Work with Employers and TTAs to Continually Evolve Industry Skills and Knowledge
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Industry currency hub
Prepare tools for RTOs
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RTO Prepare
The prepare tools and the checklist of recommended tasks help RTOs build strong partnerships with industry employers. 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 employers
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
Build strong partnerships based on mutual benefit
Before partnership planning meeting with employers
Moderate
Less than 60 minutes, some preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to:
a. Identify distinct value your RTO could share with employers
b. Determine how to share identified value with employers
- Develop a concise value proposition statement to share with employers
- Edit the template to remove or add space as needed
Tool: Define Partnership and Logistics Approach
Identify preferred ways of working to support an effective working relationship with employers
Before partnership planning meeting with employers
Moderate
Less than 60 minutes, some preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to define:
a. Individual roles and responsibilities, including lead contact and decision-makers
b. Communication channels and frequency
c. Anticipated challenges and ways to manage these - Edit the template to remove or add space as needed
Tool: Prepare a Project Charter
Make decisions and determine priority actions with employers
Before partnership planning meeting with employers
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 employers
c. Partnership and logistics approach
d. Key topics to discuss with employers in the meeting - Edit the template to remove or add space as needed
Tool: Identify Industry Currency Requirements
Ensure currency opportunities align to TTAs needs and can be applied to teaching practice
After partnership planning meeting with employers
Intensive
More than 90 minutes, preparation required
- Download and save the tool
- Ensure TTAs have access to their toolkit, the summary of recent industry changes and proposed currency opportunities shared by employers
- Work with TTAs to build a summary of:
a. Training packages and units of competency where TTAs need to update industry skills and knowledge
b. Industry skills and knowledge TTAs want to update
c. Preferred industry currency opportunities TTAs want to access
- Use the recommended list of currency opportunities to support decision-making
- 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 Prepare Checklist Includes Recommended Tasks that You Can Track Independently or With Employers
There are two checklists. One for RTOs to support internal collaboration and one for RTOs and employers to support partnership collaboration. Download and edit the checklist to suit your RTO’s needs.
I want to track tasks independently and collaborate internally ...
I want to collaborate with employers...
1. Determine industry currency and partnership goals
- Coordinate with employers to schedule a partnership planning meeting
- Organise an internal planning meeting with relevant stakeholders
- Draft measurable goals for the internal planning meeting
2. Define value proposition for employers
- Identify distinct value our RTO can offer employers
- Prepare a concise value proposition for the internal planning meeting
3. Define partnership and logistics approach
- Draft preferred approach to communication, anticipated challenges and ways to manage these
4. Prepare a project charter
- Capture draft goals, value proposition and partnership and logistics approach
- Add key topics to discuss with employers
- Attend the internal planning meeting and finalise the project charter
- During the partnership planning meeting discuss the project charter and agree actions
- Complete actions (e.g. schedule collaboration meetings)
5. Identify industry currency requirements
- Receive the summary of recent industry changes and proposed industry currency opportunities from employers and share with TTAs
- Ask TTAs to individually identify industry currency requirements tool and provide guidance as needed
- Work with TTAs to finalise individual industry currency opportunity selections
- Receive individual industry currency requirement summaries from TTAs
- Collate a summary of the industry skills, knowledge and currency opportunities TTAs want to access
- Share the collated summary with employers
- Work with employers to finalise the industry currency opportunities TTAs can 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.
Matt and Arjun, the Head of Learning and Development, develop a brief proposal to deliver Work, Health & Safety training for employers - an area of training that is both crucial and difficult to build staff engagement with.
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.
During their internal planning meeting, Matt captures senior stakeholders views on governance. They decide to set up monthly status reports and to maintain a decision log for each partnership.
Following the internal planning meeting, Matt updates the project charter, ready for discussion with employers.
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
- Define value proposition for employers
- Define partnership and logistics approach
- Prepare a project charter
- Identify industry currency requirements
- Identify individual currency requirements
Determine industry currency and partnership goals
- Plan for potential risks
- Define value proposition for RTOs
- Prepare a project charter
- Summarise recent industry changes
Frequently Asked Questions
How will industry employers partner with our RTO to enable industry currency?
These include:
- Build strong partnerships with RTOs
- Share high-level insight into key industry changes from an employer perspective
- Identify and coordinate feasible opportunities for TTAs to update industry skills and knowledge
- Enable their staff and clients to support industry currency opportunities
- Confirm participation in industry currency opportunities
- Engage in reflective discussion with TTAs, where relevant
The prepare stage includes tools for both RTOs and employers 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.
Why is collaboration important to help TTAs maintain industry currency?
Organisation-level partnerships between RTOs and industry employers ensure the right stakeholders are involved and can support collaboration. These partnerships also help RTOs and employers work together to resolve organisational challenges.
For example, an RTO and an employer may implement a brief 30-minute induction for TTAs to mitigate work health and safety risks.
How will the toolkit help our RTO meet compliance requirements?
- Strong partnerships with industry employers make it easier to access industry currency opportunities and gain insight into recent industry changes from an employer perspective.
- The industry currency schedule supports RTOs and employers to plan and coordinate industry currency opportunities for multiple TTAs over a 12‑month period.
- The measurement approach 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.
We already have a partnership with an employer, do we need the toolkit?
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.
Will the toolkit help us partner with more than one employer, if that would support our TTAs?
For example, RTOs that specialise in a particular industry or sector might use the toolkit to focus on building a strong partnership with a single employer. RTOs that deliver training across multiple industries and sectors might use the toolkit to partner with multiple employers to make sure their TTAs can access relevant currency opportunities.
How will the toolkit help us work with employers to minimise health and safety risks?
- Use the currency selection tool to identify the industry currency opportunities that best meet TTAs needs. Discuss possible opportunities with employer partners to finalise opportunities based on what is feasible for employers and relevant for TTAs.
- Use the employer information sheet to collate and share relevant information with employers before TTAs undertake industry currency opportunities.
- Use the measurement plan to help employers supervise or confirm TTAs participation and completion of industry currency opportunities and engage in reflective discussion with TTAs, where relevant.
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.
How will the toolkit help us support industry currency across different campuses and training packages?
For example, RTOs with multiple campuses may need to collaborate with relevant stakeholders from each campus to make sure planned opportunities are fit for purpose.
We Would Love Tour Feedback
Share your experience of using the industry currency toolkits.
research@humanability.com.au