Compliance and non-compliance

ASQA publishes information about certain decisions in the Regulatory decisions list.

ASQA publishes information about:

• decisions to cancel or suspend registration
• conditions placed on registration
• decisions to not renew registration, and
• decisions to apply other types of administrative sanction.

These decisions are only published after all reconsideration and review activity is complete.

ASQA may also contact funding bodies or other relevant government agencies with this information.

No—it is the licensing body that will issue a license. The licensing body may set additional requirements for obtaining a license.

As a registered training organisation, you may issue a statement of attainment to students that have met the requirements of a unit of competency. However, this alone does not indicate eligibility for a licence.

Students and providers can find more information on the requirements for obtaining licenses from the relevant licensing bodies.

• Learn more about other licensing and registration requirements. 

ASQA provides detailed guidance on what compliance with the Standards might look like in its publications, which include:

• Users’ Guide to Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTO) 2015
• Fact sheets
• Frequently asked questions.

However, the information in these documents provides guidance only. It’s important to understand that the VET Quality Framework, which includes the Standards for RTOs 2015, does not prescribe how an RTO must demonstrate compliance. As such, what compliance will look like will vary for each provider, depending on factors including scope of registration, student cohorts, delivery modes, and so on. ASQA cannot provide a one-size-fits-all guide to compliance for all RTOs. Rather, each RTO has the autonomy to determine the best practices that suit their business model.

Your RTO is free to refer students to external loan providers as a payment option. However, if a student prepays fees of $1500 or more to your RTO, you must meet the requirements for fee protection set out in Schedule 6 of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015. This includes where your RTO receives those funds directly from an external loan provider. Before any student enrols or begins their training (whichever occurs first), you must ensure that the student is informed about relevant fee information, as detailed in Standard 5.3 of the Standards for RTOs 2015. If any organisation, such as an external loan provider, recruits students for your RTO, you must have a written agreement with the organisation and inform ASQA of the arrangement.

• Notify ASQA of a third-party service arrangement form