5 Critical Aspects of a TAS

In this episode I explain what you need to have within your Training & Assessment Strategy (TAS) to ensure it is compliant with RTO standards. In our experience, this is the area that most training organisations are non-compliant. 

But fear not: I can help you! I have addressed the five typical non-compliances and how you can ensure your TAS is compliant.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why TAS trips people up and what you can do about it
• How you should act on feedback in your TAS
• The importance of speaking to student recruiters
• Selection criteria and entry requirements
• How to fully understand your target audience
• Why foundation skills are so important
• How to effectively use assessment tools
• Why you need to constantly validate
• How to prepare your trainers properly
• How to handle work placements
• Self-paced learning 

Transcript

Welcome to the RTO superhero podcast with me, Angela Connell, where we explore the complexities of compliance and how to ensure business success within an RTO. This podcast is for anyone in the training industry who wants to learn from my experience as an RTO consultant, RTO manager, trainer, assessor, and entrepreneur, as well as the experience of the other experts in the training industry.

Listen in and let us help you become an RTO superhero that you want to be In this paper. So we're going to cover the five critical aspects of your training and assessment training and assessment strategy. Also known as a task is one of the top. Non-compliances at an escort audit, which is why we have put together some training in this area as well,

to help people have a better understanding of what they need to do in order to be confined. So the five critical aspects are industry consultation, target client, group, staff, matrix, resources, delivery, and assessment plan. So let's break it down and start with industry consultation. So the important part about industry consultation is actually identifying who did you consult with?

What did you learn? And that you have adjusted the TAS to address the feedback. And this is where most of the non-compliances are, is where the, in the TAS, the feedback hasn't been addressed. If you you've included that there is industry consultation and who you consulted with, but no feedback has been added. So what I mean by feedback is someone has said,

I think this course should be delivered over 10 days and you deliver it over five days and you haven't addressed that. So why and what I, what you do when you address it is the reason why you're not doing the 10 days or why you're not including that equipment or why you are, or the reason why you are doing your training this way is due to feedback and that feedback that you've received.

And that's the really important part is making sure that you're including that feedback and how you're addressing that. So industry consultation should be a continuous and ongoing throughout your registration consultation ensures that your training and assessment strategies and your training meets industry needs, you need to speak to the relevant people who would recruit the students. So these are the managers, the HR offices,

the supervisors who would be responsible for working with your potential graduates from courses. And so that you've got then realistic consultation that is actually going to meet what the industry needs. Then utilize this feedback in your training and assessment strategy. So when addressing the feedback in your Taz, you should identify, well, what changes are you going to make based on the feedback,

identify whether the feedback is relevant to what you're delivering and how you're delivering. Does the feedback address industry needs in general? So is it very specific to one organization or would it be relevant across a range of organizations in the same industry? Are there any suggestions for training on specific equipment? So what type of equipment have you got and what are you helping your students learn about that type Of equipment?

How would the changes Affect the training? So what will be the difference with the training? How has it, is it going to improve? You would assume it would, is it going to be digressing from the training package? And if so, why and how are you also addressing the training package requirements? What adjustments have you made to the delivery and assessment plan based on the feedback?

So this is how you're delivering your training and assessment and how are you conducting the assessments and that delivery and the impact that that's going to have. Number two, Target client group. So the target client group, 4:36 you really need to identify what are the existing skills and knowledge of your talk target group. And this could be existing workers, school leavers, new entrants, long-term unemployed, skilled migrants, recent migrants, local community, group, licensing requirements, changing a career. There are so many different areas. One of the things that we have identified is that often training and assessment strategies are too broad when it goes to the existing skills and knowledge and who are your target audience? And when what happens then is when you have a broad market, you then have to make sure that all of your training and assessment is going to meet all of the needs. And you're going to have all of the support services to meet all of those needs 5:58. Well, I advise is keep that target group as a target. So it should be a much smaller group. And it would be your typical students that you want to attract into your training,

who are you targeting for your markey? The thing is, just because you target a certain area doesn't mean you won't capture a whole heap of other students. It just means that because you've been specific with who you've targeted, you're then addressing training and assessment to meet those needs. 

