VET in schools

ASQA is committed to ensuring the quality of VET delivered to secondary school students (VETDSSS). As part of this commitment, we published the VETDSSS scoping study in October 2021. 

Our commitment

We identified a series of actions designed to support continuous improvement in the quality of VET delivered to secondary school students (VETDSSS). As such, we will:

• provide clearer guidance to assist VETDSSS providers to comply with the Standards
• work with our partners in VET regulation to identify shared risk and support national consistency in the regulation and quality of VETDSSS
• engage more directly with education departments and schools to increase awareness of regulatory requirements and how they assist quality
• engage with states and territories on shared risks, supported by our routine monitoring of VETDSSS to promote continuous improvement and increase public confidence in VETDSSS
• apply clause 1.6 of the Standards in all performance assessments of VETDSSS providers.

Our study recommends that the Australian and state and territory governments consider the observations made in this scoping study in developing the new National Skills Agreement to contribute towards improving the quality of VETDSSS.

Next steps

We have developed a program of work to implement these actions. 

We are launching a monitoring program to seek more information about provider practices in the delivery of VET for secondary school students. This will enhance our understanding of the current practices and risks within the sector.

Our monitoring program will:

• take place in 3 phases from February to July 2022
• focus on a specific training product or group of products where risk coincides with the potential for common areas of non-compliance, as identified in the scoping study, to arise
• invite a select group of providers to share information to ensure a cross-section of VETDSSS providers ranging in type, size and location are represented, and a large proportion of VET in school enrolments are included.

A stocktake of current education and guidance materials available will also take place. This will pinpoint gaps and identify opportunities to tailor resources specifically within the VETDSSS context. 

The insights from the stocktake, together with the findings from the monitoring activity, will be used to update our education and guidance materials, and inform our engagement with stakeholders across the sector. 

VET delivered to secondary school students scoping study

View the scoping study

Contact us

If you would like to speak with us about this work, please contact us at regulatorypolicy@asqa.gov.au.

We look forward to working with you to promote continuous improvement in the delivery of VET in schools.