Business Tips
Any successful business begins with a good development plan and continues with ongoing planning and assessment. It is the process of strengthening your business that enables you to stand strong in the face of adversity. Having a plan is a great place to start, but even with the plan many people fail. Success does not happen because of what you plan, it happens when you work to the plan.
If you started an RTO there was a purpose that moved you to do it. The only problem is, most people have not identified what that purpose is, and when the purpose is unidentified the activities that emerge out of it are unintentional. For a purpose to be effective it must be intentional with goals to accomplish a task.
You also need to start strategic thinking and planning. It is not enough to know how to do the various tasks related to your business. We can’t see our business in terms of simple repetitive tasks. Once we have our goals firmly before us, we have to look way down the road and decide specifically where we want to end up.
So we have our plan and purpose, now we need to have systems, good systems and quality training and assessment.
RTO tips
Conduct your own internal audits regularly. This provides you with a clear barometer of where your RTO is and provides you with direction for improvements. There is nothing wrong with finding areas that need improving. In fact it is a positive and something to tell the Accrediting Body auditor about.
Auditors want to see continuous improvement and planning for a successful business.
The planning includes your policies and procedures and strategies for training and assessment AND they need to be translated into the business. There is no point in have wonderful information if the business is not using them. Everybody in the organisation needs to work to the plans, policies and procedures.
You need to make them real; if you say you do it, then make sure you do, otherwise remove the superfluous information.
Trainer and assessor tips
Make sure you record all the professional development undertaken by your Trainers and Assessors. This could include reading websites, emails, attending industry meetings, networking meetings or talking to other trainer and assessors.
Standard 1.4 states that Trainer and assessors need to have industry skills directly related to what they are training and assessing against.