Angela Connell-Richards: 0:22

Hey there, superheroes, and welcome to a very special episode of the RTO Superhero Podcast. I'm your host, Angela Connell-Richards, and today we're going to talk about something that might ruffle a few feathers, but it needs to be said. As of today, we're just a few weeks out from the biggest regulatory shift we've had in over a decade the full implementation of the revised standards for RTOs 2025. We are ready, our clients are ready, many RTOs across the country are doing the work, but the National Regulator are they ready? I want to take you back on a journey of when the VET regulator, asqa, first came and this was on, funnily enough, 1st of July 2011. And that's when we moved from a state regulator body to a federal regulator body, and it's the first time we actually had legislation for registered training organisations. Prior to that, it was a framework and we were working under a framework. Under a framework, it was basically a framework of how we were required to operate as an RTO, but under legislation. As an RTO but under legislation. It actually gave the government teeth to be able to take legal action, and that's the reason why we have so many people in tribunal, because we've been able to. Not only do they have teeth, but we will also fight back as well. But I'll never forget when we were transitioning over and yes, vivacity has been around for quite some time and I've been in the training industry for even longer and I've experienced many things as an RTO owner, rto manager, a trainer assessor, rto manager, a trainer or assessor but in particular when I was running my own RTO and I've experienced from what it's like to be audited under a state regulator when I had my own RTO and then that transition over to a federal. Once we moved over to the federal regulator, ASQA, I actually already sold my RTO and I was operating Vivacity.

Angela Connell-Richards: 2:54

But I wanted to take you back to when I started my own RTO and the first thing I did at that time we actually had a change of the framework, so the AQTF and I had to change all of my policies, procedures, forms and documentation, so I'd taken over an RTO. So what that means is I bought an RTO from another entity. Now the RTO wasn't. Essentially, I couldn't buy the RTO because I would have had to buy the whole organisation and this was a big club that owned the organisation. So I had to do an initial registration. So whilst I was working in this RTO and I took over, and I took over all of the students and the training products I was delivering under the scope of registration of the RTO that I was buying out, basically essentially, and at the same time I was going for initial registration and with that initial registration, there was a change of legislation. So I had to rewrite all of our policies, procedures, forms and documentation, and that was the first time I actually reviewed all of the standards, so the framework at that time and identified what would be the best way to write these policies and procedures that would not only be understandable but implementable, so you could implement it within your team. And it took me quite some time. So I was operating the RTO as well as rewriting all of the policies, procedures and documents, and it took me about a six-month period to rewrite all of these policies and procedures and never mind all of the accompanying documents.

Angela Connell-Richards: 4:53

Writing policies and procedures, particularly when there's new legislation, isn't something that you can just churn out overnight. Yes, we've got CHATGPT and we've got AI technology now, but it's still a lot of work and I can tell you I know this because we're using chat GPT to write our policies and procedures right now but it's not a process of going here's the standard now write me a policy and procedure. You've actually got to make sure that it's implementable by the RTO and the staff within the RTO, anyway. So let's go back to that original story. So it took me a while and I mapped all the documents and I rewrote all of the policies and procedures and then went to audit. We had non-compliances and then I had to rectify them, but we got through initial registration with eight qualifications on our scope of registration. So it actually went quite well successfully. But what I wanted to push across here is there is quite a bit of work when it comes to writing your documentation. Now let's move forward to 2011, when I'm now consulting to RTOs and we're moving from the state regulator to the federal regulator and we're now got legislation, not a framework. So legislation is very different from a framework, because legislation is legal. Because legislation is legal Just to put it plainly it's legal requirements and there are a lot of other ramifications when it comes to legal requirements.

