ASQA Update - June 2022

Welcome to the June edition of the ASQA Update

As the financial year draws to a close, I want to acknowledge and thank you for the quality and extent of engagement with ASQA in 2021-22. The past 12 months have not been without their challenges, with the effects of the pandemic continuing to be felt and natural disasters impacting many providers. These events, while having significant repercussions felt right across the sector, also shone a light on just how far we have come in terms of the way in which ASQA engages with the sector on risk, making use of a range of regulatory approaches to support providers to understand risks to quality outcomes and ensure compliance.

ASQA’s Provider Roundtable met last month, with discussions focussing on ASQA’s preparations for commencing training product assurance from 1 January 2023, progress made in developing ASQA’s evaluation framework, ASQA’s Corporate Plan 2022-23, and the implementation of full cost recovery from 1 July 2022. The Provider Roundtable is an important forum – and the main way in which ASQA engages and consults with sector leaders and peak associations to ensure our regulatory approach and supporting strategies are well-informed and take account of the risks and opportunities in the current and emerging environment in which we are operating. We value the opportunity this engagement provides to clarify expectations, share information to better understand risk, and raise awareness and provide feedback.

We have moved into the next phase of the co-design process for developing a model for self-assurance with providers. We continue to test the draft model through further focus groups and interviews with providers, trainers and assessors, and other key stakeholders, as well as a sector-wide survey that was distributed last month. A feedback form is also available on ASQA’s website and we welcome your input by 10 June 2022.

Providers and course owners will have received an invitation to take part in ASQA’s 2022 Provider and Course Owner Survey. This survey seeks to better understand our interactions with providers, with findings helping to inform an assessment of our performance against key performance measures, the outcomes of which will be included in ASQA’s 2021-22 Annual Report, and identify opportunities for continuous improvement. All providers and course owners are encouraged to participate in the survey by 10 June 2022.

A reminder that from 1 July 2022, ASQA will begin operating as a full cost recovery agency. This will involve changes to the majority of ASQA’s fees and hourly charges. Our regulatory reforms over the last 18 months have contained cost increases across provider assessment and application fees and charges. The Annual Registration Charge for providers will increase from 1 July 2022, reflecting an increase from 60 per cent of costs currently recovered. We continue to seek opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our regulation and ensure we are providing value for money and applying regulatory costs that are driven by best practice and the management of risks to quality VET at a minimum efficient price. ASQA will continue to engage with stakeholders on the transition to full cost recovery through its Cost Recovery Stakeholder Engagement Strategy (CRSES). The work of the CRSES will ensure the Cost Recovery Implementation Statement remains a live document, aligned to the best practice cost recovery principles of efficiency and effectiveness, transparency, and accountability.

In addition to this engagement, ASQA continues its participation in the Department of Finance Best Practice Cost Recovery Project along with 8 national regulators implementing cost recovery. The project will review how regulators use cost recovery to inform their decisions around resource allocation, regulatory performance, and organisational design.

Finally, I invite you to join us for our Spotlight On series 4 webinar on 16 June 2022, which will focus on supporting providers to understand and assure themselves of their obligations in relation to student support – including the importance of knowing the student cohort, their needs and circumstances, and identifying risks to quality outcomes for students. 

Stay safe and well,

In this edition

• New fees and charges from 1 July 2022

• Provide feedback on the draft self-assurance model

• Complete the 2022 Provider and Course Owner Survey by this Friday

• Spotlight On Series 4 webinar

• Quality indicator data due 30 June 2022

• Pathways & Perspectives, our new publication

• Spotlight On series 5

and more