Recognising transfer credit

Ross Woods, 2019. With thanks to Virginia MacCarthy

RTOs are clearly required to recognise Statements of Attainment from other RTOs, implying that an RTO is not entitled to make recognition subject to a re-assessment.

Consider theses scenarios:

We assessed a student as Not yet competent for a unit, and then asked him to be re-assessed to demonstrate competence. The student then produced a Statement of Attainment for that unit. What do I do? I know he is not yet competent but he holds a transcript. The problem is more difficult because he has already been admitted and our RTO does not have a policy to prevent the problem.

Some students get quick and easy units from cheap, fast, easy RTOs and try to transfer the credit to us to get a more reputable qualification. We don't want the name of our RTO on those students’ qualifications.

We have this problem with a particular unit. For a few dollars, students can do it quickly online on a mobile phone and we are required to recognize it. But we doubt they are any good.

Prevention is better than cure:

• If the student is presenting a Statement of Attainment when applying for admission, you do not have to accept the students application.
• Put a clear requirement in your RTO’s application information that students are required to present all transfer credit applications at the time of applying for admission to the qualification. You might retain the right to waive this, but you might need the right to refuse it.

If they have already been admitted, you need to be able to pass them on to another RTO. You can choose to admit applicants into the Unit and issue a Statement of Attainment for only those units. They can then go back to the other RTO for the issue of the qualification.

One particular extreme case made it much simpler. A student was expelled for the inappropriate behavior that resulted in a NYC assessment result. To gain the whole qual, they had to go to another RTO.