What is a scope of registration?

This article has been written for people who are new to the Australian vocational education and training (VET) system. There is so many terms and acronyms to learn. It is like learning a new language.

You should be fluent at ‘VET speak’ by the time you have completed your Certificate IV in Training and Assessment qualification. However, it is best to avoid using this language when speaking to the people that you train and assess. You need to learn ‘VET speak’, but they don’t. When speaking with our students and learners, it is important for us to use plain English. We need to be a translator.

In this article I will explain what is an RTO’s scope of registration, and how to find an RTO’s scope of registration.

Introduction to scope of registration

A training organisation must be registered with a VET regulator before is can deliver nationally recognised training (NRT) and issue qualifications or statements of attainment. A registered training organisation (RTO) does not automatically have the approval to deliver all qualifications and skill sets. The RTO must apply to their VET regulator for approval to deliver particular training products. A training product can be:

• A qualification from a Training Package
• A skill set from a Training Package
• A stand-alone unit of competency, such as, first aid
• A VET accredited course.

The scope of registration is the list of training products the RTO has approval to deliver.

How to find an RTO’s scope of registration

The training.gov.au website is the National Register for VET in Australia. It provides details about all RTOs. [1]

Step 1

Go to the search function on the training.gov.au website. Select the ‘RTO/Org’ tab. Then enter the RTO’s name or RTO’s number.

Step 2

Go to the RTO’s webpage on the training.gov.au website. Select ‘Scope’.

Step 3

The RTO’s scope of registration will be displayed onscreen. You may need to scroll down to see all the training products that are on the scope of registration.

Big and small scopes of registration

Some RTOs have a small number of training products on their scope of registration, while other RTOs have a large number of training products on scope.

An example of an RTO with a small scope of registration

The following is an example of an RTO with a small scope of registration. Only 2 qualifications are listed.

An example of an RTO with a large scope of registration

The following is an example of an RTO with a large scope of registration. It lists 286 qualifications.

Exploring an RTO’s scope of registration

A scope of registration will list ‘Current’ and ‘Superseded’ qualifications. The ‘Superseded’ qualifications would disappear after the transition period has expired. The following shows the scope of registration for TAFE SA. It is only displaying the first 10 qualifications from a total of 286 qualifications.

As we would expect, the following shows that TAFE SA delivers training in South Australia.

A scope of registration shows the states, territories or international locations that the RTO delivers a particular training product. The following is an example for TAFE SA.

In conclusion

An RTO must apply for approval to deliver a training product. This approval process is conducted by the relevant VET regulator, and the approved training products are listed on the RTO’s scope of registration. The scope of registration for all RTOs are easily found on the training.gov.au website.

Note: The examples in this article when taken from the training.gov.au website on the 19th of April 2023. Information on the training.gov.au website is dynamic, and is constantly being updated.

Reference

[1] https://training.gov.au/Home/About accessed 19th of April 2023

Please let me know if this article has been useful or interesting. And please remember to share, comment or give feedback after you have read this article.

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