PAGE01 EDUTEMPS INTERVIEW

COMPLIANCE AND
QUALITY ASSURANCE

INDUSTRY EXPERT
REVEALS LESSONS
LEARNT FROM 65
ASQA AUDITS
AN INTERVIEW WITHSUKH SANDHU
BYTOM RAE
During his 20 years in the VET and Higher S Ichanges
The DE have certainly been profound. At
Education sector, Sukh Sandhu has witnessed the core, we have seen ASQA come in as the
regulator and, together with government
the radical shift in compliance landscape. Here
departments, the VET sector is now more
he shares his experience on how VET closely scrutinised than ever before. At the
organisations can adapt and thrive in a same time, the sector has become a lot more
challenging environment. competitive, with RTOs challenging TAFEs, as
well as each other for market share.
Few industry professionals have seen the
revolution in VET compliance as closely as Sukh
Sukh expanded on major shifts he has
Sandhu. Over a 20-year career in the sector he
witnessed. Reforms have been transformative
has worked with a myriad of national and
in terms of industry responsiveness, quality and
international organisations, including Navitas,
regulation, data and customer information and
MIT, Franklin Scholar, The Malka Group,
scrutiny on who is a fit and proper person, to
Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
name just a few. Government funding is now
Institute of Technology, Federation University,
more targeted and efficient too and we have
Gowrie Victoria, TAFE Queensland, Ozford,
seen a much greater degree of collaboration
Junior Chamber, Imperial College, University of
and information sharing between regulatory
Ballarat, Webcom Technologies USA and a
bodies and government departments, such as
number of other educational institutions,
the Department of Education and Training
universities and RTOs. He has even worked
(DET) with Australian Skills Quality Authority
within Australian Governments regulatory body
(ASQA) for Vet Student Loans.
ASQA, which served to deepen further his
The VET sector has experienced tremendous
understanding of how RTOs can successfully
growth too in the number of providers. There
navigate the compliance minefield. With 65
are now around 4500+ providers, and around
regulatory audits and a 100% compliance
40% of them have less than 100 students, which
record under his belt, its little wonder that his
is a very different scenario to days gone by.
services are in hot demand.
Along with this growth, there has been the
The compliance revolution collapse of some major big organisations too,
We began by asking Sukh to outline the key which has been a real wakeup call to the
changes he has seen in the compliance industry.
environment over his career.
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COMPLIANCE AND
QUALITY ASSURANCE
The good, the bad and the ugly
In his broad experience, he has certainly seen
the best and the worst of the industry. Its true
that a few bad apples have tarnished the VET
sector in some respects, but there has been a
genuine desire to weed out the bad ones, and
the regulator has continually updated their
approach. There has been a succession of
legislative changes introduced since the early
2000s and along with the improved
collaboration between regulatory bodies. This
has helped to clean up a lot of the practices
which were dragging down the sectors
reputation.
Identifying the gaps
So for those RTOs who want to thrive in this
regulated environment, what does Sukh see as
the main areas to be addressed? In my
experience, the key areas are assessment and
training resources and strengthening the
capability of trainers and assessors. RTOs must
pay particular attention to their trainers VET
qualifications, their industry currency and their
VET currency because this is where major non-
compliance issues can emerge. Then there are
issues such as short course duration, validation
not being done correctly, and training
assessment strategy and practices not being
given proper consideration.
An active regulatory regime
Sukh observed that ASQA had taken a very
proactive approach in enforcing regulations in
recent years. ASQA has imposed a lot of
sanctions on those operators who fail to
maintain standards. They are determined to
pursue their agenda to maintain the quality of
providers in the market, so that means RTOs
need to be on top of their game.
He went on to highlight the focus placed on
international providers. "ASQA is looking at the
international market for their 2017-2018
regulatory strategy, and this is having an
impact. International education is a huge
export market worth $28.6 billion a year, and
these international students can be very
vulnerable, so ASQA has a keen eye on
compliance within the international sector.
EDUTEMPS INTERVIEW
Sukh went on to emphasise some other areas in
which RTOs must be vigilant. There is an overall
focus on literacy, language and numeracy and
ASQA is reviewing providers who deliver
offshore courses. They are looking at how they
market their qualifications, how they give
students information at each stage of the
process and how the agreement is structured.
There is also scrutiny on how education agents
are approved and how they are reviewed,
trained and managed.
Sage advice
So what advice would he give to an RTO that
has a re-registration audit scheduled within the
next 12 months? RTOs should focus on all the
regulatory requirements, SRTOs clauses and
standards for domestic and International
students, National code and ESOS for
International students, The National standards
for ELICOS providers and courses (ELICOS
Standards) for organisations delivering ELICOS
courses, etc. The main areas of concern will be
training, and assessment resources, trainer
quality, marketing practices including their
website, validation of resources, industry
consultation, policies and procedures for
governance, administration and operations,
training and assessment strategy and the pre-
training and enrolment processes are the main
areas that need close attention.
A man on a mission
Sukh commitment to the industry stems from a
deeply held belief on how vital it is in Australias
shift toward tertiary and service industries. The
VET sector is vital for our economy. It plays a
really significant role in the job market, by
giving students an edge in a competitive
market, through developing skills and clear
progression routes. I think we all have a
responsibility to ensure that students best
interests are served, and I feel that the work I do
really does help RTOs to provide a quality
service that equips students well, at the same
times as developing the organisations
effectiveness and prosperity.