NCVER's Role in VET Standardization

The National Centre for Vocational Education Research or NCVER is an Australian, non-profit, government-owned company aimed at providing statistical information regarding the country's vocational education and training (VET) activities, as well as recommendations based on statistical research studies made with this information. The NCVER validation software is used as a major tool in national data collection, i.e., across all registered training organizations (RTOs) within the country.

The main purpose of putting up NCVER in places where it now stands is on ascertaining that the VET policies will be scientifically sound, relevant to the national setting, attainable and feasible, and measurable enough. The measurability factor is based on the prospect of subjecting the policies to further evaluation for further improvement, especially, of the VET programs as they are implemented.

The statistical nature of the researches conducted by NCVER thus requires VET providers to become AVETMISS compliant. Perhaps this can be regarded as a minimum requirement for the VET provider's standardization itself. Before any VET provider even becomes a valid source of information for an NCVER study, it needs to comply with data formatting and collection standards defined by the AVETMISS or the Australian VET Management Information Statistical Standard.

The process of data collection involves the compliant RTOs' constant cooperation with the national center in a very significant manner. The standard RTO software then becomes a basic tool in direct, raw data collection. NCVER handles the VET statistics from the RTOs' raw data, analyzes it, and makes the research results available for the public to access through an official database.

Among the most significant recipients of such results are the training authorities under the Commonwealth. Among others, the national training authority called the ASQA or the Australian Skills Quality Authority makes use of NCVER's research results and recommendations so they can, in turn, facilitate a more significant regulation of the VET providers nationwide.

Finally, the VET providers update either their data handling or their training policies and practices, depending on the recommendations given. The NCVER through the ASQA may then recommend a VET provider, especially if it is already an RTO, to discontinue certain course offerings when necessitated by the lack of quality and excellence in the implementation. No doubt, the center really plays a major role in improving VET services nationwide. It is therefore important for all existing VET providers to consistently adhere to the recommendations of NCVER as well as to the regulatory standards of the ASQA for better training outputs in the country.


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The author writes about training management systems, RTO training and consulting, AQTF and AVETMISS standards at http://www.scribd.com/waagchristian


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