From: ross.woods@acas.edu.au <ross.woods@acas.edu.au>
Sent: Friday, 15 February 2019 2:57 PM
To: ASQA - Enquiries <Enquiries@asqa.gov.au>
Subject: Re: Questions relating to compliance
Dear ASQA,
Please find below some questions relating to compliance. I'm re-sending it with an enclosure,:
1. Are RTOs required to offer Recognition of Prior Learning for all qualification on scope to the general public?
2. What about qualificaitons that are only offered internally with an orgaization? For example:
a. XYZ High School offers a Cert II in MNO to its students. Are they required to be open to applications from outside the school?
b. BigRedBus Pty Ltd is an enterprise RTO that offers a Cert IV to its employees? Are they required to be open to applications from non-employees?
3. Are RTOs required to offer Recognition of Prior Learning for any combination of units that is permissible in the training package?
a. What about electives where they have no expertise or assessment tools?
4. Are RTOs required to have a separate set of assessment tools specifically for Recognition of Prior Learning?
5. The current SNR does not define assessment tools, even though it contains qualitative standards for them. Do ASQA auditors have a standard to distinguish between what is and what isn’t a complete assessment tool? Put another way, which elements in a definition are required and which are not? See enclosure.
6. Some assessment tools set candidates a set number of specific tasks that are to be observed by the assessor. However, is it permissible for a candidate to be assessed entirely in the workplace on the job if the assessors/supervisors see all all tasks being done?
Thank you,
Ross Woods
From "ASQA - Enquiries" <Enquiries@asqa.gov.au>
To "ross.woods@acas.edu.au" <ross.woods@acas.edu.au>
Cc "ASQA - Enquiries" <Enquiries@asqa.gov.au>
Date Thu, 7 Mar 2019 02:33:53 +0000
Subject RE: Questions relating to compliance [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Dear Ross,
Thank you for your email.
1. Are RTOs required to offer Recognition of Prior Learning for all qualification on scope to the general public?
Clause 1.12 of Standards for RTOs 2015 (the Standards) obligates providers to offer RPL to all learners – as such, at enrolment or prior to commencement of training, providers make recognition of prior learning available to all students.
2. What about qualificaitons that are only offered internally with an orgaization? For example:
a. XYZ High School offers a Cert II in MNO to its students. Are they required to be open to applications from outside the school?
b. BigRedBus Pty Ltd is an enterprise RTO that offers a Cert IV to its employees? Are they required to be open to applications from non-employees?
a. No – providers determine their cohort of students
b. No – an Enterprise RTO is defined as —an enterprise or the training function or department of an enterprise that is registered to provide nationally recognised training. Training is delivered only to its employees.
i. however, an Enterprise RTO can choose to deliver to those who are not employees they would then no longer meet the definition of ‘Enterprise’ and would then self-assess which type of RTO now best meets the definition and notify ASQA accordingly.
3. Are RTOs required to offer Recognition of Prior Learning for any combination of units that is permissible in the training package?
a. What about electives where they have no expertise or assessment tools?
Once approved to deliver a qualification the provider has been approved to deliver all units within that qualification and may do so in accordance with the training packaging rules and resources available and is expected to offer RPL consistent with the strategies for training and assessment.
Conversely, should a student request Credit Transfer, RTOs should recognise any unit of competency completed within a qualification previously awarded, regardless if the RTO enrolling the student has the corresponding unit/s of competency on scope or not, if the student’s AQF certification documentation includes a unit of competency that can be packaged within other qualifications the RTO does have on scope.
4. Are RTOs required to have a separate set of assessment tools specifically for Recognition of Prior Learning?
RPL must be conducted with the same rigour as any other form of assessment and organisation’s would need to be able to demonstrate to ASQA, if requested, how its RPL process meet the requirements of the Standards.
5. The current SNR does not define assessment tools, even though it contains qualitative standards for them. Do ASQA auditors have a standard to distinguish between what is and what isn’t a complete assessment tool? Put another way, which elements in a definition are required and which are not? See enclosure.
An assessment tool includes 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.
ASQA has published a Guide to developing assessment tools which may provide you with further information.
Kind regards,
Sharann
ASQA Mailbox
Australian Skills Quality Authority
GPO Box 9928, Melbourne VIC 3001
Info line 1300 701 801
enquiries@asqa.gov.au
www.asqa.gov.au
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