As the VET sector continues to prepare for the implementation of the revised Standards for RTOs from 1 July 2025, ASQA has provided further draft Practice Guides to help providers think through what the changes to the Standards will mean for their operations.
We now have Practice Guides for the new Outcome Standards – focussing on:
- Quality Area 1 – Training and Assessment
- Quality Area 2 – VET Student Support, and
- Quality Area 4 – Governance.
Guides are still under development for Quality Area 3 – VET Workforce.
Each of the practice guides contains a list of example activities (although note that these are not definitive lists) and questions providers should be asking themselves to help them understand the requirements in the Revised Standards and to be collating evidence of their compliance.
ASQA has also included in the Practice Guides the known risks to quality outcomes for each of the Standards. For example – in relation to facilities, resources and equipment the known risks include some obvious ones:
- Maximising student enrolments without having sufficient facilities, resources and equipment available, or
- Having poor quality facilities, equipment or resources.
But some of the risks might not be so well known – such as:
- “Not considering the sufficiency of facilities, resources and equipment required to deliver the training product when delivered via online learning. For example, over-reliance on simulated work environments, virtual supervisor observations or students digitally recording their work activities, where training and assessment of practical skills in an online environment may not translate to real-world capabilities.”
- “Not sufficiently servicing your regional/rural/remote locations to ensure that students there have access to appropriate facilities and work placements.”
- “Not including third party’s facilities, resources and equipment when self-assuring against this standard, including health and safety.”
Obviously, compliance managers and RTO CEOs need to be working through the practice guides – but there’s also an important opportunity for staff professional development in having broader conversations across your RTO about the Revised Standards and the questions being asked by the regulator as they are rolled out.
