~ Slide: 2025 Standards – Insights ASQA Webinar – 28 November 2025 ~
Fiona O’Brien: Good afternoon everyone. My name is Fiona O'Brien. I'm the Executive Director of Transformation and Reform with the Australian Skills Quality Authority. I'd like to welcome you and thank you for joining our webinar today where we're going to share insights from the 2025 Standards and what a great turnout we've got today. We've certainly had lots of interest in joining our session, which as you'll hear about, is just one of several activities we'll be delivering over the next 12 months. Joining me today for our webinar is Sharayne Given, Senior Director, Innovation and Improvement, Melinda Cox, Director, Policy and Education, and Erin Conlon, Director of Performance Monitoring.
We often get plenty of questions through our webinar chat about access to this session afterwards, so I can confirm that the slides and a recording of this session will be made available on our website after, probably in a couple of weeks, but we will send a message to all participants once this is completed so you know. Next slide please.
~ Slide: Acknowledgement of Country ~
So before we really get into today's webinar, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the many lands on which we are all dialling in from today. I'm joining you from Canberra, land of the Ngunnawal people. I'd like to pay my respects to the people, the cultures and elders past, present and emerging and extend that respect to any First Nations and Torres Strait Islander people who are joining our session today. Next slide.
~ Slide: Webinar overview ~
Our purpose for today is to provide you with some key information and insights now that we are well and truly into our transition to the 2025 Standards. You may have joined our webinar in June where we were on the cusp of implementation. Now that we are here and in line with our commitments, we’re sharing insights with you today on how implementation is going. This will include information on our regulatory activities and what we are finding out when we are undertaking these with providers. We've also put together a section in the package today on useful tips and we really hope you'll find that
beneficial. Towards the end of our session, we'll also go through some of your pre-submitted questions. Next slide.
~ Slide: Webinar recording and resources ~
So just a reminder, today's content will be available on our website in the coming weeks. This will include the slide pack from today's session along with the recording. We've also included resources in the webinar platform that you can download. There's links there to useful resources on the Standards and details about our communication channels where we actually share our content. We really encourage you to access these materials and distribute them to your team. Next slide.
~ Slide: Ask Us… ~
So, we've had lots of pre-submitted questions through the online registration form, and I want to thank all of you that have asked questions through that forum. We've actually received about 120 when I checked in with the team yesterday, so our team's been busy collating those questions and as I mentioned earlier, we will answer quite a few at the end of the session. We won't of course have time today to answer all of the questions, given the volume, but we want to encourage you to continue to ask questions throughout the session.
To do so, you can actually submit questions using the question function in the webinar chat. A little bit different to our last webinar, we've actually got some members of our team sitting behind the scenes and they're going to attempt to respond to as many of your questions as possible. That's your questions you're sending through on the webinar concurrently with the webinar today, and they're going to try and push out as many responses for you as we run our webinar today as well. So, we'll go into more detail later in the webinar but make sure you take time to read previously published FAQs because this might help, this might actually answer questions that you already have and you can access those through us
website and we'll be putting a QR code later on in the webinar today with a link for that as well to our website. So, with that said, before we get into the really meaty content, I did want to give you a bit of an overview and some updates from ASQA. Next slide please.
~ Slide: ‘Smart Regulation’ measures ~
So this is a bit of a busy slide, but you know, I really did want to share with you all today what we've been sort of up to over the last 12 months and particularly since the transition to the Standards. So taking an ASQA-wide view, we are really committed to identifying and implementing productivity efficiencies across the regulatory environment, much the same as is the focus in other agencies and government departments at the moment. So we're really focused on undertaking a program we're calling ‘Smart Regulation’, which we commenced with the Standards some time ago, but we've also expanded into other focus areas now too. So I just wanted to take you through some of the main components of that. Of course, we've got 2025 Standards implementation along with our revised Regulatory Assessment Approach and both are well underway now. We've made improvements to the way that we collect information and to our assessment approach, which means more efficient assessment processes and more succinct reports at the end of an assessment. So you'll hear a bit
more about this from Sharayne later in our session.
We've also published our Dual Sector Regulatory Strategy in September 25, 2025, sorry. This is a strategy that we've developed jointly with TEQSA. So the strategy is outlining ways to improve efficiencies for providers, so like dual sector providers that are operating across both the VET and the Higher Education sectors. We're enhancing our risk-based differentiated regulations so that we can strengthen our targeted approach and use our full range of regulatory powers. This will ensure that our regulatory action is proportionate and as risk-based as possible. We're midway through our Digital
Transformation Program. It's a 3 year program and we've hit the 18 month mark really recently. This program includes improvements to the sector through information collection and application processing. So, probably many of you who are familiar with asqanet will be happy to hear that we are replacing asqanet with a new ASQA Portal. This is the main feature of our Digital Transformation Program and this is going to streamline your interactions and engagement with us.
