A trainer equipped with poor quality learning and assessment resources is the same as a builder equipped with a toolkit he bought on sale a ALDI.
Just walk down the trades aisle at Bunnings, there are dozens of hammers, and good tradie will have an extensive toolkit that includes hammers for different situations and jobs. Any decent trades business will have invested in trade quality tools that are fit for purpose for different jobs undertaken. If they don’t, they really can’t be categorised as a quality trade outfit. Would you employ a trades business who outfitted their team with cheap tools and materials they picked up at an ALDI sale?
Learning and Assessment tools are no different. If you’re buying cheap off-the-shelf products and expecting them to fit every delivery mode and student cohort, you’re RTO is exactly the same as the trades contractor doing business with a low quality materials and tools. An RTO with low quality resources can’t truly market themselves as a ‘quality training provider’, if they do, its actually kinda fraudulent. If you’re minimising investment into your RTO business, and equipping your trainers with poor quality tools, you’re just not a quality provider!
I’ve heard the argument that quality training is not about the tools, but the trainer. Here is what I’d say to that – you better look after you trainers because you’re basing your business success on those individuals. Not a great business plan. Especially because a good trainer, like a good tradie, wants to work with quality tools.
If you haven’t provided quality resources to your team, the more likely truth is that you’re employing average trainers who don’t really know the difference between a good tools and a bad ones. That, or they’re totally indifferent and are just looking to get paid at the end of the week. Again, if this is what you’re happy with….you need to be honest about your use of the word ‘quality’.
There are some high quality off-the-shelf learning and assessment tools out in the marketplace, but no instructional designer can build a tool that fits every cohort, and ever delivery model. There are some RTO resource publishers that I highly recommend, but every single one of them will tell you themselves – you need to review and contextualise the tool to fit your specific delivery needs.
I agree that you need quality trainers, but you need to equip those trainers with tools that are fit for purpose for the task they are doing. A quality training and assessment system helps to ensure, that no matter which trainer you use, there will be consistency in the quality of the training and assessment you deliver.
Don’t have your business relying upon the motivation or skill of individual trainers. If you establish quality learning and assessment tools and systems, even your least experienced trainers will be able to delivery quality and compliant learning and assessment.
Coleen