LETTER FROM THE CEO

Michelle Weaver

Welcome

to the 20th edition of the Staying Connected in VET eZine

It has been 20 years since I started Velg Training: AKA the Vocational Education Learning Group. As the team and I celebrate this amazing milestone (our 20th birthday) I want to take this opportunity to say thank you for being a part of our journey at Velg Training and for being a part of my dream: to Educate, Inspire and Empower the VET Community.

As I look back on the last two decades, I am so proud of what we do as a sector! I’m also filled with pride for the part Velg Training has played in supporting practitioners across the country by training more than 73 000, facilitating over 4900 professional development events and providing 2300+ consulting services.

The VET industry has undoubtedly faced some long-term, ongoing challenges over the years. However, what is really inspiring is how it has continued with momentum and energy even in the wake of the pandemic. Our industry is all about being flexible and adapting quickly, and this will need to be especially so in the next couple of years, where change is the only constant we can count on.

The Skills Reforms, Industry Engagement Reforms, Qualifications Reforms, revising of the Standards for RTOs, Australian Qualifications Framework Review and VET Data Streamlining Program are all in various phases of progression.

We will need to be committed to continuing to improve our business processes, keeping students engaged, and ensuring we maintain compliance. But most importantly, we will need to continue to invest in high-quality education and training solutions that will help build and enhance workers’ skills across Australia.

By providing independent advice to the Australian Government on workforce skills and training needs, Jobs and Skills Australia will help ensure that we’re prepared to meet the demands of today and tomorrow’s job market.

With that job market in a constant state of change, it’s crucial that we have the skills and knowledge to keep up with those changes. That’s where VET comes inproviding the practical skills and experience needed to succeed in various fields, from trades to tech and beyond. So, high-quality VET is definitely something we are all striving for.

I, for one, am excited about the future and the potential we have as an industry to skill and up-skill the next generation of workers.

I hope Velg Training continues for another 20 years, meeting the sector’s through providing quality professional development, products, and services that support VET community. Enjoy!

Michelle Weaver CEO and Founder of Velg Training

Training

Annual Declaration On Compliance

Saxon Rice, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Skills Quality Authority

May marks the beginning of budget and planning season for many agencies. Over the next two months ASQA is focused on ensuring VET providers understand and are meeting regulatory requirements, while also preparing for a busy program of work in the 2023-24 financial year.

An important focus of ASQA’s end of financial year activity is communicating responsibilities around the Annual Declaration on Compliance and ensuring regulatory arrangements for Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) course delivery.

Annual Declaration on Compliance submissions were due by 17 May 2023. This process is a formal declaration from providers both within the organisation and to ASQA that adequate systems and processes are in place to assure the quality of outcomes for students and industry. ASQA encourages providers to take this opportunity to thoroughly assess their operations against the Standards and registration requirements to assure themselves that they are effective in monitoring and meeting these requirements and can identify and address potential or emerging risks, as well as areas for improvement. Our online Self-Assessment Tool is available to assist providers with this process.

June also marks the end of flexible regulatory arrangements for ESOS course delivery, which was communicated to providers in October 2022. By 30 June providers delivering courses to overseas students studying in Australia on a student visa are required to have returned to compliance with face-to-face delivery requirements in the National Code and the ELICOS Standards 2018. This is in response to international borders reopening and overseas students once again being able to travel to Australia for study.

Providers should be well advanced in their planning and transition to comply with these settings from 1 July 2023. We are expecting providers to assess risks and plan for implementation of a return to compliance requirements if they have not already done so. This includes communication to students and ensuring delivery locations are updated and appropriately resourced. ASQA has been undertaking monitoring and surveillance activities of CRICOS providers as part of Operation Inglenook and many of these activities will continue over the coming months, with a particular focus on seeing providers demonstrate good practice surrounding governance and decisionmaking and transition planning to support these changes. We may also request information and/or undertake visits to delivery locations to engage with providers in relation to their return to compliance strategy and implementation.

Reminding providers that Annual Registration Charge (ARC) invoices will be issued from 1 July 2023 is also essential. The ARC is calculated using the total number of qualifications and courses on a provider’s scope as of 1 July each year and the number of unique students enrolled by the provider in the preceding calendar year. This is another reason why accurate submission of AVETMISS data is necessary, and provider’s scope of registration should be updated as soon as possible to ensure invoices reflect the current scope of services and student numbers.

ASQA is the national regulator for Australia’s VET sector. Our purpose is to ensure quality VET so that students, industry, governments, and the community have confidence in the integrity of national qualifications issued by training providers. ASQA is responsible for regulating approximately 90% of Australian VET providers and for accrediting VET courses to ensure nationally approved standards are met.