Clause 7.5—Provide accurate information about performance and governance

Clause 7.5

The RTO provides accurate and current information on its performance and governance consistent with the Data Provision Requirements as updated from time to time.

What clause 7.5 means for your RTO

RTOs are responsible for providing accurate information about their performance and governance in accordance with clause 7.5.

The Data Provision Requirements outline information that your RTO is required to submit. Apart from information required with applications, this falls generally into two categories:

• Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) data
• quality indicator data.

Data such as national training activity is very important—this informs decision-making about policies and funding for the national VET system and allows measurement of the system’s performance.

Quality indicator data provides information for RTOs about their students’ experience of their services and can be used to continuously improve services for students and employers.

National VET provider collection data

AVETMISS is a national VET data standard that ensures the consistent and accurate capture and reporting of VET information about students, providers, courses and training outcomes. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) is the custodian of the Standard, which forms the basis for collecting data for the national VET provider collection. Information on AVETMISS is available from the NCVER website.

Your RTO must obtain and report full AVETMISS data for all learners, except for specified training that is exempt under the National VET Provider Collection Data Requirements Policy.

Most student management systems can record and report AVETMISS data without additional entry. Some systems also manage online enrolment by learners. While this significantly reduces data entry by your RTO, data should be checked to make sure it is correct.

A register of data entry tools and student management systems is available on the NCVER website.

There are a number of other tools available on the NCVER website to support RTOs in submitting AVETMISS compliant data:

• a free online AVETMISS data entry tool if you do not have a student management system including data entry tools for RTOs with fewer than 100 students
• a free online AVETMISS data validation tool for RTOs to validate their data before submission. This entails a check to ensure that all mandated data fields are populated with data in an acceptable format.

Quality indicator data/quality surveys

All RTOs must collect quality indicator data using the required learner engagement and employer satisfaction questionnaires and provide an annual summary report of their performance against the learner engagement and employer satisfaction quality indicators to ASQA using one of the following systems:

• the survey management, analysis and reporting tool (no longer available for download)
• ASQA’s quality indicator annual summary report template.

You must submit your quality indicator data reports for the previous calendar year (1 January to 31 December) in full to qidata@asqa.gov.au by close of business 30 June each year.

A guide to compliance

ASQA’s regulatory experience shows that some RTOs are not lodging their AVETMISS data or are lodging data that is rejected as it is not AVETMISS-compliant. Many tools and supports are available to assist RTOs and these should be used to ensure the requirements of the Standard are met.

All RTOs must report to the national collection, including:

• those that access state or territory government funding arrangements, which usually require more frequent reporting through their state training authority
• those that only deliver training activity that is exempt from requiring full AVETMISS compliance, which are required to report aggregate competency commencement and completion data instead
• those that conducted no VET activity and issued no VET certification in a reporting year, which are required to submit a ‘nil activity’ report.

National VET provider collection data—due by the end of February each year

RTOs must retain evidence that they have submitted full AVETMISS data for all learners as required in the National VET Provider Collection Data Requirements Policy. This is due annually by the end of February for the previous calendar year.

RTOs that conducted no VET activity—that is, no student enrolment, training/assessment delivery or AQF certification issuance—in the previous calendar year are still required to report this through the AVETMISS validation system.

Quality indicator data—due to ASQA in June each year/quality surveys

RTOs must retain evidence they have collected and/or submitted quality indicator data—or, if they have been registered for less than a year, that they will be able to submit quality indicator data—using the required learner engagement and employer satisfaction questionnaires. This is due to ASQA annually by 30 June for the previous calendar year.