Angela Connell-Richards: 6:36

Fortunately, my background prior to getting into the training industry was writing industrial relation policies and procedures in the HR environment, as well as WHS. So I'd worked in work, health and safety and as a trainer and assessor, I delivered training in business and WHS and IT as well a lot of computer skills, anyway. So when I went from rewriting all of the documents, we had a similar process. I actually think we've had a much better journey this time around. We've had such a huge lead time into these new standards being released and I know there was a lot of people who are like, oh, we don't know whether it's going to happen if we have a change of government and all this stuff. I still pushed ahead. I just pushed ahead and I focused on rewriting all of our documentation. So I started when the first draft came out, and so we've been working on this as a team for the last two years.

Angela Connell-Richards: 7:38

Then, when the final draft came out in October last year, we went full bore at vivacity and we were rewriting all of our policies and procedures. And what we were also doing is we were taking into consideration what was happening at audit. So it wasn't just writing policies and procedures against the legislation, it was also well, what's happening at audit? How are the auditors interpreting? How are they adjusting their assessment procedure in consideration with the new standards coming Now? Asqa don't have a switch where they go okay, even though they said this at the VEL conference, but they don't have a switch that goes okay one July. We're going to do this and we're going to do everything this way. It's a transition. There is a transition Like they will slowly start doing things and changing the way they audit over time and we've seen that all year this year. It hasn't been like we're not waiting for that switch to turn on on the 1st of July. We already can see what's changing, based in what's happening with our clients when they go to audit. Now.

Angela Connell-Richards: 8:55

One of the advantages that we have over our you being an individual RTO is that we worked with many, many RTOs. We've worked with over 400 RTOs around Australia. So we've got experience in not just one qualification area, but we've got experience with lots of different auditors and different RTOs and different size and scope of operations. So we can see what it's like when we're working with the auditors, what's different, and we try and get some sort of consistency so that we can put that into place with our process of how we help manage our clients go through that process of initial registration, and that can take 12 months to three years depending on the client and depending on ASQA. Asqa can take six months just from submission to actually getting an audit date, so you don't know how long that is going to be. So we work with our clients through that whole period to not only help them with the registration, we actually teach them how to be compliant as well. We also help with re-registration, in addition to scope and due diligence, if you're going to buy an RTO, and we can do annual audits and things like that as well. So we've got a lot of experience working with different RTOs and that gives us an advantage when it comes to rewriting our policies and procedures as well as preparing for ASQA.

Angela Connell-Richards: 10:37

Because we've seen I've seen it all. I've seen everything. I've seen the highs and lows of audits. I've had days where I finished at an audit, went back to my hotel room and just cried all night because my policies and procedures were ripped apart. I'd spent all night the night before preparing the client. I've certainly learned a lot. I've certainly learned how to better prepare our clients in advance, and you can't do it the day before you can't and not that we ever did this.

Angela Connell-Richards: 11:15

We always gave the policies and procedures and documents way early. But we've seen it with consultants that are out there. They give the documents the day before the order. The thing is, as an initial registration you need to know the day before the order. The thing is, as an initial registration you need to know these documents inside and out. You can't just have them turn up and then give them to the auditor. The auditor is going to expect that you actually understand how to implement them into your RTO. So it's a much bigger process than that. It's just it's. Yeah, I'm still flabbergasted with how many consultants that are out there that just hand over these documents and expect you to succeed in initial registration. Anyway, I digress.

Angela Connell-Richards: 11:56

Let's go back to 2011. Okay, so I want to share with you an experience I had. So I was ready from 1 July. I already had all of my policies and procedures already updated. I had all of my documents updated with full anticipation that it was going to take 12 to 24 months of amendments to those documents before we got them 100% compliant. But we guarantee all of our documents. So if there's any non-compliances, we'll rectify them and we don't charge any extra for that, because that I see as an opportunity for improvement, to improve all of our documentation.

