Hi All,

Can anybody help?

My company is seeking a partnership with an RTO. We have met with many of them and have short listed a few. We are in the process of performing reference checks with other business' who have conducted training with the RTO's.

My questions is:

Does anyone know of a standard list of questions to ask the referee or where I could find information on this?

Alist of basic questions has already been compiled, such as:

How your participants found the quality of the training?etc.

I don't know of a standard list of questions, but having partnered with a number of RTOs the sorts of questions I would want to know right up front are:

a.  What contractual arrangement is expected?

b.  What are the penalties (for either side) of breaking the contract?

c.  What is expected of either party?

d.  What is the expected remuneration split? If it is profit sharing, is this on gross or net income? EXPLAIN VERY CLEARLY what the RTO will do for their share of the income.

e.  Who will undertake the quality audit of the partnered organisation (ie, you)? How? When? Who will pay?

f.  Will the partnering RTO compete with or support, through advertising and publicity, the partnered organisation?

g.  (Assuming that the RTO will be the one providing the qualification while the partnered organisation does the training - ) What is the cost, to the partnered organisation, of administration required to generate and record the qualification?

There are more questions I would ask, but these generally centre on the contract between the two organisations. I have been aligned with an RTO which was great to work with until they saw the amount of income I was generating and then unilaterally changed the contract to get a bigger slice. I worked with another RTO who wanted all the profit leaving me with a base salary. And I've worked with RTOs who have been happy to share the profits in a fair and equitable way.

The crooks will bleed you dry so make sure you have an iron clad contract with clear penalties before leaping in.

Hope that helps

Phil

Phil Rutherford Ph.D Web: www.3gpm.com/drphilrutherford Blog: www.typepad.theotherdrphil.com

Hi, I noted Phil's comments and completely agree.  Not sure how large your organisation is, but I would start with drafting a very explicit request for tender and/or Statement of Work (ie, state the obvious).  Once you get the applications for tender in, I would anticipate that you may have all of your questions answered, and the referee check would simply be a confirmation of their experience with the RTO in relation to how you wish to operate with them.  After you have made your selection, the next step would be to draft an 'iron clad' contract as Phil suggests. 

Hi there,

I suggest you have a look at both the AQTF Conditions of Registration and VTG requirements (assuming you're in Victoria) otherwise your respective State reqts linked to funding conditions to prompt a series of questions.

For instance:

Request a copy of their last audit report

Ask to see their Contiuous Improvement Register

Certificates of Insurance (public indemnity) currency

Insurance for public liability

Archiving Policy & Procedure

Quality Indicator Reports Analysis (not just the completed surveys which can often be placed in a folder and never reviewed or acted on)

Complaints & Appeals Process

Financial Viability Reports for the past three (3) years

Training Strategy for Training Packages that are superseeded

Client/Trainee Account Management processes

Trainer Management Processes and Competency Mapping Matrix, and what Professional Development the trainer undergoes to maintain currency

Validation & moderation Strategies/Tool to ensure quality of training materials, conclusively demonstrating Reliability, Validity, Flexibility, Fairness, Currency, Sufficiency, Validity & Authenticity.

What is the completion to attrition rate vs duration for delivery/assessment models.

What is their RPL process, credit transfer, mutual recognition process

and ofcourse Fit and Proper Person

Check out the IP issues.

I worked for a company some time ago under a licensing agreement and the delivery and assessment tools provided were rubbish!

We redid them all and used them (the RTO didn't seem to care, which amazed me even more!) and then wanted them all, claiming IP when we decided to break the agreement and become an RTO ourselves.....