by Matthew Dale | Aug 23, 2016 | ASQA, Audit Express, Funding Contract, Registered Training Organisation, Uncategorized, Victorian Training Guarantee, VRQA
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]ASQA have announced their strengthened communication protocols with the Victorian Department, Higher Education and Skills Group (HESG) that were signed off earlier this year by the Victorian State Minister for Training and Skills and the Commonwealth Minister for Vocational Education and Skills. The new protocols will see ASQA and the Victorian Department work closely together to target poor quality training providers. [emaillocker id=6291]
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) that have funding contracts across multiple states should already be aware that it is not only the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET) that maintains a close relationship with ASQA. The Departments of Education and Training from all States and Territories hold a memorandum of understanding to maintain close communication with each other, and also with the regulator(s) – including ASQA, VRQA and TAC.
Essentially the new protocols mean that ASQA and the Victorian Department (HESG) will continue to maintain closer contact and work together to identify and respond to poor quality training providers, whilst also strengthening information sharing between the two agencies. ASQA and the Victorian DET are also expected to establish joint working groups and a taskforce. The team at Audit Express will be watching this closely and suspect that other states may follow the lead taken by the Victorian government. For more detail click here to see the full ASQA factsheet.
If your RTO has recently undergone a VTG Quality Review, VTG Business Process Audit, or VTG Transactional Audit; it is almost certain that both your RTO regulator and any other state departments that you hold a funding contract with will also have been informed, and that they may also be looking into your RTOs compliance.
Receiving a negative outcome at audit for either RTO registration compliance, or for RTO funding contract compliance is a serious issue and should be taken seriously.
If you require assistance responding to an audit report, or need help with a post audit rectification project contact the experts at Audit Express today. [/emaillocker][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
by Matthew Dale | Jul 23, 2016 | Audit Express, Karen Andrews, Minister, Senator Simon Birmingham, Shadow Minister Kate Ellis, VET Fee Help, VET Policy, VET Reform
Labor have announced a reshuffle of their frontbench and in a bizarre move have split their Shadow Ministry by naming Kate Ellis as the Shadow Minister TAFE and Vocational Education and Training, and Senator Doug Cameron as the Shadow Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships.
Kate Ellis MP
Our new Shadow Minister for VET, (Kate) has come from a family of educators and small business owners, and her website overview would suggest that she is passionate about Education.
Senator Doug Cameron
Our new Shadow Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships (Doug) was born in Scotland, is married with two daughters and two grandchildren. [emaillocker id=”6291″] Doug was elected to the Senate in 2007 and has served as Shadow Minister for Human Services since 2013 (until this frontbench reshuffle). Prior to being preselected to run for the Senate, Doug previously served as the national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.
Kate entered parliament in 2004 as the youngest woman ever elected to the House of Representatives, and became the Minister for Employment Participation and Early Childhood in 2010. In opposition, up until this reshuffle Kate has been the Shadow Minister for Education and the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood. Both Kate and Doug have historically supported and voted for both marriage equality and safe schools coalition which sounds promising.
Kate Ellis seems to be an active local MP and apparently mad fan of the Adelaide Crows… but we won’t hold that against her. Interestingly her husband David Penberthy, is news limited journalist and was former editor of both Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Adelaide’s Sunday Mail. He is now a breakfast show host on Adelaide’s Nova FM.
The VET sector is in need of change, in particular with regard to VET Fee Help. Rather than playing political games we are calling on both Shadow Ministers Kate and Doug to work with our Education Minister, Senator Birmingham and his Assistant Minister, Karen Andrews to deliver some much needed VET reform and policy changes to improve the quality of the overall VET sector.
The team at Audit Express look forward to engaging with the new Shadow Minister for VET and the new Shadow Minister for Skills and Apprenticeships on both policy and reform. We wish you both well in your new positions. We would also like to thank the outgoing Shadow Minister Sharon Bird for her passion of VET and her dedication to the overall sector – Sharon you have left big shoes for Kate and Doug to fill!
To download the full Shadow Cabinet Overview click here. [/emaillocker]
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by Matthew Dale | Jul 21, 2016 | ASQA, Best Practice, Compliance Consulting, Internal Auditing, Registered Training Organisation, Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015
Recently ASQA has announced a series of changes to its audit model and audit processes. Are you Audit Ready?
Don’t put your head in the sand!
For your convenience we have summarised the changes to ASQAs Audit Model for you. [emaillocker id=6291]
- ASQA will now publish its regulatory decisions
From 1 July 2016 ASQA will publish information on its websites about decisions on RTOs shortly after decisions are made. If you fail at audit, this will now be published and publicly available.
Click here to view the list of ASQA regulatory decisions
- ASQA has changed its decision making processes
From 1 August 2016, if ASQA finds ‘highly concerning’ non-compliances at audit, the Commissioners of ASQA can now make a joint decision on the outcome of an audit and any sanctions, penalties or fines that may be applied. It is important to understand that if the ASQA Commissioners make a joint decision, you cannot appeal and respond directly to ASQA anymore. This decision can only be reviewed by an external authority (typically the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) ). In this instance, the RTO cannot apply for an internal ASQA reconsideration of the decision.This is a real game changer. If your RTO does not get it right at audit, ASQA can essentially throw the book at you on the spot and you will have less opportunity to rectify your non-compliances directly with the regulator. If your audit is significantly non-compliant you risk needing to appeal ASQA’s decision directly with the AAT.