Angela Connell-Richards: 12:38

Anyway, we had a whole heap of clients in for initial registration, re-registration, and it actually took until October before the first ASQA audits actually started happening. So, once again, just reminding you, we went from a state regulator to a federal regulator, so a bit different from where we are now, but still a major change in legislation. So you know, think July, August, September, October so four months away from the 1st of July before we actually had our first audit. So this first audit was for I think it was actually for a re-reg client. So we're going in for re-reg, and so we had to demonstrate that this client was compliant against the new legislation as a operating RTO and we sat down for the audit. So I walked in and sat down and the auditor just happened to be the same auditor that I had as my RTO. She was under the state regulator regulator. So I was in New South Wales, so VTAB, the Vocational Education Training Advisory Board, and she was the same auditor and we had a great rapport already because we did well when I had my RTO and that was the last time I met with her was when I had my RTO, which I sold in 2009.

Angela Connell-Richards: 14:14

So, anyway, so we sat down and I had all my client prepared. I had all the documents there, I had folders and stuff and lots of things for the auditor to go through. And the first thing this auditor said to me was Angela, as a consultant, you can observe and take notes, but you are not to participate in this audit. And I went okay, no, no, no problems, fine, I can do that. My role there is not to answer the questions. My role there is to this is, from my perspective, is to help, guide and coach the client, and basically I'm in admin support as well, so I hand over the relevant policies, procedures and documents, anyway. So we're going through the audit and it would have been about an hour in, I suppose and there was one part where the auditor was a bit stuck and a bit confused and she was looking at legislation and she turned to me and said is this right, angela? Like this legislation here? What's your interpretation? And I went, I thought I wasn't allowed to participate in this audit. And she went oh, no, no, that's okay, you can answer that question. And so I did and I gave my interpretation of what I thought that legislation was and what it meant, and it was you know that point that I realised. Oh, my God, I actually know more about the legislation than the auditor does.

Angela Connell-Richards: 15:52

Now the thing is, from that change from state to regulatory authority, they actually went through a whole process where they had to hire new auditors. So ASCRA were never around before and they didn't have a federal regulator. So they had to hire auditors and they were hiring the auditors from the old state regulatory bodies and then they had to train them. Well, they didn't get a lot of training. They didn't get a lot of training when it came to the new standards. So I'd actually had a massive advantage because I'd already been studying all the new standards and I'd already been writing policies, procedures and documents and having a good understanding of running my own RTO running businesses before and also helping other organisations with policies, policy documents. I was writing them from the perspective of how to implement them within the RTO. So what came of that audit was we actually went really well and we were compliant and I didn't have any issues.

Angela Connell-Richards: 17:04

Thankfully, I think it was mainly because I knew this auditor and she knew that I genuinely have a concern for quality and compliance and that is my background. Like I love sounds crazy, but I love compliance. I think compliance gives us quality. It gives us an even playing field when it comes to ensuring that we have compliance across all of our sectors. When it comes to registered training organisations, prior to the framework, there were training organisations out there. We didn't have registered. We just had training organisations out there who were issuing certificates and diplomas of. I've got one of those diplomas that were not a national framework. It was just basically the RTO, not the RTO the training organisation developing their own materials and assessment tools that weren't a national framework. And that's what I love about a national framework is we've got a national qualification that has units of competencies with performance criteria, assessment conditions, knowledge, skills that are all at the same level. So everyone is assessed at the same level. That's what I love about compliance about compliance, anyway.

Angela Connell-Richards: 18:37

So that was my first audit after the new standards came in. So the very first time the standards came in. So the standards for RTOs 2011,. And the first time I went to an ASQA audit From the audits from there, we actually went quite well, but I did find I've had a big journey when it comes to audits and what's happened at audits. From there, we actually went quite well, but I did find I've had a big journey when it comes to audits and what's happened at audits. But right now, what's happening right now is reminding me of that experience back in 2011. That experience of actually the auditors don't know what they're doing. They don't like, they're so busy trying to transition over and get the get the process in place that they're actually not learning or at that time, they weren't learning about what those standards mean and how to implement them.

