Work With RTOs and TTAs to Continually Evolve Industry Skills and Knowledge
Last updated 27/10/26
Employer Prepare
The prepare tools and the checklist of recommended tasks help industry employers build strong partnerships with RTOs.
These partnerships enable TTAs to update their industry skills and knowledge.
On this Page,
You Will Find:
Click Through to See All of the Prepare Tools
Tool: Determine Industry Currency and Partnership Goals
Identify, communicate and track industry currency and partnership goals
Before partnership planning meeting with RTOs
Moderate
Less than 60 minutes, some preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Collaborate with stakeholders to develop measurable goals you can track progress against
- Edit the template to remove or add space for your chosen goals
Tool: Define Value Proposition for Employers
Identify potential risks and mitigation strategies to determine what industry currency opportunities can be offered to TTAs
Before partnership planning meeting with RTOs
Moderate
Less than 60 minutes, some preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Work with relevant stakeholders to capture:Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to:
a. identified risksIdentify distinct value your RTO could share with employers
b. risk categories
c. likelihood of occurrence (risk rating)
d. potential impact to stakeholders and organisation
e. proposed mitigation strategies
f. acceptance of risk
- Edit the template to remove or add space as needed
Tool: Define Partnership and Logistics Approach
To work out what valuable expertise RTOs could share with your organisation and identify possible cost-efficient and feasible industry currency opportunities
Before partnership planning meeting with RTOs
Moderate
Less than 60 minutes, some preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Work with relevant stakeholders to:
a. Capture relevant strategic goals and areas of specialist expertise that currently cannot be fulfilled internally
b. Capture ways RTOs could support strategic goals or provide specialist expertise - Work with relevant stakeholders to:
a. Review provided list of recommended currency opportunities
b. Select possible currency opportunities your organisation could offer
c. Identify additional opportunities your organisation could offer if relevant - Edit the template to remove or add space as needed
Tool: Prepare a Project Charter
Make decisions and determine priority actions with RTOs
Before partnership planning meeting with RTOs
Quick
Less than 20 minutes, minimal preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Use previously prepared draft documents to complete:
a. Draft industry currency and partnership goals
b. Value proposition for RTOs
c. Industry currency opportunities you can offer
d. Key topics to discuss with RTOs in the meeting - Edit the template to remove or add space as needed
Tool: Identify Industry Currency Requirements
Assist RTOs and TTAs to understand the latest industry changes to help TTAs identify industry skills and knowledge they want to update
After partnership planning meeting with RTOs
Quick
Less than 20 minutes, minimal preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Work with stakeholders to:Work with TTAs to build a summary of:
a. Capture recent industry changes that have affected service delivery, client expectations, processes or your work environment
b. Capture how the change has impacted your organisation
c. Review and update industry currency opportunities you can offer - Edit the template to remove or add space as needed
All Prepare Tools
Access all of the prepare tools in one document. Instructions and information about the purpose and timing, is included for each tool.
The Engage Checklist Includes Recommended Tasks that You Can Track Independently or With Employers
There are two checklists. One for employers to support internal collaboration and one for employers and RTOs to support partnership collaboration. Download and edit the checklist to suit your organisations needs.
The recommended tasks will help your organisation:
- Build and maintain the foundations for successful partnerships with RTOs
- Understand and make a plan to manage potential risks
- Identify potential industry currency opportunities and summarise recent industry changes to support RTOs and TTAs
I want to track tasks independently and collaborate internally ...
I want to collaborate with employers...
1. Determine industry currency and partnership goals
- Coordinate with RTOs to schedule a partnership planning meeting
- Organise an internal planning meeting with relevant stakeholders
- Draft measurable goals for the internal planning meeting
2. Plan for potential risks
- Work with relevant stakeholders to:
- Capture potential risks, risk category, risk rating, potential impact and mitigation strategies
- For each risk category determine your organisations’ willingness to accept the risk
- Draft risk plan for the internal planning meeting
3. Define value proposition for RTOs
- Work with relevant stakeholders to:
- Identify ways RTOs could share valuable skills and knowledge to support strategic goals or required expertise not available internally
- Select cost-efficient and feasible industry currency opportunities your organisation could offer
- Draft concise value proposition for the internal planning meeting
4. Prepare a project charter
- Capture draft goals, recent industry changes, value proposition and risk management plan
- Add key topics to discuss with RTOs
- Attend the internal planning meeting and finalise the project charter
- During the partnership planning meeting agree next steps and required actions
- Complete required actions (e.g. schedule collaboration meetings)
5. Summarise recent industry changes
- Work with stakeholders to capture recent industry changes including how the change has impacted your organisation
- Based on partnership planning meeting conversations, work with stakeholders to review and update proposed industry currency opportunities
- Share the summary of recent industry changes and proposed industry currency opportunities with RTOs
- Receive summary of the industry skills, knowledge and opportunities TTAs want to access from RTOs
- Work with RTO to finalise industry currency opportunities TTAs will access
Industry Currency Matters
Industry currency refers to the industry skills and knowledge that enable workers to deliver high-quality outcomes. In practical terms, it includes:
- a current working knowledge of practices, sector reforms, legal and regulatory standards
- understanding of industry changes impact operating environments and service delivery
- understanding of changing client expectations and needs
Industry currency helps TTAs build students’ knowledge and capabilities beyond step-by-step skills or processes.