It is a large program spanning over 3 years, but we do have some of the foundational pieces designed and built and we're really hoping that you'll be able to engage with us through the new portal next calendar year, later on in the year, but we'll be providing you updates regularly on that.
We've also improved our information sharing, this extending across jurisdictions, borders and systems to improve efficiency so that we're not asking providers for the same information multiple times. We've still got a way to go here, but we are well underway with this and, you know, looking forward to delivering efficiencies and improvements for you all in that regard as well. Next slide please.
~ Slide: Poll ~
So before I hand over to Sharayne, we'd just like to do a quick poll, which you should see come up onto your screen and we'll be doing a couple of these throughout the webinar. The first question for this poll is, how well do you understand the 2025 Standards now that we are 5 months into implementation? And I'll just give you a few minutes to participate in that.
Ok, well thank you everyone for contributing to the poll and please note that the results from this poll and the ones that we'll conduct, and of course your feedback, ongoing feedback to us, are just going to help further shape our education and engagement with you, so we really appreciate it. I'm going to hand over to Sharayne now who is going to discuss implementation of the 2025 Standards and the key insights that we’re getting from our regulatory activities.
~ Slide: Key insights from regulatory activities ~
Sharayne Given: Thank you, Fiona. Hello, everybody. My name’s Sharayne Given and it's my pleasure to be with you
today and sharing this section. This is quite new for us. We have improved our reporting and tracking of our outcomes of activities and we're really seeking in this section of our webinar to share those insights with you. We don't want to hold anything back. What we see, we want to share with you for your own learning and growth as well. Thank you. I'll move on to the next slide.
~ Slide: 2025 Standards ~
And before we get into the detail, just a quick reminder of the Standards, particularly if you're brand new to the VET sector or possibly a brand new RTO, newly registered, those Standards came into effect on the 1st of July. If you are like me, that feels like yesterday, albeit here we are 5 months in. The Standards are a very important change to the way we approach the VET sector in terms of quality and consistency and integrity right across the sector. The Standards were carefully designed to promote flexibility and innovation, which allows for a different way to respond to those Standards and provide evidence and information to us depending on unique variations across different RTOs, and of course that's covered
in that last dot point there, the diversity, and of course it promotes continuous improvement and opportunities to further grow beyond minimum compliance. Thank you. Next slide.
~ Slide: ASQA’s regulatory approach includes: ~
If you've been to any of our previous webinars, the national workshop series, which was held around the country or read some of our material that we produced and circulated across the last few months, you would know that we also have been shifting our regulatory approach. As Fiona mentioned, we've got consistency at the heart, as well as being productive and efficient as a regulator, and that includes looking at the way we do our business and engage with you, in this case, particularly around assessment activities. So this slide isn't new, you have seen it before in some of our previous materials.
There are a range of ways that we undertake our regulatory activities. That includes assessments of performance where we're making findings against the Standards or against our legislative remit. You may see or hear from us in undertaking a site visit, a discrete activity out there to engage with you on the Standards.
You may see or hear from us in requesting information. That could be something that we're requesting from you in your RTO alone or it possibly is something that relates to a wider theme or risk or issue across the sector and may involve many providers submitting material on the same theme or risk. Phone interviews – so a new opportunity for us to engage with you to pick up the phone and ask a few questions about how you're going on a particular issue and I do have a little update to share with you on that in a moment. And of course, investigations. We may conduct investigations where we have
serious concerns about risk being present. Thank you. Next slide.
~ Slide: What have we been up to? ~
This slide really covers what we've been up to for the last few months. There are some numbers in there. You can see, very busy in our Market Entry team with the applications to become an RTO, and the results that you'll see in a moment reflect the content from those activities, and we've conducted assessments with more than 150 providers in our scheme. You would have also heard us talk about a concept of campaigns around our regulatory risk priorities and the most recent one is a campaign that has kicked off with providers that are delivering training or assessment around early childhood education and care. That has included a phone call program where we have reached more than 300 RTOs to collect information and understand how risks are being managed across that cohort. Internally, we've also been rather busy. It's not just an uplift for the sector, but it's a further uplift for us internally as well. We've been conducting more focused quality assurance, checking our work with the implementation of the 2025 Standards to make sure we're delivering the very best on consistency in the work that we’re producing. Thank you.
~ Slide: Case Example: Provider Z? ~
I am now going to move on to the next slide and hand over to Erin Conlon, our Director of Performance Monitoring, who will take you through some of that more meaty detail on what we're seeing in our assessment activities. Thank you Erin.
