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]
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
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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