Self-assessment tool

Introduction

ASQA’s self-assessment tool is designed to support training providers to manage self-assurance and ongoing compliance.

Our regulatory approach promotes a culture of self-assurance and continuous quality improvement as a core component of provider operations

This approach to regulation emphasises RTOs’ responsibility for assessing their own performance and practices against the Standards for RTOs 2015.

We have provided this self-assessment tool to assist the sector to understand the legislative requirements. This supports self-assurance by providers to identify, and address early, any deficiencies in their compliance to limit or prevent harm to students or the sector.

Why should you complete a self-assessment?

The National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (NVR Act) requires providers to comply with the Standards at all times as a condition of registration. This self-assessment tool provides support to providers in how to undertake a performance assessment of their own compliance with the Standards.

Self assessment is the act or process of analyzing and evaluating the RTO’s performance agaist the RTO Standards. It involves gathering evidence of the training and assessment outputs and outcomes of their activities, systems and processes and critically evaluating how well you are performing against the Standards.

Self assessment forms one part of a system of self-assurance to manage risk in your organisation so that you can identify and fix issues as they arise, manage these to quality outcomes while ensuring quality student outcomes and having confidence that your RTO meets your regulatory obligation on a sustained basis.

Using this tool will help you to identify and assess evidence of practice and outcomes for each phase of the student experience. You can use this tool to identify areas for improvement in your RTOs’ practices, systems and processes and to determine the actions that need to be taken to ensure quality outcomes for students, employers and the wider community.

The student experience

This self-assessment tool is a companion to ASQA’s Users' guide to the Standards for RTOs 2015 and aligns with the five phases of the student experience.

The new self-assurance regulatory model is underpinned by the Standards and will continue to reflect the student experience, with mapping to the relevant standards and clauses:

• Marketing and recruitment
• Enrolment
• Fee protection arrangements
• Support and progression
• Training and assessment
• Completion

To be fully compliant, RTOs also need to ensure their governance arrangements meet the requirements in the Standards.

Does my RTO need to complete a self-assessment?

It is not a requirement of registration to use this tool to assess your RTO’s compliance against the Standards. ASQA provides this tool to support RTOs in understanding their own performance (state of ongoing compliance) and the extent to which they are providing quality outcomes for students and employers to help them move toward self-assurance.

The tool does not form part of the Standards and has no legal authority. The tool does not prescribe what evidence you should collect to demonstrate your compliance with the Standards however it may provide evidence of your capability and commitment to delivering quality VET through ongoing review and continuous improvement.

Using this self-assessment tool

The tool follows the five phases of the student’s experience with an additional stage relating to your RTO’s governance arrangements, grouping the relevant Standards (and clauses) against each stage.

For each Standard, clause or group of related clauses the tool includes:

• Links to the relevant standards/clauses in the users’ guide
• A set of questions
  • These questions are designed to help review and consider your RTO’s performance in relation to the three core questions when assessing performance against the standards:
    • Does your practice align with the requirements of the Clause?
    • Do you have a system appropriate for ensuring ongoing compliance with the Clauses?
    • Do you monitor, review and continuously improve (self-assure) to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Clauses?
    • A table template that can assist with recording of self-assessment activities.
• A table template that can assist with recording of self-assessment activities.

Some RTOs may already have a continuous improvement plan in place to drive improvements in their operations. Others may find that as you move to self-assurance, a plan helps you to monitor and evaluate the changes you make to your RTO. For other RTOs, particularly those which are smaller in size, this tool may meet all of your self-assurance monitoring and planning needs.

After you complete the self-assessment

• You can choose to print the self-assessment from the ‘preview’ page.
• You will also receive an email with a copy of your responses that you can use as a starting point for developing an action plan (with timelines, actions assigned and so on).

Start the self-assessment