by Matthew Dale | Oct 27, 2016 | ASQA, Audit Express, Best Practice, Funding Contract, Michaelia Cash, VET Policy, Youth Jobs PaTH
The Turnbull Government will invest $840.3 million into a Youth Employment Package.
This is a great opportunity for quality RTOs to support young Australians get into employment, with a responsive funding model that is outcomes focussed; While at the same time strengthening their RTO business by diversifying the offering of training programs. Also by the spreading financial risk of their organisation by increasing the streams of income, and not relying on one stream of income from other initiatives such VET Fee Help / VET Student Loans or State Funding Contract arrangements such as Skills First, Smart & Skilled or Certificate 3 Guarantee. [emaillocker id=6291]
Senator the Hon. Michaelia Cash launched the Youth Jobs PaTH programme yesterday, and also opened the tender process. Senator Cash said that “The Government is determined to prevent our young people from entering a life of welfare dependency. Giving young Australians the skills they need is crucial in helping them find their way into a rewarding working life.”
For more information about the Youth Jobs PaTH programme visit:
http://www.employment.gov.au/employment-services-procurement-information
Or to apply go the AusTender page:
https://www.tenders.gov.au/?event=public.atm.show&ATMUUID=B610A3A3-A9EE-E6E7-DCE13BF7759CEB2B
[/emaillocker] If your RTO is interested in applying for the Youth Jobs PaTH programme and wants to discuss the application process or if you require any support with the Youth Jobs PaTH, get in touch with the team at Audit Express.
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]
![Changes to ASQA audit process. Is your RTO Audit Ready?]()
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]
by Matthew Dale | Jun 16, 2016 | ASQA, Audit Express, Best Practice, Internal Auditing, Registered Training Organisation, Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015, TAFE, Training and Assessment Strategy, Training Package, VET Development Centre, VET Fee Help, Victorian Training Guarantee, VRQA
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by Matthew Dale | May 17, 2016 | ACPET, ASQA, Audit Express, Best Practice, Funding Contract, Registered Training Organisation, Senator Scott Ryan, VET Fee Help
We want your feedback on the Redesigning VET FEE-HELP Discussion Paper.
The team at Audit Express commend the hard work Minister Scott Ryan has put into his VET FEE-HELP Review, and the re-designing VET FEE-HELP discussion paper. [emaillocker id=6291]
At Audit Express we value the feedback and input of our clients and stakeholders, which is why we have set up a survey for you to provide your response and feedback to the discussion questions included in the Ministers re-designing VET FEE-HELP discussion paper. There are a total of 35 questions, we estimate this should take around an hour to complete in full. If you are short on time, or if there are only a few points you wish to put forward, you do not need to provide a response to all questions. All feedback and comments are important to us. We will be sure to take your feedback into account when preparing our response to the Ministers discussion paper, which we will also share with you.
You can complete our survey either on the form below, or by clicking on the following link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S5FT7F8
If you would like a copy of your completed survey to use in preparing your own response for the Minister, please get in touch with one of our team members who will be happy to email you a pdf copy of your completed survey.
Thank you for your time and if you wish to discuss the 2017 VET FEE-HELP re-design please get in touch with one of our consultants by calling 1300 73 55 41.
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by Matthew Dale | Mar 21, 2016 | ACPET, ASQA, Audit Express, Compliance Consulting, Registered Training Organisation, Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015, Training and Assessment Strategy, Training Package, VET Fee Help, Volume of Learning, VRQA
Extension of training package transition period for RTOs
As many of you will know too well, there has been a surge in the number of training packages effected by the transition to the Standards for Training Packages. As a result many training packages have been endorsed by the Australian Industry and Skills Committee (AISC). This has resulted in a massive workload for many RTOs across Australia. To support RTOs to manage the transition and implement the revised training packages, the Australian Government, the Minister for Vocational Education and Skills and state and territory Skills Ministers have agreed to temporarily increase the period allowed to transition students to the updated training package qualifications under Standard 1.26 (a) of the Standards for RTOs 2015. [emaillocker id=6291]
RTOs will now have 18 months for transition, instead of the usual 12 months from the date the superseding training product was released to transition existing students to the updated training package qualifications, or to allow students to complete their studies and issue the appropriate qualification or statement of attainment.
It is important to note that this provision only applies for training products endorsed by the AISC from September 2015 until March 2016. You can review the full list of relevant qualifications by clicking on this link.
For more information on transitioning arrangements for superseded qualifications visit the Departments website or contact AuditExpress
Email: info@auditexpress.com.au
Phone: 1300735541
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