VET News

ASQA Update July 2017

ASQA’s Chief Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer Mark Paterson, writes to thank all who attended of one ASQA’s training provider briefing sessions.

More than 5,000 people registered to attend one of the 27 sessions, and the sessions provided a great opportunity for ASQA staff to meet VET practitioners, discuss ASQA’s student-centred approach to audit and to answer questions about ASQA’s regulatory activities.

One of the topics discussed at the briefings was course duration. ASQA initiated a national strategic review in response to concerns, raised through its regulatory findings and previous strategic reviews that unduly short training prevented some learners from gaining the skills and competencies required to be certified as competent from VET courses. The findings of this strategic review have now been published.

The review found that in competency-based training systems there are still circumstances in which mandating duration is seen as one necessary means of regulating quality where there is a risk of unduly short training.

It also found that the regulation of duration in VET is complex and confusing; that the requirements are different across the two different types of nationally recognised training products; and that there is insufficient consistently-presented and comparable information available to enable VET consumers to make informed choices between RTOs.

ASQA has made three broad recommendations to address the issues identified, including changes to the way course duration is regulated. All VET sector stakeholders are encouraged to read the report and the recommendations.

In other ASQA news, ASQA currently have a position vacant for an APS 5 Regulatory Officer in their Perth team.  See the position description here.  Applications for this position close on Friday 28 July, 2017.

See the other current ASQA vacancies on the ASQA website. Positions available in Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth.

For more information, you can view the:

• Original ASQA update from Mark Paterson
• Webcast recording of the Training Provider briefings
• Slideshow from the Training Provider briefings
• Student-centred approach animation

Date posted Jul 20, 2017