Angela Connell-Richards: 19:29

Now we've got a huge advantage compared to 2011. We've got practice guides. Oh my God, we didn't have practice guides back in 2011. So you've got these practice guides that have been developed by ASQA that give you a framework of what they're expecting for those standards. Now you can't read the practice guides without the standards. You've got to read them with the standards but the practice guides. So I'll just give you a little bit of background about this. The practice guides are going to replace the user guide. So we currently have the user guide to the standards. The practice guides are going to replace that.

Angela Connell-Richards: 20:14

Now the practice guides are broken down by the quality areas. So we've got quality area one, two, three, four, and then we've got the divisions within those quality areas. So, for example, quality area one is training and assessment and under training assessment, we have four divisions. So we've got training and assessment. We've got language literacy and numeracy and we've also got credit transfer and RPL. So we've got them broken down and then they've given you a practice guide of what their expectations are. Now these are in development. They're draft, but they're still a great guide, so it's a great place to start.

Angela Connell-Richards: 20:55

When you're looking at writing your policies and procedures, so you really should be looking at those practice guides in conjunction with the legislation. So when you're rewriting your policies and procedures Now, I want you to take into consideration and procedures Now I want you to take into consideration. You've got these practice guides. You've also got guides on the credential policy as well as the compliance policy. So we've got so many things that we didn't have back in 2011. So you can use these to prepare back in 2011. So you can use these to prepare Now.

Angela Connell-Richards: 21:42

I just want to take a side sweep here Recently. So I'm just talking about being prepared for an audit with the new standards under 2025. And I gave you the example of ASQA not being ready when I had that first audit. Now we've recently experienced where one of my team members has submitted. Well, actually, we've got a few clients that we've submitted prior to 1 May. So we were advised on the ASQA website that any initial registration submitted before the 1st of May 2025 will be audited under the old standards, but you may be required to submit further evidence against the new standards, and that any clients who were submitted after the 1st of May will be required to comply with the new standards 2025. So we're trying to prepare our clients that we've submitted for both. So pre-1 May, we're preparing them for the 2015 standards with all of the additional documentation. We've already got that all ready for our clients so that they are ready for both scenarios.

Angela Connell-Richards: 22:55

Now, for our clients from the 1st of May that we've submitted, we actually can't. We can't get them prepared because there's no audit document. There's nothing there, there's no like, and what we were told when we contacted ASQA was and what we were told when we contacted ASQA was well, you'll just have to use the old documents because we don't have any new audit documents yet, and I was like, okay, so when we asked. So what we're doing now is we've also got a client that we're getting ready to submit from. So it's post 1 May and we've got everything ready to submit and we're trying to find the initial registration form on the ASQA website on how to submit this person and there's nothing.

Angela Connell-Richards: 23:46

So my team got in contact with ASQA and asked them you know, how do we submit our initial registration application for our client now that it's post 1 May? And the response they got was initial registration applications still need to use the old forms, even though they must meet the new standards. So we asked how auditors will be mapping the new standards to the outdated documents and their answer was I don't know. Surely they'll have something. Let me say that again I don't know. Can you imagine an RTO saying that to an auditor? Surely we've got something around here that can do that. You'd be written up for a non-compliance immediately. It's just crazy. Like at the team here we have our internal team chat and we were sharing all of this and we were flabbergasted, frustrated. It's just crazy. Like we can't even submit an initial registration because there is no documentation, asquanet hasn't been updated for the new requirements and in our team chat it says it perfectly. Lazy response from the national regulator.

Angela Connell-Richards: 25:10

It wouldn't take long to go through the whole audit process and remap to the three new major standards. Look, we've done it. We've already put everything in place. Why can't they remap? We've already created our own audit form. We're waiting on what happens with ASCO because we need to, of course, align it with theirs. But seriously, it's not that hard and my team were absolutely right. It's just frustrating. So at Vivacity, we've already created updated templates, tools, trackers and mapped everything internally to the new framework. We're doing it. Why can't they? Why can't they? It's not perfect, but it is aligned. Asqa's had over a year and they're still saying we're not sure.

