Welcome to this COVID-19 issue of the VET BI report.
As with all crises there are winners, losers and survivors. Many providers are tweaking their offerings to facilitate online and other “socially distanced” delivery modes. Some are finding new business in offering new non-accredited short courses, particularly in business management and real estate which have new rules and regulations to deal with. There is also a thriving business in dealing with career and business transitions as opportunities are realised by some and changes are forced upon others. International education has clearly taken a big hit, as has anyone supporting hospitality industries, and the focus there is on medium to term survival by diversification or “hibernation”. One thing is for sure – we certainly do live in “interesting” times.
New RTOs
What may be surprising is that, after a (typically) slow start to the year, the sector has been surprisingly active. 10 new RTOs were registered in March. Perhaps it’s the long registration processes already in process well before the crisis, or perhaps it’s displaced staff members branching out on their own out of necessity. In any case, the highly competitive vocational training industry is actively responding to these changes and finding new demand.
As the restrictions are eased, the rules continually adjusted, and the government support schemes are fully rolled out (and then wound back), there may be further opportunities of training services. Any industries relying on international travel may be waiting a long time however.
Here are the new entrants in March:
QLD (4)
45588 Total Training Group (Agriculture)
45589 International College of Aviation and Technology (Aviation)
45590 Australian College of Professional Careers Pty Ltd (Business)
45593 Academia Pty Ltd (Business)
NSW (2)
45586 Great Divide Tours (Forestry)
45587 Tclm Pty Ltd t/a Tower Crane Training (Equipment)
VIC (1)
45591 Oxford Institute of Training (Building)
WA (1)
52904 Airflite Aviation Pty Ltd (Aviation)
ACT (2)
45585 Aus Crest Pty Ltd (Business)
45592 Canberra Institute of Education and Training (Technology and Building)
Restrictions
There were 11 restrictions added in March (and 4 ended), including a total of only 1 general suspension. The bulk of the restrictions involved requiring more frequent reporting in some courses and restrictions delivery methods to address temporary or potential issues but while still allowing the courses to be delivered by the provider. This is more evidence that ASQA is taking a more nuanced and proportional response to compliance problems than it has in the past.
Training component changes
Coming out of a quiet period, March was a very busy period for content creators and many RTOs will have some major work to do in the next few months on top of everything else that is going on. It does appear that the areas changing are related to business and employment. We can reasonably speculate that some of these changes are in response to the crisis and perhaps the lull in previous months was time spend reviewing content and rules.
There are so may changes in this period that only the most specialised RTOs will be unaffected. We suggest that you review the entire list and read up on the changes within your scope on the training.gov.au web site.
With VET BI, you set your watch list to notify you when a competitor in your regions of interest adds an item to scope in an category you are interested in. This gives you a more tightly focused view of your competitors changes to scope.
Funding changes
There were only two new funding approvals in March.
Reports
You can view the reports below for all details on recent activity and changes.