3 Session 3 of 5 · The course
Accredited social media training, or not: reading a course listing
Nationally recognised training is listed on training.gov.au, Australia’s national training register, which also shows the registered training organisations (RTOs) approved to deliver it and what each may deliver. So a listing that says “nationally recognised” comes down to two lookups: is the course or unit on the register, and is it on that provider’s scope of registration.
General information from ASQA’s pages, not advice on any course or provider. ASQA is the national regulator for vocational education and training; training.gov.au is the register.
What the register holds
ASQA describes the register this way: “Training.gov.au is Australia’s national training register.” Its entries cover “Registered training organisations (RTOs) that are approved to deliver nationally recognised training, their registration status and the training they are registered to deliver (known as their scope of registration).” It also holds the training itself: training packages, qualifications, units of competency, skill sets and accredited courses.
Two details from the same page help when reading it. ASQA does not manage the register; it says a federal department administers it on behalf of the state and territory governments. And the register is designed for people in the vocational training sector, while ASQA points students looking for a course or provider to Your Career. Training providers and other industry stakeholders can subscribe to notices when a provider’s details change, such as its scope of registration.
Words on a listing, and what they point to
| On the listing | What it means | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Nationally recognised training | Training packages, qualifications, units of competency, skill sets and accredited courses, as held on the register. | The training itself, on training.gov.au. |
| Registered training organisation (RTO) | An organisation approved to deliver nationally recognised training. | The provider’s entry and its registration status. |
| Scope of registration | The training an RTO is registered to deliver. | The provider’s entry: is this course on it? |
| Training package | Government-funded training designed for most of Australia’s vocational training needs, publicly available for all RTOs to use. | The qualification or unit code on the register. |
| Accredited course | A course developed for a training need no training package qualification covers, independently assessed by ASQA or a state regulator. | The course code, title and approved RTOs on the register. |
| “Course in …” | An accredited course leading to a Statement of Attainment rather than a full qualification. | The course entry on the register. |
Two kinds of nationally recognised training
ASQA explains the difference between the two main kinds. Training packages are government-funded and open to every RTO. Accredited courses “are developed by individuals or organisations to address specific skills or knowledge gaps not covered by training packages”; their owners pay for accreditation, keep the intellectual property and can license the course to RTOs.
Both are nationally recognised, but a course cannot be accredited if what it sets out to achieve is already available through an existing training product. Accreditation means the course meets the Standards for VET Accredited Courses 2021 and the Australian Qualifications Framework. ASQA can accredit courses at levels from Certificate I to Graduate Diploma, as well as the shorter “Course in” kind.
Three checks before enrolling staff
- Find the course. Search the register for the course code or title on the listing. ASQA says every accredited course is listed there with its code, title and approved RTOs.
- Find the provider. Look up the RTO and read its registration status and its scope of registration.
- Match the two. For an accredited course, ASQA says only RTOs can deliver it, and only if they own the course or have the owner’s permission, and have added it to their scope of registration.
The register shows that a course exists and who may deliver it, not what a session covers: ASQA says it does not publish detailed course content online. The content itself comes from the provider’s own course material.
Where this fits in staff training
ASQA calls itself the national regulator for Australia’s vocational education and training sector. Much of what staff need to know about posting, though, is the employer’s own: the policy they follow, the accounts they may use and the customer information they handle. business.gov.au suggests making policy training part of onboarding. The first session, a policy staff can follow, covers what that policy contains, and privacy in staff training covers the information side.