ASQA | Spotlight On Student support, Chapter 1

Ways to improve your student support

This Spotlight on series 4, focusing on student support, will provide you with tools and tips to help you demonstrate compliance against the Standards for RTOs. It will also help you achieve successful student outcomes, with students who are work ready with the necessary skills required to succeed.

To achieve success, you need to have quality systems in place to ensure students:

are well-matched to the course with capability to successfully complete
have access to a range of support services for well-being and academic issues during their enrolment and training periods.

Finding the right fit

Student support is broad with many considerations. One size will not fit all. Clause 1.7 of the Standards for RTOs 2015 states:

The RTO determines the support needs of individual learners and provides access to the educational and support services necessary for the individual learner to meet the requirements of the training product as specified in training packages or VET [vocational education and training] accredited courses.

This clause has a focus on an individual student rather than student cohorts, with 2 requirements:

the provider determines the student’s support needs during their enrolment
the provider determines relevant support services, providing access when needed by the student.

While it is not a requirement to develop and maintain these services, your policies and procedures need to:

identify services that can genuinely help
provide information and access to students for these services.

(Note: Providers registered on CRICOS delivering to overseas students will need to maintain certain support services - this is discussed in chapter 5)

Delivering strong student support

Over the course of this series, we’ll highlight the importance of:

determining support needs for students before enrolment
observing students for signs of requiring support as they progress through their course
responding to a student’s need for support
identifying practical solutions for students if they require support

identifying and engaging support services for students
supporting students who are learning remotely
responding to the needs of overseas students and complying with the National Code.

More Spotlight On

ASQA | Spotlight On Student support, Chapter 2

Questions?

Still have a question? Check out the Users’ guide to the Standards for RTOs 2015, or send through a question for consideration for our webinar via our website.