Industry relevance

Yes, your RTO must engage with industry:

• when developing strategies and resources
• when developing training and assessment practices, and
• to ensure your trainers and assessors have current and relevant industry skills.

In the delivery of all training products—including the TAE40110 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment—there are important stakeholders outside of an RTO and these should be consulted with. Your RTO must consider all of the bodies that have a stake in the services your RTO provides. These can include:

• industry clients (employers)
• group training organisations
• industry organisations
• industry regulators
• industry skills councils or similar bodies
• industry training advisory bodies, and
• unions.

By engaging with a variety of industry stakeholders, you can be assured that:

• your training and assessment practices and resources are relevant to the wider industry community, and
• your graduates can immediately apply the outcomes from their training to relevant industry frameworks.

Registered training organisations (RTOs) can choose their preferred approach for engaging industry stakeholders.

To engage with industry, your RTO could implement one or more of the strategies below. Having a range of strategies allows your RTO to consult with a number of stakeholders over a period of time.

Your consultation should enable you to gather meaningful feedback on your intended program as well as on its implementation. 

Strategies for industry engagement may include:

• partnering with local employers, regional/national businesses, relevant industry bodies, or enterprise RTOs
• involving employers in industry advisory committees
• embedding staff with industry. This may include (but is not limited to) work experience to ensure trainers and/or assessors are keeping up with the current trends and industry changes
• ongoing networking with industry organisations, peak bodies, or employers
• developing networks of relevant employers and industry representatives to participate in assessment validation
• exchanging knowledge, staff and/or resources with employers, networks and industry bodies.

These strategies can be implemented by:

• developing industry group networks to meet on a regular basis with one or a group of provider representatives. This can be face to face or via a virtual platform such as Microsoft Teams
• using social media channels, for example, LinkedIn, Facebook and/or X, to discuss industry practice and identify current trends in industry 
• engaging industry in course delivery and assessment design rather than asking for endorsement after development
• inviting industry stakeholders to review and formally endorse training and assessment strategies to ensure trainers and assessors meet industry currency
• work placement visits involving the student and their industry employer or industry supervisor to build better engagement on the student's progress, leading to better graduate outcomes
• observing a wide range of industry practices and not simply engaging with a limited group of industry stakeholders
• offering short course non-accredited professional development training to industry partners to help build sustainable two-way relationships with industry 
• trainers and/or assessors participating in and undertaking training in industry training products
• inviting industry to present workshops to students
• allowing industry to review your facilities and/or simulated training and assessment environment to ensure they simulate accurate workplace equipment and practices
• conducting regular meaningful surveys with employers on the training and assessment provided to students
• subscribing to regular updates from the industry regulator or peak body, or publications such as industry journals
• participating in industry conferences and forums
• contributing to national discussions of industry standards
• inviting industry employers to attend assessment of practical activities 
• inviting industry to participate in instructional design meetings to contribute to resource development (this may include the production of educational videos) and the pre-validation of your assessment processes, and/or
• conducting annual 'road shows' to consult with regional industry representatives onsite.

The purpose of industry engagement is to use the information you obtain to:

• help design your strategies for training and assessment
• select suitable resources
• seek feedback about how you provide training and conduct assessment, and
• confirm your trainers and assessors have current industry skills.

You can show that industry engagement ensures your training and assessment practices meet the needs of industry by documenting: 

• how you identified relevant and appropriate employers and industry to engage and consult with 
• how you consulted (such as through surveys, interviews, advisory committees or workplace visits)
• how often you engage and consult
• what sort of information you seek from employers and industry. For example, information about:
  • regulations or laws governing the industry and/or standard operating procedures, equipment and machinery used at the enterprise level
  • aspects of the work environment (for example, shifts or seasonal changes to schedules) that will affect delivery and assessment
  • employer preferences about the way in which a program is delivered such as delivery mode, order of delivery of units of competency and work placement 
  • facilities, equipment and supervision that will be available for work placement
  • simulated work environments which reflect workplaces
  • advice on contextualising or adapting purchased assessment materials to suit workplace contexts.
• revisions made to your practices because of engagement with industry and employers. For example, this might be:
  • changes to training and assessment practices and resources based on advice from industry regulators
  • implementation of workplace visits for trainers and assessors to ensure currency of understanding about workplace practices, based on advice from employers.

By undertaking industry engagement, you ensure that the training and assessment you provide will give graduates industry-relevant skills and knowledge and the ability to apply these in the workplace.

There is no specific method you must use to record evidence of your industry consultation. However, you need to ensure that evidence recorded is clear, easy to understand and provides an accurate demonstration of how your industry consultation was conducted.

Case study

The case study below is based on a real-life scenario.