In the recent VET reform the Department of Industry has reviewed registered training organisation (RTO) vocational education and training (VET) data reporting requirements in conjunction with state and territory government departments responsible for VET and with the assistance of KPMG.

The review’s report entitled Review of RTO VET Data Reporting Requirements found significant scope to streamline and standardise data reporting, making 18 recommendations and identifying five principles for new and existing data reporting requirements.

The principles seek to ensure that:

• data is only provided once by RTOs, and is used many times;
• data requirements are fit for purpose, so that only data that is absolutely necessary is required;
• efficient systems and processes for receiving data are in place to minimise the impact on RTOs;
• consistency and linkages are maximised, with RTOs only asked to provide data that cannot be sourced elsewhere; and
• a stable but adaptive system of reporting requirements is in place for RTOs.

Knowing how the reporting adds additional work to RTOs it is pleasing to read, even if it is posted as “long-term”, that one of the recommendations states:

Consider the practicalities, including costs and benefits, of transitioning in the long-term to a single reporting system and data repository compared with a standardised data set that can be submitted using standardised processes and systems to different agencies for various purposes from a single student management system, including consideration of:

• frequency and timing of data requirements;
• privacy and access issues;
• the impact of technological change;
• the capacity of the approach to meet state and territory requirements;
• capacity of NCVER, as the data custodian; and
• issues of necessity of information provision.

The Commonwealth has agreed to adopt the recommendations of the review and will work in partnership with state and territory governments to streamline data reporting requirements. The report and its recommendations is available below:

Recommendations of the review [PDF 260kb] [Word 22kb]

Full report [PDF 3mb] [Word 1.7mb]