Registered training organisations
About 5,000 registered training organisations (RTOs) provide vocational education and training across Australia. They differ from other, unregistered training organisations because they:
- are registered and regulated by the Australian Skills Quality Authority
- can issue nationally recognised qualifications.
RTOs include:
- TAFE colleges and institutes
- adult and community education providers
- community organisations
- schools and higher education institutions
- commercial and enterprise training providers
- industry bodies
- other organisations that meet registration requirements.
RTOs that deliver training to apprentices and trainees are known as supervising registered training organisations (SRTOs).
Role
You and your apprentice/trainee will need to choose an SRTO to partner with throughout the apprenticeship or traineeship. The SRTO will:
- help you develop a training plan for the apprentice/trainee
- deliver training
- assess the achievement of skills or 'competencies'
- issue the qualification upon completion.
Responsibilities
Your apprentice's or trainee's SRTO will be responsible for the following activities during the life of the apprenticeship or traineeship.
Workplace assessment and planning
They will:
- assess your capacity to supervise and train your apprentice/trainee
- help you plan (workplace) tasks for your apprentice/trainee
- help you schedule study, training and work (for school-based apprenticeships and traineeships only).
Training and assessment
They will:
- negotiate and develop the training plan with you and your apprentice/trainee within strict timeframes
- train and assess your apprentice/trainee
- inform you about training costs, funding implications and training and assessment requirements.
Progress
They will:
- provide your apprentice/trainee with a training record within 14 days of the training plan being signed
- regularly check that your apprentice/trainee is keeping their training record up to date
- notify us if an apprentice/trainee is not progressing fast enough.
Learning support
If needed, they will provide learning (literacy and numeracy) support for your apprentice/trainee to help them complete their studies.
Completion
They will:
- sign a completion agreement together with you and your apprentice/trainee, when they have completed all their training and assessment
- send it to us within 10 days of signing it
- issue the qualification to your apprentice/trainee upon successful completion
- contact us if you don’t sign a completion agreement (even though your apprentice/trainee has fulfilled all their training and assessment requirements).
Complaints and disputes
If you or your apprentice/trainee have problems with your training organisation, they are responsible for managing this formally, by following their internal complaints process.