Welcome to the VET sector – the Vocational Education and Training sector of Australia. The sector that employees thousands, and trains and assesses hundreds of thousands of people a year. This sector also has approximately 20 organisations that influence how the sector is run, and determines the shape of the sector on a national and state basis.
With all of the organisations and all the stakeholders getting involved, it can feel like a bit of a jungle, and its easy for one to get lost.
So we thought we would make it easy for you and give you a quick breakdown of each of the organisations, and what they do within the VET sector. This can be your cheat sheet for the VET sector, a cheat sheet that will instantly help you to know who does what, and when and who to call in what situation. This will help the brand new person to the VET sector, and also the seasoned professional that is just screaming for CLARITY! Be warned though, this article is going to keep it super simple, so that you are confident and can navigate the sector with ease.
Let’s jump right in, and meet some of the big player organisations in the VET sector:
ASQA:
Firstly, there is ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) who is the national body in Australia that oversees and regulates RTO’s and TAFEs against the standards for RTO’s. Yes, there are actually standards that RTO’s and TAFE’s are policed against (TAFE’s are also RTO’s but we will deal with that later). ASQA oversee and regulate RTO’s in the following states:
QLD, Northern Territory, NSW, Tasmania, South Australia and Canberra.
Victoria and Western Australia have their own state regulators.
Confused yet? Don’t worry, stay with us.
So, when would you contact ASQA, and what do they actually do?
ASQA was founded on the 1st of July 2011, with its primary purpose being to act as national regulator for the vocational education and training industry. Prior to their inception, each of the departments of education in each state looked after RTO’s and VET in their state.
Let’s keep it practical – you may interact with ASQA under the following circumstances:
-If you want to start your own RTO, you will need to file applications with ASQA.
-If you want to add a qualification to ‘scope’ (range of what you can teach)
-If you want to remove a qualification from your ‘scope’
-If you have had a complaint about your RTO, you will hear from ASQA
-If you as a student want to complain about an RTO, you would contact ASQA
-If you have an audit coming up, they will be the ones to tell you, and will send an auditor to your RTO to audit your RTO’s compliance against the standards.
-If you would like to create an accredited course, ASQA will be the ones that you submit your application to.
Ultimately ASQA will be the ones that you contact regarding what you can teach, your registration as an RTO, and your compliance against the 8 major standards for RTO’s. Yes, they are best thought of as the ones that ‘Police’, and regulate the industry.
Find out more on the ASQA website at – https://www.asqa.gov.au
State Training Authorities:
Yes, Victoria and Western Australia like to be different. They have their own state training authorities, also known as STA’s. STA’s essentially do the same functions as ASQA but at the state level. The STA’s include VRQA and TAC.
VRQA (Victorian Registration & Qualifications Authority): is essentially the body that looks after VET in schools programs in high schools, as well as the registry of RTO’s in Victoria. It was originally started in 2007 and some of its other functions include-
-Registering children for home schooling, registering government schools, applying minimum standards and monitoring compliance against RTO’s, providing public information on education providers, and registering new categories of senior secondary courses.
Fun fact – if you are an RTO based in Victoria and delivering training outside of Victoria, then your RTO will be regulated by both VRQA and ASQA.
Find out more on the VRQA website- https://www.vrqa.vic.gov.au/
TAC (Training Accreditation Council): is the STA for W.A. Apologies for the string of acronyms there. Basically, TAC performs the same function as VRQA, in that it regulates training in its own state, registers and audits RTO’s, course accreditation, and naturally liaises with industry in its state to ensure that there is a good strong linkage between industry requirements and training being provided.
Find out more here at the TAC website- https://www.tac.wa.gov.au/
RTO’s – Registered Training Organisation
An RTO is a Registered Training Organisation, as its name states, it is ‘registered’ with the national or state regulator. There are approximately 4,000 RTO’s in Australia in 2020, and they are registered to be able to delivery training and assessment to students, and issue qualifications to students to recognise their formal studies as part of the qualifications framework in Australia. i.e Cert 1 courses and up to diploma level. The number of RTO’s will fluctuate constantly as new ones start and old ones close their operations. TAFE is also considered an RTO, however the core differences is that TAFE’s are funded by the government, where as the majority of RTO’s are private companies.
