How to Engage Guide

Multiple reviews into the Human Services sector have revealed that Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), employers, and students have different expectations for training content, delivery and assessment of learners.

Some reviews have identified a lack of communication, consultation, information and data sharing between RTOs and industry as key obstacles to developing quality training for the sector.

Lack of direct feedback mechanisms from employers to RTOs about the quality and content of their courses has led some RTOs to focus on compliance, rather than the relevance and usefulness of their courses for the development of the human services workforce.

Project Overview

Project outcomes include resources that:

• a wide range of employers and industry bodies find practical and easy to use, and be recommended to others
• assists employers and RTOs to better engage with each other
• helps to shift potential negative mindsets about engagement between employers and RTOs and contributes to a more positive culture around engagement with VET
• encompass both formal and informal training and development processes as part of a broad approach to workforce development
• gathers examples of good practice and successful engagement between employers and RTOs

We have created the Guide To VET For Human Services Employers as a direct outcome of this project.

Progress

This project is complete. We thank all the employers and RTOs who have come together to help us design the guide and participate in the development of case studies.

More than 60 organisations across the full range of Human Services sectors have been involved in a series of conversations to explore:

• the ways in which each sector currently engages with VET for the purposes of training and workforce development,
• their drivers for engagement with VET,
• the types of people and organisations most likely to use and benefit from the guide,
• possible examples of good practice, and effective approaches for consulting with stakeholders in the sector.

The second stage of the project gathered views and insights from a range of employers and RTOs across the seven industry sectors as well as from across employing organisations of different sizes and different levels of organisational maturity in relation to workforce development.