Angela Connell-Richards: 26:19

Now let's be clear. I'm not sharing this to throw ASQA under the bus or any of the brilliant staff that work under the agency and doing their best under pressure, because not only are they transitioning over from old legislation to new legislation, they're also trying to deal with all of the current clients that they've got submitted, and we're way behind. At the moment, there's a lot of applications that are sitting there in limbo. Now I'm hearing mixed stories about additions to scope, and this is all going to depend on what your background is and what type of training product are you placing on your scope. If you're putting a training product on that's very similar to what you've already got on your scope. It's a pretty simple process. If it's very different, you're going to go through an audit process and it's going to take some time before you actually go to audit. So when I'm at now is as an RTO leader.

Angela Connell-Richards: 27:21

You cannot afford to wait for guidance because, while ASQA may give you leeway, they may also audit you tomorrow. All you need is an addition to scope or a complaint to trigger an audit If you're holding off on policy updates and training your staff. That's the most important part. You need to be training your staff on the compliance requirements against the new standards, and the other part is the new self-assurance requirements, and this is going to be a major part, a major change Under the VET workforce and also under governance. There are some major changes that you're going to need to implement within your RTO and you can't wait until ASQA have released their documentation. You need to be prepared yourself, and this is where I think self-assurance comes into its own, because it's you taking control. Remember, the standards are in place. They commence on 1 July and, no matter what, asqa must audit against the new standards from 1 July, no matter what it is in legislation. So if you're not prepared, it doesn't matter where ASQA is. If you're not prepared, you could be non-compliant, so you need to make sure that you have everything in place.

Angela Connell-Richards: 28:53

The deadline is real, the expectations have been published, you've got practice guides out there, you've got documentation that you can use to guide you on rewriting your policies and procedures, as well as all your documentation, and I can tell you now we've created about 30 new documents, and these 30 new documents are to comply with the new requirements. Yes, there are some documents that have gone now or merged into other documents, and we've also. We had a number of registers. So, like a WHS register, opportunity for improvement register, complaints and appeals register, we've now created a governance register, which includes risk management as well as fit and proper person professional development. There's a whole heap of registers now that you need to have, which then led us to okay, we've got all these registers and a spreadsheet is not fun to be completing, so we've now created a new software called Comply Hub, where it will make it much, much easier, because there are a lot of risk management that you need to undertake under the new standards and Comply Hub can manage all of this. So Comply Hub is basically all of your risk managers risk registers.

Angela Connell-Richards: 30:16

Sorry where we've got how you can manage the risks of different parts of your organisation, and it's got a dashboard and makes it easier for you to see where any non-compliances may be, and it makes it much easier to follow. And I think it's a game changer. Because of the legislation, you're now going to be able to see much better what's working and what's not working within your RTO and what are the risks, and better manage those risks. And it's because of this legislation that we really realised that we needed to create something that was going to make it much easier for RTOs to manage their compliance, and that's why we came up with complyhubai. So you can check out complyhub. ai, go to the website complyhub or one word, ai and you can find out more about our new software that can manage all of your compliance all in one place. And if you don't want to rewrite all your policies, procedures, forms and documentation, we can do that for you as well. So we've already done all of that hard work, anyway. So I digress there, but that's something you really need to have in place.

Angela Connell-Richards: 31:35

So how do we lead ourselves through this chaos? Here's my advice, based on over 30 years of experience in the sector and hundreds of successful audits. One build your own internal benchmarks. Use the revised standards and credential policy as your guide. Create your own audit tools, checklists and evidence templates. Checklists and evidence templates. Don't wait for ASQA's version. Two educate your team. This is the most important part. Like, you can't just put this documentation and stuff in place and then not teach your team your team. It should be a culture of compliance. It should be implemented throughout. Run briefings, create cheat sheets, role play audit scenarios. Put them through some webinars. We've got plenty of them that we do. On the new standards, your staff need to understand the 2025 standards before an auditor walks through your door.