Often what we find is when you've got a broad market ask, well, when they come in and do an audit, they're really going to have a look at well, how are you addressing all the needs of all the target audience that you've identified within your training and assessment strategy? And that's where a lot of RTOs come unstuck. So when you're looking At selection, criteria and entry requirements, you really should be looking at well,

are there any requirements set by the relevant training package or accredited course for that training product? Are they, are the students required to have any industry experience prior to commencement in this training? Are there any requirements Set by your organization on how you want to deliver this training and assessment? So it might be that you have a requirement that they've got to provide their own resources,

that they'll need to go to work placement. There could be a range of different areas that you could set as a requirement. You could also set a requirement for the entry requirement there being, it could be that you want to have a requirement that they've got to have a certain certificate level before they come into your training. Are there any Attributes that may affect a student's ability to complete the desired training product?

So what is it about the students and your target audience that you've identified that may be some gaps with training you might have to provide further support services, have you address the foundation skills and what skills and knowledge they would need to know in order to complete this training successfully is the level of the training product appropriate for the student's existing skills and knowledge and their abilities.

Are you able to adapt for those existing skills and knowledge and how are you going to meet those requirements and how have you identified that you're setting up the student for success when you enroll them into your training, the required experience and knowledge or literacy level that a student may need to complete the training product. And I'll go back to the foundation skills there as well.

Do they have the minimum foundation skills to be able to successfully complete this training? Now, I often get asked around language literacy and numeracy, and whether you need to put all of your students through an L and N assessment. Now the answer is that depends on your learner cohort. If you have a learner cohort who already holds the certificate level or above what they are going to be doing with you,

you don't need to get them to do another LNN because if they've already completed that IQF level, they've obviously met that requirement. Well, I'll also say that a lot of RTOs we'll do a blanket L and N assessment for all of the students who come in just to make it easier for them. The other one that the other question that we often get asked about this is what if they fail the LLN assessment? Language literacy and numeracy, the thing is you can't fail an L LN assessment. 

The purpose of the LNN assessment is to identify the student's needs possible support services, and whether they are going to be set up for success to be able to complete this training, do they have the minimum requirements in order to complete this training? Now,

if they have some weakness areas that doesn't rule them out from doing the training, what happens with what you should be doing as an RTO is with those weakness areas, you should have some sort of support services in place to be able to help those students. There's also a way you could implement a monitoring for those students. It could be getting an external party to come in and they're doing the training with you.

There's that opportunity as well, where they're also supporting the student. So the other thing about with language literacy and numeracy is making sure that your students, once again, set up for success and that you have those support services in place to support those students. Number three, staff matrix. So with the staff matrix, this is an area that can often be non-compliant at an ASQA audit. And that's generally because the staff matrix hasn't been mapped properly to the skills and knowledge of the trainer assessor is also due to the fact that the trainer assessor hasn't provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that they are, have that skills and knowledge. With the staff matrix, you've got to be really careful to make sure that it reflects the current industry skills and knowledge of your trainers and assessors.

They should hold the training product or equivalent experience. All of that training product from our experience, we find that if they actually hold the qualification, that makes it so much easier with mapping. And the other thing is that they hold the direct equivalent unit that they are delivering. This is also very good professional development for a trainer assessor to ensure that they are up to speed with all of the units that they're delivering.

And they're able to demonstrate that they have the skills and knowledge. If they don't have a director equivalent unit for each of the units that they're delivering, then the staff matrix gets a bit more complicated because you need to put in more details about how the trainer assessor is meeting all of the individual units of competency. And that means skills and knowledge experience. Where did they work?

What did they do? And what was their position? Also examples of how they have implemented what they, what they're delivering in the unit of competency, current industry skills and knowledge for each use. So they maintaining currency within the industry in specifically utilizing that skills and knowledge that's required within that unit of competency within the staff matrix, you need to be mapping against each unit of competency.