Industry currency helps TTAs build students’ knowledge and capabilities beyond step-by-step skills or processes.
Industry currency helps employers hire job-ready graduates and supports workers to succeed from day one with the right level of guidance.
Mei-Lin works with the Risk Management team to develop a draft risk plan. She then shares this with senior stakeholders for their feedback and input.
Matt works out which industry currency opportunities TTAs across the RTO are most interested in. He will share this information with employers when they discuss feasible opportunities to implement.
Mei-Lin uses the project charter to make sure senior stakeholders understand and have contributed to the content. Mei-Lin knows that this is an important step to set the partnership up for future success.
Mei-Lin reviews the intranet and internal newsletters to quickly identify recent industry changes. She focuses on changes that have required staff to change how they work.
Here are a Few Real-life Examples of How You Might Use the Prepare Tools.
Here are a few real-life examples of how you might use the prepare tools.
These examples are not exhaustive and may look different in practice, based on your organisation’s work environment.
Industry Currency Empowers Students
TTAs with industry currency deliver engaging training that prepares students for their vocation.
Industry currency helps students think critically, use sound judgement and apply skills in practice.
Tell me more →There are many effective ways to extend industry skills and knowledge
This includes opportunities such as volunteering, temporary or supervised shifts and scheduled community engagements with clients.
This includes active participation in industry advisory groups, scheduled discussions with leaders or subject matter experts and collaborating with employers on a relevant project.
This includes completing an training course hosted by employers or attending professional development courses or conferences.
This includes actively participating in new or existing industry or sector communities of practice and planned discussions with internal colleagues.
Industry Currency Empowers Students
TTAs need support from RTOs and employers to update their industry skills and knowledge and set VET students up for success.
In the prepare stage, RTOs and employers have access to related tools and checklists. The checklists include recommended tasks to support collaboration between RTOs, employers and TTAs.
Note: Priya, Matt and Mei-Lin's fictional roles, responsibilities and included examples are not exhaustive. Roles, responsibilities and actual tasks may look different in practice.
Tell me more →
Determine industry currency and partnership goals
- Plan for potential risks
- Define value proposition for RTOs
- Prepare a project charter
- Summarise recent industry changes
- Identify individual currency requirements
- Determine industry currency and partnership goals
- Define value proposition for employers
- Define partnership and logistics approach
- Prepare a project charter
- Identify industry currency requirements
Frequently Asked Questions
How will RTOs partner with our organisation to enable industry currency?
These include:
- Build strong partnerships with employers, including tangible value employers will receive
- Identify and coordinate feasible opportunities for TTAs to update industry skills and knowledge
- Share TTAs relevant employee information to support work, health and safety
- Share a measurement approach to help employers confirm TTAs participation in industry currency opportunities and engage in reflective discussion with TTAs if relevant
The prepare stage includes tools for both employers and RTOs to build a shared understanding of partnership goals, roles and responsibilities, ways of working, and mutual benefit. This stage sets the foundation for the partnership and clarifies how each partner will support industry currency.
How will the toolkits help RTOs and TTAs enhance quality of teaching?
- Strong partnerships with industry employers make it easier to access industry currency opportunities and gain insight into key industry changes from an employer perspective.
- The currency activity schedule supports RTOs and employers to plan and coordinate industry currency opportunities for multiple TTAs over a 12‑month period.
- The reflection and measurement plan helps RTOs tailor and standardise how TTAs record, reflect on and apply industry currency throughout the year, based on organisational requirements.
- The RTO and TTA toolkits include guidance on when different industry currency opportunities are most effective to support decision-making.
Why is collaboration important to help TTAs maintain industry currency?
Organisation-level partnerships between employers and RTOs ensure the right stakeholders are involved and can support collaboration. These partnerships also help employers and RTOs work together to resolve organisational challenges.
For example, an employer and an RTO may implement a brief 30-minute induction for TTAs to mitigate work health and safety risks.
We already have a partnership with an employer, do we need the toolkit?
For example, your organisation may be comfortable inviting TTAs to join your staff for an upcoming training session held onsite or virtually.
Will the toolkit help us manage service delivery protocols, that limit industry currency opportunities?
There are lots of different industry currency opportunities that are meaningful for TTAs to participate in. This includes opportunities that TTAs can participate in virtually. The employer toolkit will help you identify cost-efficient and feasible industry currency opportunities TTAs can access based on your work environment.
We already partner with RTOs for student placements, do we need the toolkit?
Additional resources is always a good thing. Across the three stages of the toolkit (prepare, engage and apply) there are tools and checklists with recommended tasks, that will support your approach and may highlight alternative options or ways of doing things.
The toolkit is not a process you must follow from start to finish. It’s designed to enhance and build on your existing processes and industry relationships. You can choose which tools you will use and tailor these to best meet what your organisation needs.
For example, the tools designed to set partnership foundations may be useful to revisit how partners will work together to support industry currency and gain tangible benefit from the partnership.
We are located in a regional, rural or remote area, how can we support industry currency?
Will the toolkit help us partner with more than one RTO, if we want to?
How often should we use the tools and checklists? Do we need to use all of them?
The toolkit is not a process you must follow from start to finish. It’s designed to enhance and build on your existing processes and industry relationships. You can choose which tools you will use and tailor these to best meet what your organisation needs.
We Would Love Tour Feedback
Share your experience of using the industry currency toolkits.
research@humanability.com.au