Complying with legislation

All RTOs must comply with relevant Commonwealth, state or territory legislation and regulatory requirements.

You must inform your staff and clients of legislative and regulatory requirements that affect their duties or participation in vocational education and training.

For more information, see Clauses 8.5 and 8.6 of the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015.

VET Quality Framework

All RTOs must be prepared to comply with the legislative components of the VET Quality Framework:

• National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011
• Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015
• Australian Qualifications Framework
• Financial Viability Risk Assessment Requirements 2021
• Data Provision Requirements 2020

ASQA assesses whether a registered training organisation’s (RTO) executive officers or high managerial agents (other persons who exercise a degree of control or influence over the RTO’s operations) are fit and proper to hold these positions having regard to the criteria specified in the Fit and Proper Person Requirements in Schedule 3 of the Standards for RTOs 2015.

Lapse of Registration

An RTO’s registration will automatically lapse if it does not deliver any training and/or assessment to VET students for a consecutive period of 12 months or more (the ‘measurement period’). This applies to any consecutive 12-month period after 1 January 2023. 

ASQA will notify providers that they have lapsed and require them to return their certificate of registration within 10 days of notification. 

RTOs can request an extension to the measurement period for non-delivery. The request must be made 90 days prior to the RTO’s lapse date. 

For more information see Lapse of Registration. 

Maintain scope of registration

The Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015 RTOs to manage their scope of registration and ensure:

• the transition of superseded training products within 12 months of their publication on the National Register
• where an AQF qualification is no longer current and has not been superseded, all training and assessment is completed within two years from the date it was removed or deleted from the National Register
• where a skill set, unit of competency, accredited short course or module is no longer current and has not been superseded, all learners’ training and assessment is completed and the relevant AQF certification documentation issued within a period of one year from the date the skill set, unit of competency, accredited short course or module was removed or deleted from the National Register.

Statutory Education Licence

A Statutory Education Licence allows RTOs to use a wide variety of copyrighted material for teaching purposes.

Education institutions may copy and communicate third-party content, as long as they follow the requirements of their Statutory Education Licence. The Statutory Education Licence is part of provisions under Division 4 of Part IVA of the Copyright Act 1968.

The Copyright Agency Ltd. and Screenrights administer Statutory Licences under the authority of the Attorney General’s Department. Without a Statutory Education Licence, an educational institution is generally not allowed to reproduce or communicate third-party material. In this case, unless a direct licence or subscription is in place, permission would need to be sought from the creator of a work.

To request a licence, you will need to contact the relevant organisation:

Delivering VET training and assessment to overseas students

Registered training providers delivering VET training and assessment to overseas students must be registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).

Non-CRICOS registered training providers cannot deliver VET training and assessment to students on a student visa (Subclass 500). At enrolment, non-CRICOS registered VET providers must ensure that the student they are enrolling is not in Australia on a student visa (subclass 500).

Under Section 8 of the ESOS Act it is an offence for a provider to hold itself out as able or willing to provide a course to overseas students. An exception to this is provided for some Units of Competency listed in the Education Services for Overseas Students (Exempt Courses) Instrument 2021.

The instrument means non-CRICOS registered VET providers can deliver the ESOS-exempt Units of Competency to overseas students, if the provider meets the domestic requirements for registration and delivery.

You can find out more about this instrument by viewing ASQA’s article here.