Erin Conlon: Thanks Sharayne. As Sharayne mentioned, my name's Erin. I'm very happy to join you here today and share some insights that we've been seeing across the year so far. I thought I would begin today with sharing this case study with you. This is a really good example of the work we've been doing internally to improve and embed our own efficiencies and improvements in our assessment approach. This is an example that I will call Provider Z. So, as you can see from the graphic on the screen, there are some significant improvements made within this process. So Provider Z was due for a registration renewal. They hadn't been subject to an audit or assessment in 6 years and we undertook an assessment of performance for this provider. So that means that we were seeking to make findings against the Standards and as you can see, the results were very good in terms of our commitment to improving our assessment approach. Within the activity itself, the scope of the assessment was similar in volume to the previous assessment that had been undertaken for this provider.
However, the team were able to undertake this assessment in a much faster way through some of our process improvements. So as you can see on the screen, there's been significant improvements in our report writing style and templates, which has led to a much more succinct report, with the previous report for this provider being 223 pages, the most recent report being 10. There's also significant improvements in the time it took to undertake the activity. So as you can see on the screen, there was a reduction of 55% in the time that it took to complete the activity and there were improvements in the overall duration from the beginning to the end. As you can see, it led from the previous activity being delivered in 4 months to the provider having a report delivered to them in this activity within 28 days, so that's pretty significant. We are continuing to make improvements in our assessment approach and hopefully, as we're engaging with you as providers, you'll be able to see this in the activities that you undertake with us. Next slide please.
~ Slide: 2025 Standards – Insights from Performance Monitoring ~
So now I'm just going to talk about some insights from Performance Monitoring. So the Performance Monitoring team has found a number of areas of concern over the last 6 months of the Standards as well as some positive trends. So the team has found that poor quality assessment systems and practices was the most common issue during performance assessments and that relates to the Outcome Standard 1.4, as well as unsuitable or unqualified trainers and assessors is also frequently identified as an issue with the highest potential consequence if it's left unaddressed, and that relates to Outcome Standard 3.3. Training and assessment, the issue that comes up is training and assessment being delivered by persons with current industry skills and knowledge. The team also found positive trends in the area of diversity and inclusion support and student wellbeing. These focus areas within the 2025 Standards were being demonstrated effectively by providers in the last 6 months, or sorry in the first 3 months, particularly fostering safe and inclusive learning environments for VET students and culturally safe learning environments for First Nations people. Next slide please.
~ Slide: 2025 Standards – Insights from Performance Monitoring ~
This slide provides a little bit more detail specifically on what Outcome Standards providers are not meeting most frequently. Obviously this is a point in time with results coming through to the end of October. We will continue to track these and also to share with, results with you across the year. It's also worth noting within the number of occasions that these Standards have been found not met, that one provider could be present in one or multiple of these findings. As you can see, Outcome Standard 4.4 is the most frequently not met Standard so far closely followed by Outcome Standard 1.4 and there's information on the screen around what those Standards are for. I thought I would share a few examples that relate more specifically to the findings of not met. So for Outcome Standard 4.4, that includes findings around providers may have policies and procedures in place in relation to their continuous improvement; however, there hasn't been evidence of implementing continuous improvement actions within their registers. While providers may have quality assurance reviews and they're conducting them, they have not always picked up issues. Therefore, there's some questions around the effectiveness of those reviews.
Another issue, a theme that's been picked up is where validation outcomes are not being included in continuous improvement plans and registers for providers. For Outcome Standard 1.4, some of the different themes we've been seeing are inadequate or RPL assessment systems that are not fit for purpose and are not consistent with the training product. There's been instances where assessment does not meet the frequency requirements. For example, an assessment condition may state to conduct assessment 3 times, but they're only conducted once, and we've seen themes around inadequate systems for practical observation assessments. In relation to Outcome Standard 3.3, some of the themes we have been seeing are inadequate due diligence being conducted in verifying, in verifying the trainer and assessor qualifications and industry experience, and trainers and assessors that do not have vocational industry competency in all of the products that they're delivering. Outcome Standard 1.1 is the fourth highest not met findings. Some of the themes that we’re seeing around not met findings in that Standard are proposed structure and pace of training not supporting all student cohorts, and that's also particularly interesting around overseas students as well. Next slide please.
