Maintaining registration

To maintain registration, an RTO must continue to meet the requirements of Australian Quality Training Framework 2007 (AQTF 2007). This is made up of:

  • Essential Standards for Registration
  • Excellence Criteria
  • Standards for Registering Bodies

A brief description of these is provided below; to view full versions of all these documents go to www.training.com.au/aqtf2007. There is also an AQTF 2007 Users Guide to the Essential Standards for Registration that gives further information on this topic.

Essential Standards of Registration

As an RTO, your organisation must make the effort to understand the Essential Standards for Registration; otherwise you may risk failing to satisfy some of the requirements for initial registration or when it comes time to re-register. There are three components:

  • Conditions of Registration. These address the ‘non-negotiables’ of operating an RTO, such as having insurance, complying with legislation, certifying accounts, issuing qualifications, satisfying national recognition and conducting ethical marketing. An RTO’s Chief Executive Officer is required to sign a contract agreeing to adhere to the conditions.

  • Standards. There are three standards covering RTO business areas that most impact on the quality of training outcomes: training and assessment, client services and management systems. Each standard contains a number of elements that further describe the expectations of that standard, with the focus being on outcomes.

  • Quality Indicators. RTOs must collect and report on data against a small number of agreed outcome measures for the purpose of reporting to VETAB and for continuous improvement.

Excellence Criteria

These are criteria that registered training organisations may use voluntarily to continue improving the quality of their training and assessment and to gain recognition of their performance. For more details, go to www.training.com.au.

Standards for Registering Bodies

These will not directly affect your organisaton, as they relate to the operation of registering bodies such as VETAB. However, as you will have to deal with VETAB you would do well to be aware of these standards so you will know what to expect when dealing with VETAB.

Working with Children Background Screening Checks

Under the AQTF 2007 you must comply with relevant Commonwealth, State or Territory legislation and regulatory requirements.  The NSW Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998 prohibits people with convictions for certain offences from applying for or remaining in “child-related employment”.   Background checking is mandatory for all people being recruited to positions in paid child-related employment (including contracted employees).  The NSW Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998 establishes a “Working with Children” background check that enables an employer to submit the names of preferred applicants for child-related employment to help inform recruitment decisions.   For more information read Advice for RTOs.


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