New powers to safeguard quality VET and protect students

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has welcomed the passing of legislation that enable greater powers to protect vulnerable students, take action against training providers doing the wrong thing, and drive improvements in quality vocational education and training.

The amendments to the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act include:

• automatically lapsing the registration of registered training organisations (RTOs) that have not delivered training and assessment for 12 months
• preventing new RTOs from expanding their scope of registration within the first 24 months of their registration
• providing the Minister for Skills and Training with the power to direct ASQA to not accept or process initial applications for RTO registration for a period of up to 12 months
• clarifying provisions relating to false and misleading advertising of an RTO’s operations
• increasing maximum penalties by five times.

ASQA CEO Saxon Rice said the additional powers will build on and support the recent investment in the regulator’s intelligence, investigative and compliance enforcement capacity to tackle quality and integrity issues in the sector.

“By automatically lapsing the registration of dormant providers, we’re addressing the integrity issues posed by these providers using their registration for non-genuine purposes,” Ms Rice said.

“In addition, we can also ensure greater scrutiny on new RTOs to ensure they are demonstrating a genuine commitment to delivering quality vocational education and training before they expand or change their scope of registration.”

These changes broadly address findings in the Rapid Review into the Exploitation of Australia's Visa System in relation to high-risk training providers, and directly implement recommendations from the Braithwaite Review of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act.

“We know the vast majority of providers do the right thing – these changes benefit them, students, industry and the wider community, by removing those who undermine integrity and trust in the sector,” Ms Rice added.