~ Slide: 2025 Standards – Insights from Market Entry Assessments ~
I will now talk to you a little bit about our insights from our Market Entry team. So in our Market Entry team, this is the initial registration stage for providers. The most common areas of concern identified during our assessments were poor quality training in 52% of cases and poor quality assessment systems or practices in 46% of cases. To break these issues down further, our assessors are commonly seeing that for training, the training product requirements are not met and this includes unsuitable modes of delivery and training structure or pace. For assessment systems and practices, providers are not demonstrating principles of assessment including fairness, flexibility, validity and reliability. So you can see there's still some themes coming through there from the previous slides, particularly in relation to structure and pace as well. For ineffective or unsuitable organisational leadership, this is an issue that's most commonly rated as having the highest consequence if left unchecked and this was identified as a severe concern. It includes not meeting Fit and Proper Person Requirements and over-reliance on VET consultants, compromised integrity of the sector and not cooperating with the VET regulator, and this is the issue that is the most common reason why an application is rejected. We've also been seeing some positive trends. For example, strategies to support training package transition and intended management of overseas students was demonstrated strongly by applicants. Next slide please.
~ Slide: 2025 Standards – Insights from Registration Management ~
We do have some insights from our Registration Management team as well. So our Registration Management team deal with many different types of registration matters, so that includes add to scope and renewal applications amongst other registration related assessments. Across the registration space, including in change of scope, the most common concerns were poor quality and inadequate facilities, resources or equipment, and this was followed by unsuitable or unqualified trainers and assessors. Next slide please.
~ Slide: Key themes in our enquiries ~
This is the insights from our Service Delivery team. Our Service Delivery team handles incoming emails and phone call enquiries and they receive a large quantity of these. This is a snapshot of the most common 2025 Standards related enquiries that the team have received to date. As you can see, the team have received the most questions on Fit and Proper Person Requirements, training including training product requirements, training techniques, work placement and industry engagement along with the Credential Policy and trainer and assessor competencies. There are other notable themes that are listed here. I won't read them all out to you, but you can see them on the screen. And then that's it for my slides, so I will now hand back to Sharayne.
~ Slide: Accessing help ~
Sharayne Given: Thank you Erin. Much appreciated and I'm sure those insights are quite eye-opening for the sector. I've got a little section here now which is accessing help, so knowing where to go and what information is available to you. Before I get into those details, I'll just move on to the next slide.
~ Slide: Poll ~
We're up to our second poll and as you read the question in front of you and respond to our poll – Which area of the 2025 Standards do you most need support with? – I just want to take this moment as you're completing that poll to remind you that we in ASQA are very agile and this is about ongoing engagement directly with you from us. So the results that you will provide in this poll, and they will be available to you, I think our team will post those results into the chat as we continue in the webinar. You’re actually helping us to focus our education and engagement material. So based on which areas you need most help in, they are the areas that we’ll focus our materials on to better support implementation as we continue through this year and beyond. Thank you. I look forward to seeing your results in that poll question.
~ Slide: Practice Guide library ~
Moving right along. Thank you. You may recall that we have a wide library of Practice Guides available to you. These were developed and released quite a few months ago now with a very particular structure to support you, including providing examples in those materials. Of course, those colours represent the different components of the Standards, the maroon being the Outcome Standards, the blue being the Compliance Requirements, and the green piece at the bottom, the Credential Policy. If you haven't engaged with those materials, they are probably your number one resource to get across the requirements and some of the things that might help you with those examples and tips. Thank you. Moving right along.
~ Slide: Frequently asked questions ~
Our next slide is really here to remind you that we have our FAQs available. You've contributed to these FAQs through workshops, webinars, through the enquiry line and other sources. The most recent version of the Frequently Asked Questions came out in October and were last updated in October as well. There are now over 110 questions in the FAQ pack and that is in response to more than 700 questions that you've submitted to us across the last 6 months or so. Thank you. Moving right along.
~ Slide: 2025 Standards – additional resources ~
This next slide is really to catch you up on the many different materials that we have. Of course, you would be well across our ASQA IQ, an intentional educational piece that comes out once a month. You can find all of our IQ material on our website along with the Practice Guide library along with the FAQs, you'll find the podcast series there with our most recent podcast being released in October. That topic is the Credential Policy, so no doubt of interest to many of you if you haven't accessed that so far. And of course in front of you, we have some animated videos and some infographics available to you and also to your students. So 2 large products here, again available on our website and post webinar, we will send out these links to you so you've got them all nice and handy, but 2 materials here, one for providers and one for students. Thank you. I am now going to hand over to my colleague Melinda Cox, who's going to take you through another important bit, which is some useful tips for you to consider. Thank you Mel.
~ Slide: Useful tips for providers ~
Melinda Cox: Thanks Sharayne. Hi everybody. Yes, I'm Mel Cox. I'm the Director of ASQA's Policy and Education team and it's great to be with you this afternoon. So, as Erin has stepped you through in quite a bit of detail, we are starting to identify some trends through our various regulatory activities and I want to take a closer look at these and give you some practical tips that might be helpful. Next slide please.