- ASQA has changed its audit process
When ASQA is conducting audits based on identified risk, including audits conducted as a result of complaints. ASQA will provide the RTO with a compliance audit report, and if non-compliance is identified ASQA can either:
- issue the RTO with a written direction, requiring you to take a certain action
- issue the RTO with a ‘Notice of intent to impose administrative sanction’, or
- in exceptional circumstances, impose one or more sanctions on the RTO without prior notice.
If ASQA identifies highly concerning non-compliances at audit the RTO can now be issued with a ‘Notice of intent to impose administrative sanction’. RTOs will then have up to 20 working days to respond to the notice and submit any supporting evidence before a decision is made.
This is also a real game changer. The current process allows an RTO the chance to respond to non-compliances and provide evidence of compliance after an audit. At that stage if ASQA was still not satisfied they would then issue the RTO with a ‘Notice of intent to impose administrative sanction’ allowing the RTO an additional 20 days. RTOs will now have significantly less time to rectify their non-compliances following a non-compliant audit outcome. Instead of having in some cases a few months to rectify non-compliances RTOs may now only have a few weeks at best.
It is not all doom and gloom though. If ASQA identifies non-compliances at audit that are deemed to be not of a serious nature, ASQA may now issue the RTO with a written direction to address the non-compliances within a specified period and to maintain evidence of doing so. Is such cases RTOs will not be required to respond or provide evidence of rectification to ASQA. This is a good step towards less red tape and regulation.
- ASQA is developing a new audit model [WATCH THIS SPACE]
ASQA has announced that it is currently in the process of reviewing its approach to auditing RTOs and is developing a more risk-based approach that will focus more on student experience and the actual practices and behaviours of RTOs. We also suspect that the quality and sufficiency of both learning and assessment material will be a focus for the regulator moving forward. The team at Audit Express have called on this for quite some time now and we welcome the regulators efforts to take a more risk-based approach to its regulation of RTOs.Keep your eyes out over the next month as more information regarding the new audit model will be published and ASQA will start to implement their new model later this year, with full implementation by early 2017.
For more information on changes to the ASQA Audit Process you might like to check out the latest ASQA Update.
The best way to make sure your RTO is Audit Ready and that it meets the requirement for RTOs to submit an annual declaration of compliance with the Standards for RTOs is to undertake an annual internal audit of your RTO with the support of a reputable independent internal auditor.
It is crucial that you are fully aware of your RTOs strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement. Most importantly you should be fully aware of the quality of the training products across your full scope of registration.
If you need help to make sure your RTO is compliant and Audit Ready get in touch with the team at Audit Express. [/emaillocker]
![Changes to ASQA audit process. Is your RTO Audit Ready?]()
by Matthew Dale | Jul 18, 2016 | ACPET, Karen Andrews MP, Minister, Registered Training Organisation, VET Policy
Prime Minister The Hon Malcolm Turnbull has formed government and announced his new ministry, which includes a number of new “Assistant Minister” roles (formerly known as Parliamentary Secretaries). [emaillocker id=6291]
The Hon Karen Andrews MP has been named as the new Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills.
The team at Audit Express congratulate Karen Andrews MP on her promotion as Assistant Minister for Vocational Education and Skills. We look forward to working with the new Assistant Minister and her team on improving the quality of Vocational Education and Training in Australia.
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by Matthew Dale | Jun 17, 2016 | ACPET, Audit Express, Registered Training Organisation, Student Choice Counts, TAFE
Audit Express works with training organisations of all shapes and sizes across Australia. We find that private providers are responsive to the needs of industry, and offer both students and employers an important choice of courses, flexible delivery options and access to industry professionals.
More than 57 per cent of higher education and training students choose to study with private training providers in Australia. Our private training provider clients deliver courses to more than 75,000 students each year, meeting demand from their local employers. [emaillocker id=6291]
Photo of Lola Berry and Matthew Dale
We see the success of private training providers each and every day.
Earlier this week our Director Matthew Dale attended the opening of Lola Berry’s new cafe Happy Place at the markets in South Melbourne. Lola is a well regarded Author, Nutritionist and Media Personality. Lola is arguably Australia’s leading health and wellness figure.
Lola studied at the Endeavour College of Natural Medicine, a quality Melbourne based training provider. She knows the value and benefits of Australia’s private training providers. Lola is a passionate supporter of private training providers and is now a face for the Student Choice Counts Campaign, you can read more about Lola and the campaign here: http://studentchoicecounts.com/the-faces/lola-berry
The private higher education and training sector is under threat from short-sighted policy proposed by the Australian Labor Party that would see the majority of funding directed to government-run TAFEs and an arbitrary cap on student training loans. Audit Express fully supports the need to minimise student debt and ensure prices are justifiable, however an arbitrary one-size-fits all cap will fail students looking for quality education.
As a proud member of ACPET we support any measures that ensure that only the best higher education and training providers are able to deliver publicly-funded courses and student choice must remain central to any policy redesign.
Audit Express is backing the ACPET’s Student Choice Counts campaign (www.studentchoicecounts.com) to ensure that the rights of students, and employers, to choose their preferred higher education and training provider is maintained.
PS: You really should visit Lola Berry’s cafe Happy Place next time you are here in South Melbourne, there are so many healthy and tasty treats! [/emaillocker]
Happy Place
