VET News

Standards and Self-assurance: Building Confidence in Quality Outcomes

Students, industry, the community, governments and the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) expect providers to comply with their obligations and have mechanisms in place to ensure that they are meeting the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015 (the Standards) at all times, not just when they are interacting with the regulator. This is part of best business practice for all providers and central to maintaining and improving quality vocational education and training (VET).

ASQA is committed to promoting, facilitating, and supporting sector capability to self-assure and, to support this shift, has continued working with stakeholders and providers through all its regulatory interactions to build a shared understanding of self-assurance and how it benefits providers and supports quality outcomes for students. We are also considering how our application of a risk-based regulatory approach can promote self-assurance and how providers can build their own self-assurance capability. 

Our recent actions in this space include:

• increasingly focusing on provider systems of self-assurance when assessing performance against the Standards
• developing guidance for providers to assist them in understanding their regulatory requirements
• clarifying ASQA’s expectations around systemic monitoring, evaluation and continuous improvement
• engaging with providers about areas of risk and sharing regulatory insights with the sector
• clearly communicating with non-compliant providers so they can understand where they need to improve their performance
• when non-compliance is identified, responding with a range of regulatory tools that reflect consideration of both the nature and seriousness of the non-compliance, and whether the provider demonstrates an understanding of the non-compliance and a willingness to rectify, and has systems in place to monitor its own compliance.

Together with the sector, we have also finalised the co-design of a working model for self-assurance, which provides a framework for the systems and practices providers can undertake to monitor quality and compliance and continuously improve their performance against the Standards.

In the coming months, we will be continuing our engagement with the sector to continue to develop the tools and guidance materials needed to support the cultural shift to self-assurance. This includes piloting a new approach to the Annual Declaration on Compliance so that the data collected assists us in strengthening our understanding of self-assurance practices in the sector. We are also working with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) to progress a series of Quality Reforms, including a review of the Standards to ensure they are focussed on quality training outcomes.

As the sector continues its journey towards a culture of self-assurance, there will be further opportunities to engage with ASQA and provide input. If you would like to register your interest in this process, or if you have any comments or queries about self-assurance, please contact the project team at StrategicReviews@asqa.gov.au.

ASQA presented a paper on “Standards and self-assurance: building confidence in quality outcomes” at the Velg National Conference, held on the Gold Coast on 3-4 November 2022.

Read the full article in Velg Training's eZine magazine, Volume 19, here.

Date posted Dec 15, 2022