~ Slide: Tips on training ~
Ok, so let's start with training. So we have identified some concerns with unsuitable modes of delivery and training structure or pace. So our first tip would be to align your delivery mode with the training product requirements. Review the training product specifications carefully to ensure that the chosen delivery mode – whether that's online, face-to-face, blended – meets all of the requirements. You should avoid defaulting to online delivery for units that require practical hands-on skills unless that's supported by robust simulation strategies where the training product allows.
Secondly, you should structure your training for logical progression. For example, designing the training sequence so that foundational skills are taught before advanced concepts. You might use mapping tools to align each activity with the relevant competency outcomes to avoid gaps or duplication. If the training product includes a mandatory work placement, ensure that it is incorporated at an appropriate time to effectively support and develop the student's skills and knowledge.
Lastly, it's all about an appropriate pace. You should avoid compressing training into unrealistic timeframes that compromise learning outcomes. You should build in sufficient time for practise, reflection and assessments to ensure that learners can demonstrate their competency confidently. Your course durations should reflect the Australian Qualifications Framework or AQF volume of learning requirements. If you deliver courses with durations below the period recommended under the AQF, you need to document your rationale and be able to reasonably justify and demonstrate how your course durations still enable students to develop the skills and knowledge of the training product and to apply them in practice. Next slide please.
~ Slide: Tips on assessment ~
Alright, assessment. So an assessment system is a coordinated set of documented policies and procedures that ensures assessments are consistent and are based on the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. When it comes to assessment practices and systems, we're seeing that providers aren't always demonstrating the principles of assessment specifically. So let's go through these in a more detailed way.
When it comes to fairness, you need to develop clear procedures for identifying and applying reasonable adjustments such as extra time or alternative formats for particular students without compromising competency requirements. You should also communicate reassessment opportunities upfront so that students understand the process.
For flexibility, you should ensure that you adapt assessment tasks to reflect the learner's skills, knowledge and experience while maintaining alignment with the training product. For example, by adjusting your assessment system where a student has already demonstrated some aspects of a unit of competency through other means. Where a provider is conducting RPL, you need to ensure that you can demonstrate how your RPL policies, processes and tools are designed and applied with the same rigour as your usual assessment system. You still need to ensure that the principles of assessment and rules of evidence are being met. We do see many instances of poor quality RPL processes, so it's important to remember that RPL is not a shortcut, it's an assessment process.
When it comes to validity, ensure that your assessments include practical demonstration. With artificial intelligence tools becoming more prevalent and accessible, it's critical that assessments go beyond just theory or written responses. Learners should be able to demonstrate how they apply their skills in real or simulated environments. For online assessments, your assessment system should be able to verify that the assessment was actually undertaken by the enrolled student and not someone else.
Lastly, we've got reliability. Ensure your assessment system includes sufficient context, detail and guidance to enable assessors to make consistent assessment judgements and minimise variation across assessors. Consider identifying benchmarks for practical activities that are broad enough to allow for variations in the task being undertaken by different students or a variation in the context, but are sufficiently detailed, observable behaviours for an assessor to evaluate consistently. Develop clear and consistent evidence criteria for judging performance and provide ongoing professional development and standardisation training for your assessors to ensure they have a shared understanding and consistent application of your assessment criteria. Next please.
~ Slide: Tips on governance ~
Alright, governance. So ineffective or unsuitable organisational leadership has been identified by us as a severe concern with some organisational leaders not even meeting the Fit and Proper Person Requirements. So my first tip would be to ensure that you’re doing your own due diligence when you're appointing your governing persons.
Secondly, you should ensure that your governing persons are keeping their Fit and Proper Person Declarations current. You might regularly verify and update those declarations, especially when their roles, responsibilities or circumstances change. Bear in mind that ASQA can request you to submit a Fit and Proper Person Declaration at any time.
Thirdly, lead by example. Governing persons should be visible, informed and engaged. They should be actively promoting a culture of integrity and continuous improvement. They should remain well-informed about regulatory requirements, operational challenges and emerging trends, and of course, make sound decisions. They should promote transparency and accountability internally, promoting an environment of trust where staff know that disclosing something relevant to their Fit and Proper Person Declaration is the right thing to do and it will be handled reasonably and fairly.
Lastly, define roles clearly. Ensure your staff, including your leadership team, understand their responsibilities under the 2025 Standards. So documenting their responsibilities in position descriptions, having regular team meetings, establishing performance reviews and the like will all assist with this. Next slide please.
