Regulator urges urgent action on aged care training

Fast-tracked minimalist training courses are “short changing” aged care employers and students and encouraging a “race to the bottom” in terms of quality and cost, a major review of aged care training has found.

Fast-tracked minimalist training courses are “short changing” aged care employers and students and encouraging a “race to the bottom” in terms of quality and cost, a major review of aged care training has found.

The Australian Skills Quality Authority report released on Monday said many training programs were too short to enable students to become competent and commonly failed to provide proper assessment and workplace experience.

The national vocational training regulator said up to 70 per cent of registered training organisations (RTOs) audited for this review failed to meet the recommended 1,200 hours of training for Certificate III programs, and over one-third delivered the Certificate III in Aged Care in less than 15 weeks.

Some 15 per cent of RTOs also offered less than 60 hours of work placement, including some courses which failed to provide any work-based training.

ASQA chief commissioner Chris Robinson said RTOs trying to provide high quality programs faced unfair competition from RTOs offering “cheap” and “unrealistically short” courses to students.

“This creates an environment in the competitive training market where there is a ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of continually reducing course fees to attract students, reducing course times to attract students and reducing training and delivery effort to cut costs,” he said. “Quality and sufficient time to enable adequate instruction, learning and assessment are the ‘casualties’ in this environment.”

The review by ASQA was a key recommendation of the Productivity Commission’s 2011 inquiry into aged care, which repeatedly heard concerns from providers, unions and educators about the quality of training, particularly Cert III and IVs in aged care.

High non-compliance

Overall, the review found that 87 per cent of the 53 RTOs audited before March 2013 were  not fully compliant with the required national training standards. However, the large majority of RTOs rectified these failings when given the opportunity after the initial audit.

The highest level of non-compliance was with the quality of assessment, where up to 80 per cent of RTOs were found to be not compliant.

Of particular concern was the lack of assessment in a workplace and reliance on third-party reports from workplace supervisors who were not qualified Vocational Education and Training (VET) assessors.

Mr Robinson said the review’s findings were “disturbing” given the significant expansion of the aged and community care workforce required to meet the needs of an ageing population.

“'[L]eft to their own devices’, most RTOs are operating in a way that does not ensure full compliance with the required standards, notwithstanding the fact that some of this non-compliance is relatively minor,” he said.

“Clearly there is a need for RTOs to be much more focussed on ensuring that they are meeting the required national standards for training.”

Recommendations 

The review made 10 recommendations which included the development of minimum benchmarks for the amount of learning required, national workshops to improve RTO compliance and for the training of assessors and trainers to be overhauled.

CEO of Community Services & Health Industry Skills Council Rod Cooke said the review found that many RTO leaders and staff have poor knowledge and understanding of what’s actually required in the delivery of training packages and meeting national standards.

He said the report’s recommendations would help to address long-standing issues with the provision of aged care training and assessment raised in the Productivity Commission’s 2011 Caring for Older Australians report.

A management committee of aged and community care training stakeholders oversaw the review including the Health Services Union, Department of Health and Ageing, Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research & Tertiary Education, Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency and Feros Care.

HAVE YOUR SAY: What do you think about the ASQA report and the quality of aged care training? Comment below 

Tags: asqa, audit, rtos, training,

6 thoughts on “Regulator urges urgent action on aged care training

  1. Having worked as a curriculum developer and in aged care I can tell you the pressure on developers to just put in a course the basic information is enormous. You only get out of a system what you put into it. The basic question people need to ask is “Would I want to be treated like that or have that standard of care for me or someone in my family?” If the answer is no then do not go with that RTO. The best way to change things is to go to a better, more reputable RTO. Most courses are written for auditors, not students to learn. RTOs are just a business like anyone else and the bottom line is profit.
    Another area that needs to be looked at is keeping knowledge up to date, especially as the federal government is changing they system almost constantly.
    If you are privileged to age, your turn is coming. You will have to use this system that you have created and try to recreate!
    Maybe some of our older people that have used the system should be listened to and then real changes may be made instead of paper ones!

  2. Finally, the evidence that all providers have been waiting for. The lack of control and poor outcomes are evidenced everyday across the country by providers who struggle to recruit a skilled workforce. It is time for a national strategy, with minimum entry requirements and vocational training for all care workers in residential and community care.

  3. At last an article published that outlines the poor training and knowledge that is now being delivered to carers. The role of a carer and the tasks carers perform on a daily basis has changed over the last 10 years, unfortunately the study curriculum has not. The poor training, minimal knowledge, poor competency and ability of those who have been ‘fast tracked’ through the system is evident within the workplace. This places residents/clients at risk and increases the pressure on existing staff. The ease of which a Cert III in Aged Care can be obtained devalues the importance and profession of carers.

  4. This is a fantastic article/report which highlights what those of us in both the training and aged care industry have known for some time. The time has come for all parties to stand up and force change, and by all parties I mean RTO’s, Aged Care facilities/organisations, government and industry. In order for an RTO to compete in the market place, all parties need to make a stance and say these fast tracked courses are no longer acceptable.
    At the end of the day ALL parties are responsible for the level of care we provide to those who need it.

  5. ASQA is a joke.

    It’s assertions are based on woefully nebulous ‘standards’ that are being repealed from the NVR Act 2011 and replaced. This will occur in 6 weeks time.

    ASQA has been running around wrecking quality RTOs while the rogue providers go untouched.

    This nonsense that 70% of training providers are delivering substandard training doesn’t pass the laugh test. I was in the aged care training sector for over a decade and I know a lot more than 30% were delivering quality training.

    Now it is presenting this rubbish to the public in order to justify it’s existence following the damning PricewaterhouseCoopers review into its operations.

  6. Agree that minimum benchmark of learning requirement, national workshops to improve RT Compliance and Training of Assessment trainers to be overhauled, is the way to go to review unsuitably qualified workers to meet caring responsibilities skillsm knowledge and attitudes at workplace.

    Mandate mininum English requirement, Are there going to be free workshops and enough time given for dynamic interaction with facilitator to check that what is currently used is sufficient?

    How about designing questionings based on Aged Care Homes processes like those used in Residential Care for example?

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