Key issues

• Work-based training can only be included where it is required to gain the qualification.
• The registered provider must have appropriate arrangements for supervision and assessment in place.

What’s new?

• The requirements relating to work-based training remain essentially unchanged. The requirement that a provider has appropriate arrangements in place for supervision and assessment clarifies existing expectations.

What Part C Section 8 involves

• Designated authorities can only approve work-based training as part of a CRICOS registered course where it is a required element in order to gain the qualification.
• The work-based training component of a course should not be greater for international students than domestic students.
• Training Package qualifications comprise units of competency which describe standards for the assessment of key functions or roles in a particular occupation or industry. Some Training Packages indicate requirements for workplace training and assessment but generally they do not do so because they regard such information as a delivery strategy to be determined by the Registered Training Organisation (RTO). Therefore, RTOs normally have a choice in regard to how they will deliver and assess a Training Package qualification.
• The designated authority will make an assessment as to whether a work-based training arrangement is the most appropriate learning and/or assessment strategy.
• The registered provider must have arrangements in place to provide appropriate supervision and assessment of students. For example, the AQTF 2007 specifies that training and assessment must be conducted by trainers and assessors who have identified training and assessment competencies and relevant vocational competencies.
• Currently, students are required to apply for Permission to Work from DIAC in order to undertake work-based training. The Australian Government has announced that from April 2008, work rights are automatically attached to a student visa (although students must not commence work until they have commenced their course). 
• A provider must have mechanisms in place to monitor a student’s course progress and attendance, where relevant while the student is completing an element of work-based training.

Questions and answers