Training and Assessment Policy

The College undertakes extensive consultation with industry and subject matter experts to inform the development of training and assessment strategies (TAS) for the qualifications on its scope of registration. Each TAS includes a description of the assessment tools and instruments used to collect evidence of learners’ competence.

The College implements assessment instruments and tools for each unit of competency that include:

• Written questions
• Projects/Assignments/Case studies/scenarios
• Third party reports

These instruments are used collectively to cover all aspects of the unit of competency and enable the trainer/assessor to collect all required evidence, as described in each unit of competency. The College’s resource developers also take into account the need to meet all foundation skills requirements and assessment conditions when developing or updating assessment instruments.

Learners who undertake course programs offered by the College are expected to comply with the principles of academic honesty throughout the learning and assessment process. All learners must fulfil the following expectations:

• Participate in the learning and assessment process as it relates to each unit of competency within their course program;
• Accept fair, timely and helpful assessment feedback from trainer/assessors;
• Act in a manner that upholds the principles of academic honesty by avoiding plagiarism, cheating and collusion (as defined in the College’s Academic Honesty Policy);
• Complete and submit all required assessments specified for each unit of competency
• Consult the College’s support team if the learner’s personal circumstances may affect their ability to comply with any aspect of the assessment process
• Retain copies of all submitted assessment items for your records

All individuals involved in the delivery of training and assessment services on the College’s behalf must fulfil the following conditions:

• Adhere to the College’s training and assessment strategies and timeframes for the delivery of training and assessment for each unit of competency
• Provide phone and email support to learners as required
• Convey timely and accurate feedback to learners relating to their assessment tasks
• Keep accurate and secure records of learners’ assessment results
• Report on learners’ progress and results in a clear, concise, open and honest manner, focusing only on information of relevance to the learner’s progress and assessment outcomes.

Evidence plays a crucial role in determining the outcome of an assessment, as it provides substantiation that the learner has acquired the specified skills and knowledge from the learning process. The standard of the evidence supplied through a learner’s submission of assessment materials, as assessed by a trainer will ultimately determine whether the learner is “competent” or “not yet competent”.

It is important that learners engage with their learning material to ensure they can confidently complete all assessment tasks required before going on work placement.

All theory learning and assessment is completed in the College LMS and consists of a range of short and long answer questions, projects and/or assignments/reports.  In some cases, learners may be required to participate in simulated role plays that require recording and uploading to the LMS.  When completing the assessment tasks, learners must ensure that they read the instructions carefully and review their completed assessment before submitting.

Learners are responsible for retaining copies of their work during their studies. The College retains the right to refuse access to LMS, including the right to download, or retrieve material once a learner is on suspension, deferred course, withdrawn/cancellation of enrolment or graduated. This includes all work retained in the LMS and is inclusive of work in progress and submitted work.

Learners are required to complete and submit their assessment directly through the LMS.  Each assessment task must be completed in full before the system will allow the learner to access the following assessment task.  Once the learner has submitted an assessment task, the system will not allow the learner to make any changes prior to the assessment being marked by the trainer.  The learner will be able to continue on to the next assessment task while awaiting the result of the first.

To ensure that learners progress at a suitable rate and are not overloaded, the LMS will not release or allow learners access to more than three units at any one time.

Third Party Evidence Collection Booklets (TPECB), Placement Booklets (PB) and any other assessment tasks to be completed during a learner’s placement, will be made available on the LMS once the college has approved the learner’s placement.

Completed TPECB’s or PB’s are to be submitted as one document via the LMS, with additional evidence added in the Third-Party Evidence Collection Evidence section.

It is the learner’s responsibility to retain copies of all submitted assessment items. To ensure the integrity of the assessment system, the College will not distribute copies of completed assessment items nor will it grant learners access to the learning management system for the purposes of downloading completed assessment items once submitted. Learners will no longer have access to the LMS once graduated, on deferral, suspension, withdrawn or cancelled from course/s.

NOTE: It is the learner’s responsibility to ensure that all assessment is completed in full and submitted for marking prior to the end date of their enrolment.

Trainers aim to mark all written assessments within ten (10) working days of receipt after which the trainer will provide learners with written feedback on all assessment tasks.

Third Party Evidence Collection Booklets (TPECB), Placement Booklets (PB), any other third party reports or other forms of evidence from a learner’s work placement will be assessed within 21 days of submission.

The College recognises there may be situations that are beyond our control which may negatively impact the timeframes specified above and the end date of a learner’s enrolment.  In this event, the College will provide the learner with an extension to their enrolment end date to allow time for all final assessment to be marked and the qualification issued. The learner will not be charged the extension fee specified in the Extension and Deferral Policy under these circumstances.

Trainers are to award a “satisfactory” or “not satisfactory” result for all assessment tasks submitted by learners. If all assessments for a unit of competency are completed satisfactorily, the learner will be assessed as “competent”. A “not yet competent” result means the learner has not achieved all learning and performance outcomes specified by the unit of competency.

Learners who are assessed as “not satisfactory” will be offered the opportunity to resubmit their assessment for the task/s following feedback from their trainer.  A total of four (4) submissions will be provided (the original plus three resubmissions).

In these instances, learners are only expected to re-submit the sections of the original assessment that did not meet requirements on the learner’s first attempt.

Prior to the second resubmission and third resubmissions, trainers will provide additional support and mentoring to the learner to maximise their success in completing the assessment task.

Where a learner fails to achieve a satisfactory result after the fourth submission, no further opportunities for reassessment will be offered and the result for that unit recorded as “not yet competent”.

Learners may continue their enrolment, including their vocational placement, and finish any remaining units of competency.  Upon completion of their enrolment, learners will be issued with a Statement of Attainment for all units of competency that have been deemed competent.

The above does not preclude the learner from re-enrolling to complete those units where competency was not achieved. A flat fee of $50 per unit of competency will be invoiced prior to the re-commencement.  Credit transfer will be awarded for the remaining units completed in the original enrolment.

Where a learner elects to re-enrol, they must contact the College administration to arrange the enrolment process at which point, the learner will be invoiced for the number of units required to be completed.  This invoice must be paid before the learner will be invited to re-enrol.

The College is required to securely retain and be able to produce in full at audit, if requested to do so, all completed learner assessment instruments for each learner for a period of six months from the date on which the judgement of competence for the learner was made.

The College stores all learner records electronically in the learner management system while hard copy assessment evidence is scanned and retained electronically on the secure server or stored in the locked document storage area. At the end of the required six months, the College destroys all electronic records except learners’ enrolment documentation, training and assessment results and copies of the testamur /s learners were issued. The College also maintains a certificate and Statement of Attainment register. These items must be retained for a period of 30 years.