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Many people with trade skills and experience do not have formal qualifications. Skills Assessment or Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is a process allowing you to gain a Nationally Recognised Qualification or Statement of Attainment, by recognising your existing skills and knowledge obtained through your work, education, training, and everyday life experiences.
No. Evidence presented must be sufficient to demonstrate knowledge and skills for each unit of competency. ACTS Visa Skills will use assessment methods to ensure that evidence is valid, authentic, current, and sufficient. In reviewing the evidence provided and technical interview outcome your ACTS Visa Skills Assessor will need to make a judgement of competence in order to award competence for all units of competence that make up your qualification.
If you receive partial RPL you will receive a Statement of Attainment for the units of competency that have been deemed competent. You will be provided with the opportunity to undertake Training and Assessment should gaps be identified in order to progress to the full Qualification.
No. Your assessor needs to make judgement decisions about how the quantity and quality of how your submitted evidence matches up against the assessment requirements of each Unit of Competency. Additionally, your assessor must check that all of the Elements and Performance Criteria are satisfied before they can award competency for any individual Unit of Competency. Your evidence needs to satisfy all four Rules of Evidence: currency, sufficiency, authenticity, and validity.
The whole process takes between 12 – 14 weeks. Assessments are taken on a case-by-case basis. Timeframes may be affected by the time it takes to gather evidence, verifications from external parties and circumstances that are beyond our control. If additional time is required, an extension may be requested and may be applied for. If no extension request is received, it may result in an unsuccessful outcome and the enrolment will be cancelled.
As a registered training organisation, there is a requirement for an Assessor to make a decision of competency of the candidate’s knowledge and practical skills based on the evidence provided. The most effective way to demonstrate competency in practical skills is for the Assessor to see it.
While it is the preferred context, at times it is not possible to get video evidence of practical tasks being completed in the candidate’s workplace. It therefore can be simulated at alternative workplace, workshop, or a training centre.
A site visit is not part of the service provided in a skills assessment.
Additionally, a site visit is a limited opportunity to see what practical tasks and underpinning knowledge a candidate has over the entire range of units (generally 30+).
This is why there is the opportunity to provide evidence in three forms.
Prior to conducting a Technical Interview, an Assessor will map the evidence provided which determines the gaps in evidence provided. Without video evidence of practical tasks, the Assessor is constrained to make a decision based solely on documentary evidence. This makes it highly unlikely that a candidate would achieve a successful outcome without video evidence.
Additionally, during a Technical Interview, where English is a second language and some technical terms are not familiar to the candidate, the Assessor can refer to the video evidence provided to confirm competency.
On occasions, a candidate may be unable to provide all the video evidence requested. It is recommended that the candidate provides what evidence they can initially, and then negotiate with the Assessor on what the alternatives may be.
Contact is made with the candidate or their representative to provide further direction. If an Assessor believes that a candidate is unlikely to achieve a successful outcome from a Technical Interview, it is not in the best interests of all parties to proceed.
If you have a question that is not answered above, please contact us directly, we are here to help.
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Australian Construction Training Services (ACTS) is endorsed by Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) as a TRA Approved Registered Training Organisation (RTO)
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