Angela Connell-Richards: 32:35

Number three record everything. Self-assurance is about evidence. Record your decisions and keep logs, and that's where a comply hub is going to make your life so much easier, because you'll be able to record all your evidence in there Capture policy reviews, student feedback, validation notes, industry consultations all of it. Four partner with consultants who are ahead. Not all consultants were created equal. There are some who were only born yesterday. There are some, like me, that have been around for over 30 years and we've seen many, many changes in legislation and the way we're regulated.

Angela Connell-Richards: 33:21

Be choosy Often the cheapest is not the best. You pay peanuts. You'll get monkeys. You want to get the best people on your side. Now, we're not the cheapest at Vervacity, we're not the cheapest consulting organisation, but you know what? We'll save you money, we'll save you time and we'll make sure you're compliant. Work with someone who's updated all of their templates already and run internal audits on the new standards and can tell you exactly what evidence should look like in 2025 against the new standards.

Angela Connell-Richards: 34:04

Now we've been delivering training on the new standards since last year all year, last year, but this year we actually switched up all of our training, so it was all focused on the new standards. So we have a number of training that we deliver in RTO compliance trainer PD. Number of training that we deliver in RTO compliance trainer PD. We do a monthly webinar on the eight critical drivers to RTO success and then we do a workshop. We take a deep dive into a critical area when it comes to compliance.

Angela Connell-Richards: 34:57

Number five embrace the role of the leader. Don't wait for permission. You're responsible for this RTO. Let's take care of it and make sure that you've got everything in place. Don't wait for certainty. Lead from where you are with the tools you've got, and you don't need ASQA to validate your efforts before you take action. You need action to validate your intent.

Angela Connell-Richards: 35:26

So I've shared with you today many stories of how I've worked with many different RTOs and how we've helped them, and I've also shared with you that story of going back to 2011, when the initial legislation came in and we transitioned from state regulatory body to a federal regulatory body, and what I foresee, based on my experience from previous changes in legislation the next 12 to 24 months, we're going to see quite a bit of change. There's going to be ups and downs, there's going to be inconsistencies with auditors, there's going to be, you know, waiting for documents to come out. But the biggest thing is and this is what I've done is I've taken the lead and I've already rewritten all of our policies, procedures, forms and documentation and all of our policies, procedures, forms and documentation. And when it comes to the documentation, I've focused on the usability and the quality how can we improve the quality of RTOs and how can we ensure consistency within your RTO as well? So it's not just creating a compliance document, it's that usability is how you're going to implement that within your RTO and ensure that you are raising the standard of the quality of education that you're providing within your RTO and to the industry sector.

Angela Connell-Richards: 36:58

Because this is the first change, major change that's coming. We've got something on the horizon that no one's talking about at the moment. That's going to be massive, even bigger than what this change in legislation is going to be. We are going to be changing the whole qualifications framework, so how we deliver our training and assessment it's how we've done things for 30 years is massive, massive change. So we've got to get through this first and get it right, and that's the reason why the legislation's been written the way it is is preparing us for the new qualifications framework.

Angela Connell-Richards: 37:46

Now I don't want to scare you. The new qualifications framework I actually quite like and I'll give you a quick snapshot of it. I don't want to go into too much detail, but I'll give you a quick snapshot. Essentially, what's going to change is we're going to go from a Certificate 1, 2, 3, 4 diploma, advanced diploma that type of level of qualifications where it's set what core units and electives there are within the qualification to more of a micro-credential framework. So the micro-credential framework is going to be more around levels. So you're going to have Level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. I think it's just going up to 7 or maybe 8. And in those levels you'll be able to create a qualification that is going to meet an industry sector requirement based on unit circumtencies. So we've still got units, but we don't have that qualification where it says you must deliver these core and you must deliver these electives.

