If you follow Education Issues Australia on Twitter, or have LinkedIn, or Facebook accounts, you may have noticed a report developed by the @edissuesaus. The research identifies some serious and systemic problems with the current regulatory body. More information can be found by visiting this link.

A copy of this has also been presented to the senate as well. Since 2017-18, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has closed more than 1100 RTOs. According to ASQA’s response to a Question on Notice, over this period, the cancellation rate has reduced from 54 percent of decisions to only 5 percent in 2020-21, a significant decrease from the previous year.

How can a regulator move from having cancellations account for 54 percent of all decisions to only 5 percent of all decisions while making no changes to the policy?

We’re still waiting for responses to a few important questions, such as:

• Why has ASQA failed to provide any information about Recognition of Prior Learning, which is used to qualify its auditors, to anyone who has asked?
• As to why ASQA is refusing to provide information on how many Auditors have been employed who do not possess both requisite qualifications as specified by the Standards for VET Regulators?
• Approximately how many RTOs have been renewed without audit since the current ASQA Chief Executive Officer began working for the regulator?

For more information, please click here.