Retention requirements for completed student assessment items
What is required?
You need to securely retain, and produce (if requested by us), completed student assessment items to demonstrate compliance with the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015 (the Standards). You need to retain this evidence for at least six months from the date on which your judgement of competence for the student was made.
Note: If you participate in certain training and assessment activities, other record-keeping requirements may apply. For example, where you deliver training and assessment under a government-funded agreement or contract, you should consider the record-keeping requirements of that agreement or contract. Qualifications, courses or units of competency that lead to regulated or licensed outcomes may also have specific requirements to retain records. You should refer to the specific regulatory requirements relating to that course to ensure compliance.
You need to retain evidence of completed student assessment items to demonstrate compliance with the Standards.
Clause 1.8 of the Standards requires providers to provide quality training and assessment services across all of its operations. Among other things, this means that assessment (including recognition of prior learning) needs to:
- meet the requirements of the relevant training package or accredited course
- be conducted in accordance with the principles of assessment and the rules of evidence
- meet workplace and, where relevant, regulatory requirements.
While the examination of assessment tools during performance assessments will determine whether a provider has a plan in place to ensure the valid assessment of students, only the review of completed student assessment items will confirm the extent to which those plans have been implemented. Therefore, ASQA will generally examine a sample of completed student assessment items at all performance assessments, except initial registration.
Terms and definitions
Assessment
The process of collecting evidence and making judgements on whether competency has been achieved, to confirm that an individual can perform to the standard expected in the workplace, as expressed by the relevant endorsed industry/enterprise competency standards of a training package or by the learning outcomes of an accredited course.
Assessment tools
Assessment tools include the following components - context and conditions of assessment, tasks to be administered to the student, an outline of the evidence to be gathered from the candidate and evidence criteria used to judge the quality of performance (i.e. the assessment decision-making rules). This term also takes in the administration, recording and reporting requirements, and may address a cluster of competencies as applicable for holistic assessment.
Completed student assessment items
The actual piece(s) of work completed by a student or evidence of that work, including evidence collected for a Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process. An assessor’s completed marking guide, criteria, and observation, checklist for each student may be sufficient where it is not possible to retain the student’s actual work. However, the retained evidence needs to have enough detail to demonstrate the assessor’s judgement of the student’s performance against the standard required.
Securely retain
Retain records in a manner that safeguards them against unauthorised access, fire, flood, termites or any other pests, and which ensures that copies of records can be produced if the originals are destroyed or inaccessible. Records may be in hard copy or electronic format.
Links to relevant legislation
- The Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015
See Clause 1.8
https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2014L01377/latest/text