Introduction
This report assessed whether the Training Accreditation Council (Council) can provide assurance that Registered Training Organisations (RTO) deliver quality training and assessment of student skills. We focused on the Training Accreditation Council’s monitoring of RTOs during 2013 and 2014 and whether it took appropriate action when it identified problems with their performance.
Overview
Vocational education and training (VET) contributes to Western Australia’s (WA) economic development by providing students with pathways to higher education and employment. VET delivers skills in a diverse range of trades and professions. In 2013-14 around $550 million was spent in WA in the VET sector.
Across Australia around 5 000 training organisations deliver vocational training for more than 1 600 nationally recognised qualifications, from building and construction to aged care and financial services. These qualifications cover about 85 per cent of occupations.
Before they can deliver nationally recognised vocational courses, training organisations must first register as an RTO.
There are about 500, mostly private, RTOs based in WA, of which 328 are regulated by the Council. The rest are generally regulated by a national body because they train international students or deliver training in multiple states.
In 2009, the WA Government agreed that the Council would follow the national approach to regulating RTOs. This means that all RTOs across Australia must meet the same set of conditions and standards[1] for the courses they deliver. These aim to ensure that RTOs deliver consistent quality training and skill assessment that meet the needs of industry. The national approach is prescriptive in how the Council must regulate RTOs. However, changes came into effect in January 2015 that allow the Council to better focus its regulatory effort. These changes did not apply for the period examined by this audit but were considered when making our recommendations.
To be registered, RTOs must comply with the conditions and standards. These cover things like being managed by a ‘fit and proper’ person, financial viability, having public liability insurance, as well as making sure the training they deliver meets the national approach for the relevant qualification. They also cover course material, how it is to be delivered, and the competence of trainers.
The Council registers RTOs and checks that they meet the requirements and comply with the standards. This includes stopping new organisations from entering the market and RTOs from expanding their operations if they do not meet the standards. The Council does mandatory checks prior to initial registration, a year later, and then every five years. The Council uses contract auditors to do these checks.
Once checked, RTOs are found to be compliant or non-compliant. Non-compliance can be minor, significant or critical. RTOs are given time to fix any non-compliance before the Council resorts to available sanctions. These range from suspending through to cancelling an RTO’s registration. The sanctions aim to ensure RTO compliance and protect current and future students and industry.
Although the Council’s regulatory role is important to ensuring the quality of training, other factors also play a part, such as the nature of the industry, the national regulatory approach and RTOs themselves. We only assessed the Council’s role in ensuring training quality.
The Council spends about $3 million a year registering and checking RTOs.
[1] Essential Conditions and Standards for Initial Registration and the Essential Conditions and Standards for Continuing Registration. These were changed in January 2015 and became the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015.
Background
The vocational education and training (VET) sector in WA is regulated by both a national and state body:
- WA’s Training Accreditation Council (Council) is an independent statutory body that regulates most WA based training organisations. Its functions are set out in the Vocational Education and Training Act 1996 (the Act) and the Vocational Education and Training (General) Regulations 2009
- other RTOs are regulated by a national body, the Australian Skills Quality Authority.
In 2009, the WA Government agreed that the Council would follow the national approach to regulating RTOs. This provides a consistent approach to regulation and means that all Australian RTOs must meet the same standards. The national approach is prescriptive in how the Council must regulate RTOs. However, changes that came into effect in January 2015 allow the Council more flexibility in how it regulates RTOs. These changes did not apply at the time of our audit but were considered when making our recommendations.
To be registered, RTOs are required to comply with national conditions and standards[1]. These are set out in the Australian Quality Training Framework. The Framework’s focus is on training and assessment, client services and management systems.
The Council is required to conduct mandatory checks of RTOs against the standards prior to initial registration, within one year of initial registration[2], and every five years after registration. Checks are triggered by the passing of set times or a specific event, for example if a complaint is made against an RTO, or if an RTO wants to offer a new course.
Their assessments focus on:
- initial registration
- demonstration of ‘preparedness’ to deliver quality training and assessment services
- continuing registration
- the ‘actual’ quality of training and assessment systems and tools and their use by the RTO when training students
- that RTOs are providing appropriate training and assessments for the training courses it is registered to deliver
- ensuring that qualifications are only awarded to people who have been assessed as having attained the competency (skills, knowledge and ability) required by the training.
It is important to note that the Council’s role does not include reassessing the skills of students. For more information on this process, see Appendix 1 on page 18.
The assessments result in a compliance finding for each RTO. Findings range from compliant through to critically non-compliant, as shown in Figure 1 below. Critical non-compliance includes the risk of injury or death to students and/or staff in the training environment or the current (or future) workplace.
When RTOs do not comply with the conditions and standards, the Council can apply a number of sanctions available under the Act. The sanctions aim to enforce compliance and protect students and industry.
Available sanctions are:
- suspend the registration. This means the training organisation cannot call itself an RTO or issue nationally recognised qualifications, until it is compliant with the standards
- vary the registration. For example, it can specify which courses the RTO cannot offer to students
- cancel the registration. This means the training organisation can no longer call itself an RTO and cannot issue nationally recognised qualifications to students.
A national register provides information about the status of all RTOs. This is publicly available at https://training.gov.au/Search/SearchOrganisation.
Section 58E of the Act also gives the Council the power to cancel student qualifications. For example, if a qualification was incorrectly awarded due to an administrative error or arising from fraudulent behaviour.