In the latest Training Provider Briefing held by ASQA, Validation has been identified as one of the Top 3 most common compliance issues identified in audits. And what’s tricky about validation is it takes a lot of time and resources to complete if you are doing it right.
Here’s a simple assessment validation checklist to see if you are on the right track:
1. Do you know your validation deadlines? If not, here’s a quick guide:
- If your RTO was registered BEFORE 1 January 2015:
Your deadline to validate 50% of your training products is 1 April 2018
Your deadline to validate all your training products is 1 April 2020
- If your RTO was registered ON OR AFTER 1 January 2015, BUT your application for registration was made BEFORE 1 January 2015:
Your deadline to validate 50% of your training products is 1 April 2018
Your deadline to validate all your training products is 1 April 2020
- If your RTO was registered ON OR AFTER 1 January 2015:
Your deadline to validate 50% of your training products is on the 3rd anniversary of your RTO’s registration.
Your deadline to validate all your training products is on the 5th anniversary of your RTO’s registration.
2. Are you using risk assessment to determine the focus of your validation?
If not, you should. Risk assessment is a requirement. This helps you determine which training products to prioritise in your validation exercises.
Clause 1.10
For the purposes of clause 1.9, each training product is validated at least once every five years, with at least 50 per cent of products validated within the first three years of each five year cycle, taking into account the relative risks of all of the training products on the RTO’s scope of registration, including those risks identified by the VET regulator.
3. Are your validators qualified to conduct the validation?
If not, it is a waste of time and resources – the validation they complete are invalid and will not contribute to the completion of your validation requirements.
Remember: your validators MUST collectively meet the following requirements:
- Must have vocational competencies and current industry skills relevant to the assessment being validated
- Must have current knowledge and skills in vocational teaching and learning
- Must have any of the following training and assessment credentials:
| 1 | TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor |
| 2 | TAE40110 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, and the following:TAELLN411 / TAELLN401A Address adult language, literacy and numeracy skills or its successor; andTAEASS502 / TAEASS502A / TAEASS502B Design and develop assessment tools or its successor |
| 3 | TAESS00011 Assessor Skill Set or its successor |
| 4 | TAESS00001 Assessor Skill Set, and one of the following:TAEASS502 Design and develop assessment tools or its successor orTAEASS502A Design and develop assessment tools orTAEASS502B Design and develop assessment tools |
4. Do you have a validation policy and procedure document?
If not, you must have one. Clause 1.9 basically requires you to have one. Your validation policy and procedure must define:
- the schedule of your validation activities
- the focus of your validation activities
- the facilitators and participants of your validation activities
- the process for acting on the validation findings
5. Is your assessment validation process compliant?
If you are not 100% confident, review your process again to be sure. You don’t want to be wasting your time on validations that wouldn’t count!
The whole validation process is a whole other blog, but here are some of the main things you must consider:
Do your validation reports look like ‘tick-and-flick’ forms without any solid feedback discussing the validation findings?
If yes, stop wasting your time on this. There are so many validation report templates out there that are just a tick-and-flick list of the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence, without any record of what has actually been discussed in the validation activity. Validation Reports MUST document the review process and your findings.
Are you validating BOTH assessment tools AND completed assessment submissions?
If not, you should.
Do you keep a record of your validators’ credentials to demonstrate they are qualified to conduct the validation?
If not, you should. Refer to item 3.
Are you validating a valid sample size?
If not, you should.
Here’s ASQA’s fact sheet on conducting validation for your reference
If you don’t like reading and interpreting ASQA’s guides, you may want to consider attending one of our assessment validation workshops. Click here for the next schedule.
If you answered YES to all these self-check questions in the assessment validation checklist, CONGRATULATIONS! You are one of the few on track to meeting this requirement. If you answered NO to any of the self-check questions, don’t fret, there’s still time!
If you need assistance, whether it is:
- To get tools to do it right (we have awesome validation tools and templates!),
- To train your staff how to do it right (we have awesome validation workshops!), or
- To do it all for you so you can just focus on growing your business (we have the MOST comprehensive validation process)
Just give us a call at 1300575057 / info@acofeconsultants.com.au