Angela Connell-Richards: 38:52

Now I'm going to give you an example of why this is coming into place. It's also it's actually based on a UK model, but it's also to meet industry needs. So there's some major industry like. The whole reason we've had this change of legislation and the whole reason we've gone through a whole VET reform is because our training and assessment was not meeting industry needs. Training and assessment was not meeting industry needs. So, when it comes to the qualification framework changing, it's more of a focus on how are we going to meet industry needs, and I'm going to give you an example. Now We've worked with a number of RTOs who deliver security licensing training.

Angela Connell-Richards: 39:40

Now, this one's the best one, easiest one to explain how micro-credential works better and this new qualification framework is going to work better. So, when it comes to security licensing, different states have different requirements, so they have different core and they have different elective requirements. So the qualification as it is Certificate 2 and 3 are the most popular. It doesn't work because if you are to move interstate you then need to do the qualification again in the new state. The other one is so we've done a lot of work with SLED, which is the Security Licensing Education Department in New South Wales, and they have a set timeframe of how long this training should be delivered. They also have assessment tools that need to be used, their assessment tools, and they have their own framework which we then need to try and fit into the qualification as listed on traininggovau, which is very difficult when they're very, very different.

Angela Connell-Richards: 40:51

So what's going to happen is we'll be able to put together a cluster of units that are going to meet those individual state needs. So this is just an example for security. So for security we'll be able to go okay, in New South Wales, we're going to use these units and we'll have the outcome we'll meet the licensing requirements for security license in New South Wales. In Victoria, we'll deliver these units and it will meet the licensing requirements in Victoria. So that's the easiest way I can explain how that framework is going to change is we'll have a qualification, but it will be at a level. So we're going to deliver this at a level two or a level three. So those levels are based on the skills and knowledge required of the student once they complete that training. Generally, a level two is they work under instruction. Level three is they're able to work independently. Level four is they're a manager or they're supervising other staff members, and a diploma is generally they're developing the systems to put into place. So they're in a management level where they're putting those systems into place. So that's basically how those levels are going to work. So that's.

Angela Connell-Richards: 42:14

We're at the precipice of all of these changes. We needed to get this legislation in first before they could change the whole qualification framework. That's a lot, isn't it? It's a lot to take in. There's a lot of changes that are happening. So if you're waiting for ASQA to update their systems before you update yours, you're going to fall behind.

Angela Connell-Richards: 42:38

So what I recommend? One treat July 1 as non-negotiable. The standards are in place. Act as though you'll be audited tomorrow. Two train your team on the new framework. Staff should already know the difference between the 2015 and the 2025 standards If they don't start this week.

Angela Connell-Richards: 43:00

If they don't start this week. Three, use both lenses If you're preparing for initial registration or scope expansion. Align to both the legacy forms and the new standards. It's a pain, but it's the safest approach. Four audit yourself. Use Vivacity's free compliance check, health check or grab our scope readiness tool. Don't guess, assess. Five, document everything from industry consultation to TAS updates to staff meetings. Document, document, document, document your rationale and actions. Evidence equals protection. And lastly, six, don't wait for permission to lead. You don't need ASQA to catch up before you move forward.

Angela Connell-Richards: 43:53

Let's be honest the first round of audits from 1 July is going to be messy. Auditors will vary in how they interpret the new standards. Auditors will vary in how they interpret the new standards. Some will follow the old tools, some will use hybrid, some might wing it. That's why it's more important than ever to be consistent, be clear and be ahead, because this isn't not just about ASQA anymore. This is about protecting your registration. This is about your staff, your students, your livelihood. Let ASQA figure it out and you lead. Here's what I want you to walk away with today. You are more ready than you think, and that's the good thing, because a regulator may not be. Download our free compliance check by checking out the show notes and going to our website and remember Vivacity and myself have got your back. Until next time, stay compliant, stay empowered and lead from the front. You're not just meeting the standards, you're setting them.