Consulting industry

Why consult industry?

Qualifications are generally designed to equip students for particular employment. As a general rule, the sooner you start talking to industry the better, so you can build your whole program to suit what industry wants. If you think of industry as a client, it’s good business to start by asking: What does the client want?

RTOs consult industry to make sure that what they are doing is what industry actually wants. You need to:

clarify exactly who you will teach
define or confirm current requirements in the workplace and
develop an assessment strategy will work in that context.

This is due to the ivory tower mentality, where institutions can teach things that they find academically interesting or completely out of date, but are completely out of touch with what graduates must be able to do in the workplace. That's why industry consultation generally doesn't include consulting other RTOs. You don't want to base your offerings on something irrelevant or outdated that somebody does in another ivory tower.

Actively try to get them on side and get their input and advice. In general, industry consultation will keep your feet firmly grounded in current practice.

When you have written your assessment tools, it's good practice to show your tools to the industry person and talk them over.

The SNR basically requires that industry be satisfied with what you do, so it will probably be much more like a continuing conversation than a single meeting. It is also part of your quality control. It becomes necessary when either the RTO or industry wants to interpret requirements in quite specific ways, or actual practice on the ground is changing rapidly. You may also have to deal with other standards, especially mandatory licensing standards.

The SNR requirement

As a qualified assessor, you may be appointed to conduct industry consultations.

The SNR suggests that consultation is an institutional responsibility of the RTO rather than part of the regular duties of an assessor. But for most RTOs, the most practical and beneficial way is to have instructors and assessors do consultation for the qualifications or units they teach and/or assess, use the consultation results in their preparation, but place records in institutional files. However, an RTO really needs to show that the whole qualification (including the bits that you aren't teaching right now) are covered in the consultation.

Being flexible …

In some cases, assessment tools need to be specifically written for particular jobs in a particular company.

In other cases, it works better to write generic assessment tools based on the package. Then students are learning on-job, I work closely the supervisor and interpret the tools according to the specific on-job situation.

About required knowledge

You'll have to decide how you will teach and assess required knowledge. You generally have two options:

Option	Most useful for ...
What applied knowledge to students need to do their particular job?	RPL students People who learn on-job in a particular company.
What general knowledge do they they need to work anywhere in the industry?	Colleges that prepare students to get jobs on the open market.

I sometimes get asked ...Assessors sometimes ask, "If the package was already consulted with industry, why consult again?"
Answer: Training packages are national and normally too broad and generic to apply in a specific, local context. In particular, packages don't dictate the purposes of your program.

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Who is industry?

If you are assessing people in a particular company, you can be very specific in what you require because you can specify particular procedures and legislation, etc. But if you are training students to get a job anywhere in the industry (e.g. TAFE), you need to cover all the kinds of cases that students will face across the industry.

A simple way to identify skill needs is to ask the right person. In the simplest cases, it will be the employer of your students or graduates.

An industry representative may be anybody currently in working industry with this knowledge who can give you independent advice. It may be a representative of an association or peak body, but does not have to be. You may also do industry consultation through a series of industry seminars and workshops, if it achieves the purposes.

Assessment is also more complex when dealing with complex networks of people who might do assessment very differently. This is normally the case for on-the-job practical assessments when risks have been identified, and especially so for extended practicums.

For compliance purposes, you are not required to ask a lot of people, but in more complex cases, you might also need to consult:

government regulatory bodies
consultative committees
employee and union representatives
industry training advisory bodies
team leaders or supervisors
managers or management boards
subject matter experts
clients

If you need to consult more widely, how you run consultations will depend on the structure of the stakeholder bodies. Consider the difference between:

a large number of unassociated organizations
a small number of self-employed people
an international organization
a government department
the board of an association that represents the stakeholders, and
an industry training body

If the head of the industry association and the head of the RTO's program are the same person, then he/she might simply want to consult themselves. Although not outlawed by the AQTF, and almost unavoidable in some situations, it is a role conflict and RTOs must consult more widely, perhaps to rival associations if possible.

You may have to adapt for specific contexts or clienteles by using specific procedures and assessment instruments other than simple checklists derived from outcome statements.

TipIf you do training on the job at work, industry consultation is a no-brainer. Just do what the employer wants.

How to do it

You can also do industry consultation in various other ways.

