Strengthened requirements for delivery of training and assessment qualifications
The skills and knowledge of the VET workforce are essential to ensuring high quality, valid assessment across all training products. Trainers and assessors in the VET workforce are required to hold specific qualifications from the Training and Education (TAE) Training Package.
It is critical that the TAE Training Package training products are delivered to the highest levels of quality, so that trainers and assessors hold all the skills and knowledge required. The Australian Industry and Skills Committee endorsed an updated version of the TAE Training Package in February 2016.
Reflecting the critical role the TAE Training package plays in assuring quality in the VET sector, ASQA is also implementing strengthened evidence requirements for certain TAE training products from April 2016.
The Standards for RTOs 2015—together with changes to the Certificate IV in TAE and ASQA’s decision to strengthen the TAE application evidence requirements—are steps towards improving the quality of training and assessment across the sector.
New evidence requirements—April 2016
Through both its strategic reviews and in its routine regulatory work, ASQA has identified significant problems with the way that some registered training organisations (RTOs) conduct their training and assessment.
From April 2016, RTOs will be required to meet additional evidence requirements when adding any of the following TAE Training Package training products to their scope of registration:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
- TAE50216 Diploma of Training Design and Development
- TAE50116 Diploma of Vocational Education and Training
- TAESS00011 Assessor Skill Set*
- TAESS00010 Advanced Assessor Skill Set*
*ASQA does not register RTOs for skill sets. RTOs must register for individual units explicitly if they don’t have implicit unit registration courtesy of qualifications on scope.
Read the full evidence requirements here.
Changes to the TAE Training Package
The updated training package includes a revised Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, which introduces higher standards for trainers and assessors across the vocational education and training (VET) workforce.
The newly-endorsed qualification includes two additional core units—the unit TAEASS502 Design and develop assessment tools and the unit TAELLN411 Address adult language, literacy and numeracy skills.
The additional assessment unit aims to ensure that trainers and assessors have a greater depth of knowledge about good assessment development and practice and learners graduating from VET courses will be more effectively assessed as having the necessary skills and knowledge to do the job.
Full details of the training package approved for implementation are available on the National Register for VET at training.gov.au.
Independent validation requirements—1 January 2016
As of 1 January 2016, any RTO seeking to add any TAE qualification or assessor skill set to its scope of registration to provide evidence at the time of application that it has undergone an independent validation of:
- five qualifications on the RTO’s scope of registration from other than the TAE or TAE10 training packages or, if the RTO’s scope of registration includes fewer than five qualifications, all training products on the RTO’s explicit scope of registration, and
- the assessment system to be adopted in the delivery of the qualification/s or the assessor skill set/s applied for.
In addition, if you have the superseded TAE training products on scope you must also provide independent validation of all TAE products.
From 1 January 2016, any RTO that has a TAE qualification or assessor skill set on its scope of registration must have undergone an independent validation of:
- its assessment system for delivery of the training and assessment qualification or assessor skill set, and
- its assessment tools, processes and outcomes in relation to the training and assessment qualification or assessor skill set.
ASQA requires you to provide evidence of the independent validation of the TAE training products at the time of application.