So that is, can be direct equivalent units or competencies or mapping the skills and knowledge against Each one. As a rule of thumb, Evidence of currency within their industry should be a minimum of three years of experience within the last three years. And we're seeing this come up time and time again in order where there is the currency is, are outdated anyway,

whereas older than three years, the experience then that isn't currency, that's not maintaining currency. So what we're seeing now is they're actually stipulating within the training product, what is currency? And there's typically a minimum of three years of experience. So this is coming up more and more now with the requirements for compliance against this requirement, Professional Development. So what does that mean for a trainer assessor?

So it's being a member of an association or a network such as vivacity. We have a membership network here. We also have a Facebook group called the varsity community, which is free. And it's a great place where people from the training industry can connect and discuss key issues and concerns within the training sector, also networks. So there's a variety of different networks there.

As I said, with the veracity and with the memberships and associations, it's also memberships and associations with the industry bodies that they're working within. So what training they're delivering and the associations that they have there by attending workshops and conferences for both the vet sector and your vocational training sector. So where you're delivering training, keeping your qualifications up to date with the latest training product.

So when a new version of the training product comes out, that you are delivering that you are updating your skills and knowledge to that new qualification, and actually attain that new qualification. That's great PD for ensuring your currency within the vet sector. Also within your industry sector, you should also complete a PD schedule and keep a recording of all of your professional development that's being completed.

And that should be at least a 12 month plan that is reversed viewed once a year to identify what did you do? What did you complete? What did you learn from it? And then what you will be doing in the next 12 months. And we highly recommend that an annual performance review is undertaken with your trainers and assessors as well, to identify not only how they're going against their KPIs and working as a trainer assessor within your organization.

It also gives the trainer an opportunity to be able to give feedback on what they're doing and how they're delivering training and where, what the future prospects would be. Number four is resources. So with resources, we find that this is one of the top non-compliances that audit. And it often is an issue within the training industry whereby the assessment tools are not meeting the requirements of the training product.

And these include the tools do not address the performance criteria or assessment requirements as per training.gov today, you, the tools have been contextualized have not been contextualized to the learner cohort. So who are your target market? And they haven't been adjusted to meet that so often it could be an off the shelf assessment tool that you've purchased and that you then contextualize it to your learner cohort and their needs.

And that really needs to happen, particularly if you've defined a target market. And this is where it's really important that you've got a refined target market and not a broad one, because the broader it is, the more that you need to have in your assessment tools. Often what we also see is the assessment tools haven't been validated. And this is a big area because validation actually is the best way to identify whether your assessment tools are compliant or not.

So by the process of actually validating your assessment tools, you will identify any gaps that you may have. What also happens when you do that is you also identify any gaps in your current assessment tools, and whether you may need to take remedial action for students who were assessed as competent, but you didn't collect sufficient evidence. And you certainly do not want ask squad to be getting you to do remedial action.

You don't want it to get to that level. You should be doing remedial action before Esquire comes in. Cause it just makes it all the more difficult I've seen RTOs have had their registration canceled due to remedial action. And the fact that they couldn't actually take remedial action. So the Beck's best way to solve this issue is validate the RTO, doesn't have a mapping tool,

and it doesn't demonstrate that they've got assessments that meet each criteria within the unit of competency and the performance criteria and the assessment conditions. It makes it, it's not a re it's not a compliance requirement, but it is an issue when you go to validate or when you go to audit or when you're training product changes and that you need to update your training product or your TRIBE assessment tools to meet the new training product requirements.

It just makes it so much easier. When you're purchasing assessment tools, here's four areas that you should focus on when you're purchasing. So firstly, you should identify: do they address the requirements of the unit of competency? Now that seems like a no-brainer, but it's actually looking at them and identifying, is it clear? Is it transparent? Does it have a mapping tool? Do I know that it addresses all of the units? Have they been developed by a reputable organisation, one that has a good name or have they been developed by someone who has significant industry experience in your industry sector? They're the better type of ones to purchase. Have they been validated? Do they hold the a forum and, and get RTOs together and validate together? What are they doing to ensure that your assessment tools are up to date with the current requirements of the training package? The fourth one is, are they suitable for your learner cohort? So this includes not only the training and assessment tools, it is the mode of delivery of how you're delivering. For example, if you purchase assessment tools that are work based based, so they're built for conducting a training and assessment in the workplace, it's not going to work for a classroom based audience. So you really then need to contextualise a lot more and then these, these, or vice versa. So it goes the other way as well. It might be built for a classroom based and you want to do work based. So it's really looking at well, how much work is going to be involved for contextualising these to meet my learner cohort requirements? 19:50 

