Tools: Ensuring the capacity of TVET providers to provide the off-the-job component of apprenticeships

Standards for TVET providers, Australia

In Australia, off-the-job training can only be provided to apprentices by a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), which must meet the following eight standards, set out in legislation:

  • The RTO’s training and assessment strategies and practices are responsive to industry and learner needs and meet the requirements of training packages and VET accredited courses.
  • The operations of the RTO are quality assured.
  • The RTO issues, maintains and accepts Australian Qualifications Framework certification documentation and provides access to learner records.
  • Accurate and accessible information about an RTO, its services and performance is available to inform prospective and current learners and clients.
  • The RTO provides learners with information prior to commencement of the service provision, which outlines the services that the RTO will provide to the learner, along with the rights and obligations of both parties.
  • The RTO has a transparent complaints policy, in which complaints and appeals are recorded, acknowledged and dealt with fairly, efficiently and effectively.
  • The RTO has effective governance and administration arrangements in place.
  • The RTO cooperates with the VET Regulator and is legally compliant at all times.

The purpose of these standards is to confer the requisite competencies for employment or further study and ensure that RTOs operate ethically with due consideration for both learners’ and enterprises’ needs.

Source: www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2014L01377.

Handbook for quality management in TVET providers, Cedefop

The Handbook for VET providers, prepared by Cedefop, offers guidance to providers of vocational training, including those who provide the off-the-job component of training to apprentices. It draws on a number of case studies undertaken in Europe and offers multiple tools to help TVET providers reflect on their own performance, identify strengths and weaknesses and take action to improve quality. Some challenges which may arise in collaborating with the world of work to deliver apprenticeships (and other forms of work-based learning) are also identified and addressed.

Source: Cedefop (2015) Handbook for VET providers. Supporting internal quality management and quality culture,
www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/3068_en.pdf.

Quality assurance of TVET providers by sector skills council, South Africa

All training providers in South Africa are expected to meet the requirements for accreditation as well as those of the appropriate quality management function. These requirements provide an assurance of the provider’s capacity to plan, deliver and manage the standards and qualifications for the programmes concerned.

This tool, from BANKSETA, provides an example of how quality management in South Africa is organized. Training providers must submit a quality management plan to BANKSETA for all programmes before any learner agreements can be registered.

Source: www.bankseta.org.za/quality-assurance/
https://www.skillsforemployment.org/KSP/en/Details/?dn=EDMSP1_254637.

Training manual on the management of education and vocational training institutions, VET Toolbox/LUXDEV

The manual is intended primarily for managers of public and private vocational training institutions but is also useful to representatives of the government and ministries responsible for the professional training of individuals, as well as representatives of workers’ organizations.

The contents are organized in such a way that managers can:

  • obtain a systemic vision of organizational management
  • adapt their management practices to the concepts of a “management excellence model”, while respecting the existing culture within the institution
  • learn about the management performance indicators of vocational training institutions.
Source: https://www.vettoolbox.eu/en/resources/management-education-and-vocational-training-institutions.