~ Slide: Tips on facilities, resources and equipment ~
We heard a little earlier from Erin that facilities, resources and equipment comes up quite a bit. So to prevent these issues, we would recommend that you conduct your own regular internal audits of your facilities, resources and equipment, that you maintain resource mapping documents that clearly link the facilities, tools and equipment to the specific units of competency, ensuring alignment with the training requirements and product. Ensure that you're connecting with your industry partners and staying informed about current technologies, practice, resource expectations so that your training delivery
remains current and relevant. Ensure a sufficient quantity and quality of equipment so that all your students have access to the resources they need and have a plan and a budget for maintenance and upgrades to ensure that your resources are fit for purpose over time. This will include scheduling routine servicing, replacing outdated equipment, replacing consumables and allocating funds for future improvements. Next slide, please.
~ Slide: Tips on trainers and assessors ~
Tips for your trainers and assessors. So maintaining quality and training delivery goes well beyond facilities, resources and equipment, of course. It very much depends on the capability of your trainers and assessors. Unsuitable or unqualified trainers and assessors pose a significant risk to compliance and student outcomes. So firstly, ensure that you have an appropriate number of trainers, assessors and staff required to deliver your courses. Factors for consideration may include the number of students, modes of delivery and the type of training product being offered, your scheduled delivery hours for each of your student cohorts and the assessment practices needed. You should review each course to determine how many trainers and assessors you'll need. Consider contingency planning for planned and unplanned leave as well. The second tip is to ensure your trainers and assessors are allocated time to do their own professional development. Examples include supporting them to participate in a community of practice, an industry exchange or in-house training modules.
Next, make sure you read and meet the requirements of the Credential Policy. A lot of the questions we've received out of those 700 questions have actually been about the Credential Policy and VET workforce. The Practice Guides, ASQA IQ articles and our Frequently Asked Questions also will help you to understand these requirements and unpack them for you along with the podcasts that Sharayne mentioned before. Lastly, please do verify the credentials of your trainers and assessors thoroughly. You can use the Unique Student Identifier transcripts, contact the providers where your trainers and
assessors undertook their TAE, undertake reference checks, look on the National Register to check a
provider's scope from where someone's worked before as examples of ways you can do this due
diligence. Ok, next slide please.
~ Slide: Reminders ~
Just a couple of reminders. So under the 2025 Standards, please remember that you now need to notify us of your material changes within 10 business days and that's come all the way down from 90. So it's quite a change when those material changes happen. You need to notify us about any prospective changes to the ownership of your organisation as soon as practicable before the change takes effect or any prospective or actual change in relation to governing persons of the organisation. If that can't be confirmed until it happens, please notify us within 10 business days after the change if you can't do it beforehand.
Next, ensure your details are kept up to date in our systems. So if you haven't checked those for a while, please do. The Annual Declaration on Compliance is coming up again soon. We use the CEO details and CEO email address that's in the system to send out your link to your ADC. So that's an example of why it's important to keep that up to date. Lastly, your TVA data is due on the 28th of February, so please make sure that you’re ready for that and that you don't miss that deadline. We can and have been known to issue infringements for late submission of TVA data. Next slide please.
~ Slide: Poll ~
So, last poll. Ok, this one is very important to us like the others, but in particular because my team looks after education, so we’re really keen to hear from you on this one. Can you tell us please, what do you think of our educational guidance so far that we've provided for the 2025 Standards? Everything from our Practice Guides, through to all the other sorts of materials we've produced and have mentioned earlier in this webinar today. Again, as Sharayne said before, this sort of pulse check survey, where such a large group as this one, is really useful for us to think about, for example, what should our next
podcast be about? Or what would you like us to do more FAQs on or when we update our Practice Guides, what's missing? What are you still not sure about that you really think we should be covering? That'll help us very much. Ok. Probably given you long enough for that one, maybe, I hope. I am handing back to Fiona now.
~ Slide: Q&A – Your Questions Answered ~
Fiona O’Brien: Thanks Mel and I hope you've all had time to contribute to our poll. Well, we really appreciate everyone's
engagement so far and we've got a bit of time set aside now so that we can move to our questions that you've actually submitted. These are your pre-submitted questions. So I'm going to go through some of those with my colleagues and yeah, we'll go from there.
~ Slide: Q&A – Q1 ~
So I think the first question, next slide please. The first question is, will the next Annual Declaration on Compliance cover both the 2015 and the 2025 Standards? And I'm going to hand over to Erin. She's going to answer this one for us. Over to you Erin.
