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When you plan to run a registered training organisation (RTO), you may find it difficult to know:
Take compliance and quality assurance, for example, you may have heard about them, but do you know what they mean?
Numerous legislation, regulations and guidelines in Australia regulate the way we run an RTO such as:
This is not an exhaustive list. These legislation, regulations and guidelines specify the framework and the obligations to operate an RTO.
A number of these obligations are applicable on all business entities that operates within Australia and are overseen by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The law does not allow you to be an officeholder or manage a company (without court consent) if:
If you are member of ACPET or other industry bodies, they may also have codes of conduct and specific guidelines that you must follow to continue to be a member. These requirements and obligations come under “compliance”. Failing to meet all state and federal guidelines for compliance can result in serious consequences for your registered training organisation (RTO). Along with altering your company’s legal status, which may leave you vulnerable to lawsuits, government agencies may conduct audits, enact fines or even dissolve your business entirely.
Standard 2 of the SRTOs 2015 (Standards for Registered Training Organisations, 2015) states that the operations of the RTO must be quality assured. Quality assurance refers to “meeting and delivering intended performance according to certain benchmarking standards”.
Let’s look at Standard 2: Clause 2.1 – 2.4
2.1 The RTO ensures it complies with these Standards at all times, including where services are being delivered on its behalf. This applies to all operations of and RTO within its scope of registration.
2.2 The RTO:
2.3 The RTO ensures that where services are provided on its behalf by a third party the provision of those services is the subject of a written agreement.
2.4 The RTO has sufficient strategies and resources to systematically monitor any services delivered on its behalf, and uses these to ensure that the services delivered comply with these Standards at all times
While Standard 2 of SRTOs 2015 addresses the key client criteria of quality training and assessment strategies and practices there are many other quality considerations that make up a quality-assured RTO business.
Every RTO must have a system (often referred to as a ‘business or quality management system’) to manage its operations. The system should provide the basis for quality assuring a business.
Quality assurance is maintained by ensuring that:
To be continued…