Kind of consultation	Pros and cons
Integrate industry people, especially an employer, early in the process so you can be far more sure that you are meeting employer expectations.	This is currently often seen as one of the best approaches. This can be by either: functioning as an enterprise RTO (e.g. integrating assessment into routine performance review), or having an industry person as co-assessor under supervision, or having a supervisor or colleague give an oral or written reference, or involving an industry representative in the validation of the assessment Advice does not need to be independent, as long as the wider context is appropriate. For example, a supervisor might also be the head of training. It is a role conflict if he/she can simply say, Yes, I agree with myself. But they could represent industry if they had a wider accountability for their opinions.
Do an Internet search of current standards.	The easiest scenario is when the industry produces written and agreed-upon particular standards and procedures, and provides information of its needs, interests, and concerns. Simple enough; all you need to do is to respond appropriately. In well-documented industries, you may be able to do all industry consultation by Internet search. A few consultations are that easy, although it is usually much more complicated. It is also best when written standards of international organizations are the main compliance requirement.
Participate in industry meetings that define current standards of practice	They may be an association or peak body conference, or a series of industry network meetings, seminars or workshops.
Interview an industry representative	The representative may be either a person currently working in the relevant industry who either does the job or supervises it, or a representative of an association or peak body. Note: If you choose an interview approach, you may find that one interview is not necessarily enough.
Getting a letter from an industry association	Once almost the mandatory approach, an industry association letter might fail to integrate industry into the training and assessement process.
Workplace documents	You should look at any of these that are helpful, as long as you comply with privacy regulations: job descriptions personnel records performance appraisals and review documents enrolment information outcomes of RPL assessments students' registration or enrolment information company brochures and promotional materials job descriptions performance appraisals and review documents publications from government agencies including OHS and regulatory authorities supervisor reports
Profile	This is a written description of what a competent person will be like. Just be careful not to be too idealistic. Profiles are very helpful.
Survey	Another way to do it is to survey people, but this is normally only recommended for a large-scale program, and is most appropriate when there are no central structures. It will produce insights that you could not have anticipated and cannot get any other way, but you need to avoid getting so much detailed information that you cannot use it or even interpret it.
Task analysis	Another way to analyze training needs is to determine the skills that each employee needs to contribute to achieving the organization's specific goals. That means that you systematically observe and ask a series of questions: What specific goals is the organization seeking to achieve? (What are the ends?) How is trying to achieve those goals? (What are the means?) What job roles are needed for achieving the organization's specific goals? What skill areas are needed for each job role? What specific skills does each employee need in each job role?

Some traps: How not to do itExcept for training qualifications, consulting with other training organizations in the industry does not comprise consulting industry.
They are RTOs, just like you, and might be completely out of touch with the actual workplace. It might be good for moderation, but doesn't define current industry requirements. | A form? A letter?If you treat this as just a form to fill in or a letter to keep on file, then you might not meet industry requirements.

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What to do

Identify whose approval you need to start the consultation. This will normally be your RTO supervisor.
Decide how you will conduct the consultation.

You may do a consultation jointly with other departments of your RTO that are offering the same units or qualifications.
You may do one separately from other departments if your situation is different.

Select an industry representative (You may consult more than one industry person if necessary.)
Make an appointment beforehand if at all possible.
Consult them

State the purpose of the consultation clearly and succinctly.
Clarify current workplace requirements
Ask them what you expect of them, and allay their fears.
Show your assessment plan and tools to your industry representative, and actively try to get their input and advice. Try to get them on side. By listening to their needs and concerns, they will more likely be sympathetic to what you are doing. Find out what they think and write down your results.
Confirm that your training goals and assessments fit what industry actually does. Adjust your strategies if necessary.
Find out what kinds of assessment tools would work in that context
negotiate and get agreement to proposed assessment strategies, and be willing to revise them if necessary
Identify any useful improvements, and
Determine whether you will need to meet again.

Fill in one form for each qualification of part thereof. Make sure that what you write in the form is a good explanation of what you do. (Please don't treat it as just a form to fill in.)
Keep either a hard copy or a backed-up soft copy of the form in your RTO records.

Integrating industry people

Integrate industry people, especially an employer, early in the process so you can be far more sure that you are meeting employer expectations.

This is currently often seen as one of the best approaches. This can be by either:

functioning as an enterprise RTO (e.g. integrating assessment into routine performance review), or
having an industry person as co-assessor under supervision, or
having a supervisor or colleague give an oral or written reference, or
involving an industry representative in the validation of the assessment

Best tip everMake your training goals suit the goals of the business as closely as possible. If you do, employers will be much more supportive, and much more willing to state their real needs.

Click here for hints and tips on running a consultation meeting.

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Producing documents

For the purpose of ACAS and the certificate IV, we ask you to use the standard ACAS form. But you might like to know that there are other ways of documenting consultation:

Conference notes
Meeting minutes
A survey report
Get a letter on letterhead paper. This may be:

A letter from the key industry representative
A collection of letters from key stakeholder groups
A proforma outline of what you did and your results, preferably signed by industry personnel.

Alternatives ideas for forms

The list below might help you outline what you'd put in a report on a consultation of competency needs and assessment

Name of person conducting consultation
Name of person or organisation commissioning this report
Apparent training need
Industry area
Who were the industry stakeholders?
Consultation dates
What comprised consultation (Visits to key stakeholders, Telephone interviews, Survey, Onsite observations, Library or Internet search, etc)
Description of prospective students
What specific lessons did you learn from consultations? What would you do differently?
Enclose a full statement of conclusions (including any applicable customisations or interpretations):
Does your assessment now reflect current industry requirements?
Will the assessment will work in that industry environment?
Outline of the training approach and steps to be followed.
Any specific delivery method(s) to be used
Submitted to whom
Date
Signature

Luke, Amanda, Simon and Kate

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