As most of Australia is now with ASQA I am having more and more concerned queries about the ASQA audits. In reality they are no different to the audits conducted by VRQA or TAC so really this information will assist anyone. The information is what I have experienced as well as the experience from my clients.
Firstly let me say the ASQA Auditors are thorough. They will be going through all the VET Quality Framework Standards.
During the audit, the auditor(s) will talk to staff, and assess your organisation’s capacity to meet the requirements of the Standards.
During the time in your office they will address each standard and drill down to find further information. Depending on your answers they may move on, or drill down some more. Sometimes they will use the same evidence supplied by you to address multiple standards, other times they will ask for additional evidence.
Depending on your scope the audits could be over 1, 2, 3 or 4 days. Typically they take a two step process with the auditor spending the first part of the session or so collecting the evidence, writing a report and then discussing the findings. The audit will conclude with an exit meeting which is a verbal debrief to your staff on the audit findings. The evidence collected is then presented to an ASQA in house audit panel.
The requirements they wish to see will be different depending on if the audit is for Continuing Registration or Initial Registration.
For example, the auditors want to hear that you know what you have in front of you for an Initial Audit. They are not silly, in fact they are humans just like you and me, and they listen. They listen to what you say and the knowledge you have around your RTO. They want to know that you understand the RTO, the systems and the training packages. They will be asking questions to find out your responses. So if you are seeking assistance from a consultant, then you MUST make sure you are learning as well. YOU will be the one in front of the auditor, and YOU must answer their questions.
During an Initial registration audit very little focus may be on the policies and procedures with most of the time on:
- Training and assessment strategies
- Industry consultation for the training and assessment strategies
- Student information
- The trainer qualifications
- Assessment tools
- RPL kit
- Continuous improvement processes and learnings / actions
- Partnerships
- Resources/equipment
Whilst in a Continuing Registration audit they will be looking at your Policies and Procedures and seeing if your actions have followed them. For example if your Policy says you will do internal audits twice a year; then you must show evidence that you have conducted the audits and how you have managed the outcomes of each audit.
They essentially will be looking at everything….all of the SNRs and VET QF requirements.
To help with the audit it could be advisable to have a staff member available as evidence collector of files, information, emails, etc to present to the auditor.
Whilst audits are stressful, they are also a learning process.
There are templates available of the final report on the ASQA website for both Continuing Registration and Initial registration. Find them in the FORMS page.