Outcome
Quality training and assessment engages VET students and enables them to attain nationally recognised, industry-relevant competencies.
Overview of Quality Area 1
Quality Area 1 comprises four focus areas and eight standards that go to the quality of training and assessment delivered by RTOs.
| Focus areas | Standards | |
|---|---|---|
| Training | 1.1 | Training is engaging and well-structured and enables VET students to attain skills and knowledge consistent with the training product. |
| 1.2 | Effective engagement with industry, employer and/or community representatives informs the industry relevance of the training. | |
| Assessment | 1.3 | The assessment system is fit-for-purpose and consistent with the training product. |
| 1.4 | The assessment system ensures assessment is conducted in a fair and appropriate way and enables accurate judgements of VET student competency. | |
| 1.5 | The assessment system is quality assured by appropriately skilled and credentialled people through a regular process of validating assessment practices and judgements. | |
| 1.6 | VET students with prior skills, knowledge and competencies are supported to seek recognition of prior learning to progress through the training product. | |
| Credit transfer | 1.7 | VET students who have previously completed an equivalent training product are supported to have their training recognised. |
| Facilities, resources and equipment | 1.8 | Facilities, resources and equipment for each training product are fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible and sufficient. |
Intent of Quality Area 1
Quality Area 1 focuses on training and assessment.
High-quality training and assessment means students are well equipped for employment or further study; and they are judged by employers as holding the skills and competencies specified in their qualification/training product.
In turn, high-quality training and assessment provides confidence to employers that VET graduates in the workplace will safely and competently apply the skills described by their qualification.
RTOs are required to develop and implement approaches—including by providing access to suitable resources, facilities and trainers—that ensure students gain all the relevant skills and knowledge, as described by their qualification/training product.
Where third parties are delivering training (or where training occurs in the workplace), it is particularly important that RTOs have systems for ensuring the quality of the training delivered, including the techniques, resources and facilities used.
The approach to training must be informed by industry engagement and should be designed alongside the approach to assessment. This ensures the assessment occurs at the suitable time in the student journey and assesses the right skills and knowledge to satisfy the requirements of the training product.
Reliable and fair assessment is fundamental for ensuring students have the necessary competencies before being awarded qualifications and for ensuring that their qualification holds value.
To achieve this, RTOs must have a comprehensive system of assessment based around the principles of assessment (fairness, flexibility, validity and reliability) and the rules of evidence (validity, sufficiency, authenticity and currency). The system must be quality assured through a risk-informed process of validating assessment practices and judgements, and also needs to ensure that assessors are appropriately applying the assessment tools and related guides and that consistency of assessment is being achieved in practice. This ensures that the system (including the assessment tools and marking guides) is delivering the necessary outcomes in line with training product requirements.
To ensure integration of training and assessment approaches and systems, many RTOs may choose to develop detailed training and assessment strategies that holistically describe the training (including how it has been developed and informed) and the assessment (including how it is conducted and quality assured) in line with the training product.
A key pillar of the national VET system is that nationally endorsed training products are recognised and portable regardless of where they were issued. This means that RTOs must have systems to support students who have previously completed an equivalent training product to have their training recognised (credit transfer).
RTOs are also expected to have systems to enable students to seek recognition of prior skills, knowledge and competencies, as appropriate and relevant to the training product. While different RTOs will have different approaches to recognition of prior learning (RPL), based on a wide range of factors, RPL must form part of the RTO’s assessment system. This ensures that, like all assessment processes, RPL is fair, flexible, valid and reliable.
RTOs are expected to be transparent about their approach to training, assessment (including RPL) and credit transfer to enable students to make informed decisions about the training product and the RTO. This is a requirement of Standard 2.1