There are two types of fee structures for an RTO- ‘Fee for Service’ courses; or ‘Government funded courses’. Ie. Essentially, who is paying for your studies, is it the government or you? This is the simplest way to think about it.
Here on this site you will find a list of all current and unregistered RTO’s throughout Australia- https://training.gov.au
Skills Service Organisations
In the VET sector, if you are a student you will typically study a ‘Qualification’, e.g a Cert 1, 2, 3 , 4 or even a diploma. These ‘qualifications’ come from things called ‘Training Packages’, and these are basically training requirements that have been defined by a particular industry.
If we take a big step back, the training packages are written by industry bodies who get together and define what industry skills should look like.
Who are these industry bodies? Well they are called ‘Skills Service Organisations’ or SSO’s for short. In total there are six of them, and each of them look after their own group of industries. Price Water House Coopers, for instance, is one SSO, and they look after the following training packages- Business Services, Financial Services, Creative/Visual Arts, Information Technology, Education, Printing and Graphic Arts, Automotive Training, Mining, Drilling and Civil Infrastructure.
In total there are 71 training packages in Australia across the industries, and hundreds of qualifications available within those training packages. Think about it this way, there is the Business Services training package, then inside that there is the Certificate 1 in Business all the way up to the Advanced Diploma of Business.
You will find a list of the six SSO’s at this link- https://www.aisc.net.au/irc/skills-service-organisations
What does an SSO do? They write the training package.
So if you were unsure what something meant in a unit of competency or a qualification document, you can always ask questions of your relevant SSO.
IRC’s
The next most logical question is, where does the SSO get the information from? Well when writing the training packages, the six SSO organisations will consult with ‘Industry Reference Committees’ (IRC’s) – industry experts who provide guidance and input into what the industry expectations would be for training for that industry.
There is a reference committee for each training package, and there is a lengthy process that SSO’s must follow in order to develop the content for the qualifications that they are writing.
Each IRC is made up of people with close links to industry. They are leaders in their own sectors, from big business to small enterprise, and peak bodies to unions, who understand the skills needs of their sector, industry or occupation. IRCs ensure training packages meet the needs and concerns of employers, employees, training providers, and people seeking training qualifications.
To make sure industry’s voice is heard, IRCs gather information from their industry sector – including challenges, opportunities, trends and industry requirements for training, all in an effort to advise on what should be put into training packages by the SSO.
Here is a link to a list of the IRC’s that exist-
https://www.aisc.net.au/irc/industry-reference-committees
AISC
Ok, if you are still following along you would remember that- SSO’s write the training packages by consulting with the IRC’s. RTO’s teach the qualifications and ASQA regulates the RTO’s.
Now let’s add one more organisation to the mix. The Australian Industry Skills Committee (AISC). This organisation was set up in 2015, and its essential function is to approve or reject training package changes, and to provide advice on the implementation of national VET policies.
For a training package to be developed or revised, it must go through a number of drafts and stages. This is an example of where one training package rewrite is currently up to.
As you can see, a lot of stakeholders are given the opportunity to share their thoughts and feedback on what goes into the final training package version, and this is then finally approved or rejected by the AISC. It can be a very lengthy process. As a result, a training package will generally be updated every three to five years.
Here is a link to the AISC website- https://www.aisc.net.au/
NCVER
Although there are other stakeholders in the landscape of the VET sector, the last one that we need to touch on is the National Centre for Vocational and Educational Research.
As per their website, “The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) is the national professional body responsible for collecting, managing, analysing and communicating research and statistics on the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector.”
Essentially, they are the organisation that keep statistical data on hand in relation to things such as-
-How many students complete a course in Australia
-How many students enrol in a course
-What courses are most popular and what are the trends in education and training.
The information that they provide help RTO’s see current and future trends, and take appropriate action to support the employment and education needs of the workforce.
They are a great organisation, and provide RTO’s with invaluable insights and knowledge.
Well that’s the core organisations that you need to be aware of, and as you spend more time in the VET sector in various roles, you will come to see the energy, love and passion that each of the organisations puts into making the sector the best student-centred practical space of learning that it can be.
If you would like to know more about any of our courses that we run at Success Training Academy reach out at info@successtrainingacademy.com.au or give us a call on 1300 605 999.