Erin Conlon: Thanks Fiona. So the Annual Declaration on Compliance is your organisation's confirmation that it's met the Standards for all certifications issued over the past 12 months. So for the last 12 months, we've recognised that this period spans both the 2025 Standards and a small period of time from the previous 2015 Standards. Providers will only need to declare compliance with the 2025 Standards. I'm sure you would've heard us talking in previous webinars and the workshops this year that there can only be one set of Standards in place at any one time. So therefore, we have made the decision that the reporting would be against the 2025 Standards. We are currently in the process of undertaking our review of the ADC process and further details about that will be shared before the end of the year. It is most likely to
be a requirement in March.
Fiona O’Brien: Thank you Erin. Ok, question 2 please.
~ Slide: Q&A – Q2 ~
Ok, so when will ASQA be releasing an audit tool or template that RTOs can use to assess themselves against the 2025 Standards? And I'm going to ask Sharayne to address this one for us.
Sharayne Given: Thank you Fiona. Look, the short answer is no, we will not be releasing a tool or template and the answer really goes to the heart of the 2025 Standards and the broad flexibility in which that brings. If providers are concerned about how to check that they're meeting the 2025 Standards, as I've mentioned, I would go to those Practice Guides as your number one resource, but also the many other materials to use that as your own self-check. But no, we are not releasing a standalone checklist or audit tool. Thanks Fiona.
Fiona O’Brien: Thanks Sharayne. We'll go to question 3 now.
~ Slide: Q&A – Q3 ~
This is a question around Standard 4.4(c) – mechanisms to collect feedback for continuous improvement – and we've been asked what advice we have for small RTOs that have few and familiar trainers when collecting feedback can appear repetitive or limited. Mel, would you be able to answer this question for us please?
Melinda Cox: Yes. So look, providers of any size should be considering a variety of different methods to collect feedback, both formal and informal. So this might include things like short surveys, informal discussions, quick polls, anonymous digital forms and the like. Incorporating external perspectives is an expectation here too because that can provide valuable insights beyond just your internal staff, your trainers and assessors. So feedback might be received for example from students obviously but also your industry partners, perhaps your work placement supervisors. Try and think of any other stakeholders relevant to your operating context that might be able to provide you with some valuable input and feedback. To keep your feedback meaningful, some reflective questions you might ask yourself – What worked well? What might be improved? – rather than repeating generic questions that often do lead to the same repeated responses. If your feedback is starting to feel overly repetitive, it's definitely a sign to change it up and act on it. So lastly, providers should be able to show that feedback is documented, even where it's been collected informally, please write it down, and that it's acted upon. So even a small change should be recorded somewhere, linked back to your continuous improvement plan so that when we come and talk to you, you're easily able to recall all of those little things you're doing incrementally week to week and it's not such a stress then. Thanks Fiona.
Fiona O’Brien: Thanks Mel. We'll move on to question 4 now please.
~ Slide: Q&A – Q4 ~
So, and Mel, I'm going to ask you to answer this one again, but we've been asked, in what situations could an RTO refuse to grant credit transfer for a unit or units completed with an RTO from another state or territory?
Melinda Cox: Yeah, this is a really great question. Thanks to whoever posted this one. So if a student provides legitimate AQF certification documentation and meets all the requirements for a credit transfer, under the Standards you are required to issue that credit transfer for that unit. There's a couple of exceptions. So that's except where a student's unable to provide appropriate or adequate evidence that you are satisfied is authentic. In other words, you can authenticate, cross check and make sure is real or where there are licencing restrictions in place for particular training products. So that is one element that sometimes triggers this question, particularly if a jurisdiction has particular licencing requirements or
restrictions in place that go to credit transfer. Where a student’s seeking to receive a full qualification through credit transfer only, you are absolutely in your rights to make a determination based on the evidence before you about whether or not you're satisfied that that credit transfer at the full qualification level is warranted.
And certainly, where a student's qualification has been cancelled, obviously that's not, no longer a legitimate qualification or unit of competency for credit transfer if it's been cancelled. So credit transfer, just to be clear again, credit transfer is what we think of as an administrative process, that is a provider doesn't need to actually undertake a full assessment exercise like you do in RPL, ok. So if it is deemed equivalent, it does need to be accepted, except in those cases I've listed above. The exceptions that I just listed off are in our FAQs, ok. So if you're looking for where that's written, that's in our FAQs document. Thanks Fiona.
Fiona O’Brien: Great, thanks Mel. And look, I think we do have time for another couple of questions so we'll move on
to question 5.
~ Slide: Q&A – Q5 ~
Under the 2025 Standards, does an RTO have to offer RPL and have RPL resources ready for each qualification on scope? Mel, could you perhaps go out by answering that one please?