Next is looking at the training resources. So not the assessment tools, but the resources that you're using to be able to deliver that training students must have access to all of the resources listed within each unit or competency. And that can be on the job in the workplace or within the training room.

How are you ensuring that they're getting access to not only that equipment, but on a number of occasions. And they're able to build those skills up, utilizing that equipment. Some units require that students must be assessed on a number of occasions. So do you have that opportunity where they're able to be assessed or a number of times you utilizing that equipment,

simulated environments fully replicate the resources environment and any time and productivity pressures that exist in the actual workplace. So how are you ensuring that your simulated environments is similar to what would happen in the workplace and how have you adjusted your training to meet those needs? Because the idea with simulated is making sure that they get the feel and the, the context of what it's like to utilize these skills and knowledge on the job within the workplace.

Number five is delivery and assessment plan. So your delivery and assessment plan covers a range of different areas of how you're delivering your training and assessment. It's like a timetable map with the order of the units that you're going to be delivering and how you're going to deliver. So I'm going to have a look at a couple of different scenarios and the areas that you need to address for those scenarios.

So number one is classroom based training. So when it looks, when you look at classroom-based training, you really need to look at, does it cover all of the topics for each session and what the trainer's required to do? Does it include the duration for all of the sessions that you will be hiding, holding, including all the activities to be completed in the class.

And also self-paced, if you do have that requirement, what do they have to do in the self-paced learning resources and equipment required by the trainer to be able to deliver that training? So what equipment will the trainer need? Textbooks, assessment, tools, tables, chairs, white board flip chart. And then the resources for that are specific to the type of training that they're delivering.

For example, first aid that will need to have an adult and child mannequin they'll need to have bandages. They'll need to have a first aid kit. There's a range of different equipment that they're going to need to be able to demonstrate that they're competent and that they're able to deliver that training. The next one is work placement. So work placement is a timetable on when should include a timetable of when work placement can commence and what,

what should the student complete before they do work placement? So they may be a number of units that they need to complete first before they commenced their work placement. What units need to do be completed prior, but also on the job, what order the units should be completed on the job and will the student be assessed in the workplace? And what is the responsibilities of the supervisor in the workplace?

What will they be required to do in order to, to be able to be deemed competent within those units or competencies that they're, they're being assessed in self-paced learning. So this is an area where there are often lots of non-compliances because we're self placed learning. What happens with that is that it's not really mapped out in this is from our experience of what we've seen.

It's not mapped out what the students are required to do when they're undergoing self-paced learning. So you need to include in your delivery and assessment plan all the time allocated for self-paced needs. And how are you, how are you going to address that? So they may need equipment. They may need a laptop. They may need just a book to read, or they've got a workbook or something like that.

What, what is it exactly that they need to do? And then allocate time for them to complete each of those tasks. And this should be based on your weakest student and what is their ability to be able to complete this. So what is the student required to complete in their own time, whilst they're on the job and possibly online. So what do you require them to do that should be mapped out within the delivery and assessment plan of what the student's required to do.

And then it could also be looking at that online training and how are you mapping that that is a lot of self pay, straightened learning. So you really need to address now, what is it that they're going to complete in the online training and make sure that you have it all mapped out? Okay. So that is the five critical aspects. All of your training and assessment strategy.

I hope you got a lot out of that. And I look forward to catching up with you again soon, you've been listening to the RTO super hero podcast with me. Angela, do you know someone else who could benefit from learning about compliance and business development within their RTO? Please take a moment to share these and any other episodes via your podcast, app email or social media channels.

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