ASQA | Spotlight On Student support, Chapter 2
Support before enrolment
Chapter 2 aims to help your organisation develop the necessary student support prior to enrolment. To set students up for success, it is beneficial for training providers to determine the required level of support before enrolment. This will help meet compliance with clause 5.1 of the Standards.
Getting to know your student
To ensure your student is enrolling into a training product they can complete, you will need to provide advice about the requirements and determine their existing skills and competencies.
Turning this advice into a conversation can allow you to learn about the student, and the support they may need if they are to successfully progress through the course.
Successful conversation outcomes
At the end of the conversation with a prospective student, you should be aware of:
- their language, literacy, numeracy and digital (LLND) levels
- whether the student may require support to improve their LLND levels
- understanding the skills and experiences of the student, and how these may impact on their course progress
- conditions that may require adjustment of training and assessment methods. Some examples of adjustments are:
- flexibility with timing
- the use of alternate technologies and resources.
Closing the gaps
You should review the student’s situation against the minimum competencies needed to successfully complete the course, and identify possible reasonable adjustments. In a best-practice scenario, an adjustment is offered when a gap can be bridged.
On occasion, the student’s skills, experience and support needs may indicate the training product is not suitable for the student, and they should be advised as such. This includes circumstances where Government-funded or subsidised training products are used.
The Disability Standards for Education 2005 provides regulatory information on supporting people with disability in a training environment, including when using online training resources.
Success through LLND
Language, literacy, numeracy and digital (LLND) skills impact greatly on a student’s chance of success in a training program. Enrolling a student into a course well above their LLND competency can adversely affect a student’s confidence and mental health. They may also incur time and financial losses if they need to seek assistance.
Your LLND responsibilities
You are responsible for ensuring the student has appropriate LLND competencies for the training product. You also need to have tools in place to assess whether a student has sufficient LLND skills (including digital literacy) to enrol in a training course, which can be your own assessment materials or external services and/or tools.
To determine whether an LLND gap is significant or minor, your assessment tool should be:
- mapped to the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF)
- compared to the ACSF levels of the training materials and course.
Best fit for student and course
You should not enrol the student if a significant LLND gap is identified. Instead, you may offer an alternative training product on your scope which matches their current skills or refer them to career counselling for appropriate pathway advice.
If the gap is minor and can be addressed during training, you will need to work with the student and advise them before enrolment can be formalised to determine:
- their options to increase their LLND skills
- the expectations they will need to meet.
Use an approved LLND teaching and learning service
An external service often referred to is the Reading and Writing Hotline, Australia’s national telephone referral service for adult literacy and numeracy.
While the Hotline does have a number of resources on its website that support learners to improve their literacy, they do not provide LLND training and cannot directly support a student.
Download resources
Download the checklist of considerations which will guide you, your trainers, assessors and other support staff as you develop student strategies. These considerations will help you comply with regulatory and legislative requirements, along with encouraging best practice.