Melinda Cox: Sure. Look, we've obviously been talking a fair bit with you all for quite a few months about the rising risk profile and our concerns around RPL not being done well. And so, as a response, some providers have felt that maybe it's safest just to not to offer RPL at all. The 2025 Standards though do require providers to make it known to students what the RPL process is about. So you need to provide advice to a student about RPL where it's an option for them. That doesn't mean to say that you are forcibly made to undertake or enter into an RPL process if you don't think it's the right pathway for the student, but the student definitely has the right to information from you about what RPL is and whether they'll be eligible for it. And if not, why not? Ok, so while the Standards do not explicitly state that you have to have a fully developed RPL kit for every qualification on scope, what you do require is to have appropriate policies and processes in place so that, if and when a student does come along that is a fit for an RPL process, then you are ready to go. You'll be able to put into action your assessment process. And as we said before, earlier in the presentation, this is as robust and rigorous as your normal assessment process for the training products you have on scope. Ok, so thanks Fiona. That's that one.
Fiona O’Brien: Thanks Mel. And we'll move on to question 6.
~ Slide: Q&A – Q6 ~
It's a really great question too. So are there language, literacy and numeracy and digital literacy assessments mandatory for fee-for-service students? Great question. Thank you for the RTO that has posted this. And Mel, could you answer that one too please?
Melinda Cox: The short answer is yes, ok. So you are required to assess all prospective students' language, literacy, numeracy or LLN, and digital literacy competency for the training product they're intending to enrol in. That's really important, ok. So it's in the context of the training product they're going to undertake, ok. This does apply, yes, to fee-for-service students as well. What is flexible here is we still have lots of providers reading this requirement and interpreting it as meaning, you have to do this special standalone assessment, a documented LLN robot for example or something like that. Not necessarily, ok. So I'll use that example of an enterprise RTO where the organisation is the employer of the students. They have a whole profile through their HR mechanisms and just by employing the person in their day-to-day job, they will have material on hand that goes to their LLN competency, their digital literacy competency. Now for some training courses, they want to put those staff through, they won't need to do a separate assessment, ok. They can simply reference and document that based on their HR profile and their general job description of their day-to-day job, they have the required LLN to do the course.
You don't need to do a whole separate process. Same in schools, ok. if schools already have an LLN profile, NAPLAN, all these other things and it meets the training product and you're satisfied through everything you've already got on the student, that's fine. This is about intent here. This is about not enrolling students to fail, ok. So think about the training product. If it's level 4 math for electrical, they've got level one math, we can't have that. That's not ok. That's setting them up for failure. So that's the intent here.
Fiona O’Brien: Great, thanks Mel. And look, I'm really conscious of time.
~ Slide: Q&A – Q8 ~
So we might move to question 8 that we received because, you know, I think this will be one that's really pertinent to most of our participants today. Erin, could you explain to us how ASQA does identify a provider risk and how it triggers a performance assessment?
Erin Conlon: Yes, thanks Fiona. Happy to do that. So ASQA considers a whole range of information to help inform us on whether we want to undertake an activity and what type of activity that might be. So it could be a performance assessment activity where we are assessing against the Standards or one of the other activity types that Sharayne had mentioned earlier in the slides today around a site visit or a phone call or request for information. And we use the information that we hold to inform the type of activity and the priority of the activity that we might want to undertake. Some of the risks that we consider would be what type of courses are offered by providers. Some may be higher risk than others, the number of student or the student cohort of the provider, and any risk indicators that are associated with those students, whether they're a CRICOS provider, and does ASQA hold any other information about the provider from tip-offs or complaints or any other information.
Also, we would consider, are there any other compliance requirements that maybe have or haven't been met that would indicate risk, for example, something that was included in ADC or a failure to meet previous compliance requirements like submission of TVA data. And we also look at things like the length of time since ASQA's engaged with the provider as well as a risk indicator. So we have access to a whole range of information and we look at all of that information and undertake a risk assessment and that informs whether we will undertake an activity and the timeframe in which we would like to
undertake that activity.
~ Slide: What you can expect over the next 6-12 months ~
Fiona O’Brien: Thanks. Thank you so much for that Erin. Well look, we're almost out of time, so I just wanted to thank everyone for their questions. And just to let you know what you can expect from us over the next 6 to 12 months – updates to our Practice Guides, more workshops, and well, another series of them that will be next calendar year, further webinars and resources, and continuing engagement with you through our different regulatory activities.
~ Slide: We want to hear from you ~
And I'll just go to our last slide so that you can scan the QR code and commence the survey. We'd really love and appreciate it if you could complete our survey on today's live stream. It only contains 3questions, so while you get your phones out and complete it, I just want to thank everyone for attending again today. So we're really committed to supporting you to implement the Standards and we know that by you being here today, you’re committed too and committed to high quality training for your learners. So thanks everyone for your attendance today. Goodbye.
~ Slide: Thank you ~