: What your RTO’s website says about its compliance — VETNEXUS | Supporting RTOs for Compliance and eLearning

kerri@digitalliteracylicence.com (Kerri Buttery) — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 23:21:59 GMT

Let’s pretend you are online searching for a registered training organisation (RTO) offering a course on….hot air ballooning (not real, I know, but come along for the ride). Imagine your results return 50 different RTOs.

How will you decide which one to go with? Here are some common comparison items students will look at:

Price (of course)
Length of course
Location
Flexibility
Currency of the course
Reviews & RTO reputation

Now let’s consider a different audience…the regulator. This may be ASQA, VRQA or TAC, or it could be one of the state funding regulators.

“They aren’t looking at our website” I hear you say, however, if this is what you’re thinking then you would be wrong.

Public Facing Compliance

An RTO’s main piece of public-facing information that is available to regulators is its website, along with social media. This is where information can be gathered about the RTO. While we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, the website (and social media posts) provides information that will form first impressions for an auditor who may be conducting a risk assessment on an RTO to determine whether it may be subjected to further regulatory activities such as an audit. This first impression will give the auditor an inkling as to whether the RTO generally follows compliant practices.

Consider the following items as examples to illustrate.

Qualification Transition

A new release of a qualification came out 18 months ago and the RTO has updated the TAS, delivery materials, assessment, etc. However, they haven’t gotten around to updating the website yet as this is outsourced to a web development company. However, the ASQA auditor has picked up that the units listed on the website are not in alignment with the current packaging rules. The first impression indicates a non-compliant practice (even though internally everything else has been updated).

NRT Logo Use

The website has the NRT logo in the footer of the site and it is appearing on pages with non-accredited training being advertised. The first impression this gives is if the RTO doesn’t know they can’t use the NRT logo in the footer, then what else isn’t right?

Fee Collection & Shopping Carts

Learners undertaking a diploma qualification can enrol instantly online and pay upfront for the course. The shopping cart on the website allows learners to pay the full $5000 upfront. This would suggest to an auditor that the RTO doesn’t understand the rules for up-front collection of fees from an individual learner, and spark concerns around other practices devised to protect learners.

Final Word

It can be very simple to overlook how the information on your RTO’s website can be interpreted and essentially present a public facing non-compliance which will give an auditor the first impression that the RTO should be scrutinised more closely, even if that RTO’s practices are compliant otherwise.

How long since your RTO has conducted an in-depth website audit to make sure it was compliant? Our team can conduct an audit for you, including checking all downloadable links to ensure the contents being linked to are also compliant.

Alternatively, check out our Website Audit Template for your RTO to DIY!

Talking About… Assessment Tips — VETNEXUS | Supporting RTOs for Compliance and eLearning

kerri@digitalliteracylicence.com (Kerri Buttery) — Sat, 10 Feb 2024 23:21:59 GMT

VETNexus has been doing quite a bit of assessment validation and review recently. This has been due to a combination of the need for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to have validated 100% of their training products prior to 1 April 2020, others preparing for audits and also as part of ongoing monitoring of assessment practices. We do see a huge range of variance when it comes to levels of compliance and quality of assessment – one end of the spectrum being validations that seem like we haven’t done much reviewing because there isn’t much to comment on (other than the requirements being fully met) through to the other end of the spectrum where recommendation reports are many pages long.

Image by Outcrowd

This has prompted me to put together a list of a couple of things to consider when it comes to developing quality, compliant assessment tools.

Consideration of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF)

Regardless of the ongoing debate about whether units have level, the unit is the unit, and so forth, we do need to consider the level of expectation assigned to the qualification we are delivering and assessing in relation to the type of evidence we are gathering. The AQF describes that graduates at levels 1 and 2 are working with basic factual, technical and procedural knowledge – we will want to see that they can list the steps they need to follow to complete a task, and actually follow those steps. When it comes to higher level qualifications, listing the steps isn’t going to be sufficient. For example, in completing the unit of competency TAEASS502 Design and develop assessment tools, knowledge of the principles of assessment isn’t going to be demonstrated by a ‘List and Describe’ question – this is a copy and paste exercise from the learner guide or Standards for RTOs 2015. What we are looking for is the ability to analyse information such as looking at a case study and identifying how the principles have been applied, or describing how they are using them in the development of their own tools.

Key point: think about the types of questions that are being asked at the various levels to ensure they are appropriate to the overall criteria for the qualification level.

Coverage of the Unit Requirements

What needs to be covered in the assessment? Easy – everything in the unit of competency and the assessment requirements. This is referenced in the Standards for RTOs 2015 in Clause 1.8, Table 1.8-1 under Validity:

“assessment against the unit/s of competency and the associated assessment requirements covers the broad range of skills and knowledge that are essential to competent performance”
“judgement of competence is based on evidence of learner performance that is aligned to the unit/s of competency and associated assessment requirements.”

These two dot points from the Standards therefore show us that we need to assess:

Elements/Performance Criteria;
Foundation Skills;
Performance Evidence;
Knowledge Evidence; and
Meet the Assessment Conditions.

While the Standards don’t refer to requiring a mapping document, this tool services two purposes:

quality assurance for the RTO to know they have sufficiently covered requirements;
evidence for any third party (such as an auditor or consultant) of how the requirements of the unit have been met and makes for an easy reference guide.

There are more advantages to quality mapping processes but that is an article in itself.

Key point: ensure you have a thorough mapping document and full coverage of all components of the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements.

Industry Relevance

A unit of competency uses generic language to describe the standards to be met to award competence. While there will be some areas of units that need to be changed/updated to meet current industry requirements this is not going to be specific and it is up to the RTO to make sure there is industry consultation occurring around the content being delivered and the way the unit is assessed. An example may be that the unit states that current technology is used in the hospitality industry. The RTO must then consult with hospitality organisations about what they are using, ensure the RTO’s equipment is up to standard and they are then training students in current practices.

Key point: ensure regular engagement with industry and incorporate suggestions where possible – ensure this is documented.

Instructions

Instructions for the student, instructions for the assessor, instructions for third parties and workplace supervisors, instructions for the RTO (maybe not in the tool but in the assessment system policies and procedures). Make it clear who has to do what – don’t leave people guessing. Once assessment has been developed have someone who is not familiar with the assessment look over it and provide feedback regarding how they interpret it. Also, keep it concise and streamlined. Have all information regarding a task in the one place for the students. They shouldn’t have to refer to multiple places to find out what they need to do to complete a task.

Key point: make sure other people understand the instructions and keep it simple and easy to follow.

Summary

While there are lots more items to consider, this is enough for one article! It isn’t easy to write quality, compliant assessment tools. It takes a lot of practice. An important part of the process is getting feedback from others and doing this prior to using the tools with students.