Susan has a Certificate IV in Business Administration and a Diploma of Human Resources, but she’s thinking about taking a few more Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs to get an even better edge in today’s competitive job market. She’s been looking at her options and thinks she may have found the best program to fit her needs, but she knows a detailed and complete transcript is required to enrol.
Sound familiar? In 2012 alone, an estimated 2.7 million Australians participated in some form of VET program. Currently, there is no comprehensive method for VET students like Susan to quickly and efficiently track down the paperwork they will need for program and credit verification. That means they’ll have to manually locate or obtain each individual qualification and attainment record, which can translate into a lot of time, stress, and—in some cases—money.
But beginning 1 January 2014, the Australian government, as well as state and territory governments, will be enforcing the Unique Student Identifier (USI) legislation with the aim to eliminate hurdles in locating and obtaining a student’s educational files. After the legislation is implemented, all new and continuing students will be issued a mandatory, randomly generated number that will associate them with both their personal information (name, address, date of birth, etc.) and their student information.
So basically, the USI will serve as a link between VET students and the database managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education and Training (NCVER)—the only national source of VET training data. Imagine the USI, if you will, as a sort of search tag that can be used to quickly pull up a student’s VET credentials regardless of location, field, or sector. And since the student alone controls who has access to his or her information, the process is completely secure.
But what does this mean for registered training organisations (RTOs)?
The USI Taskforce Branch—the government unit created to manage the new legislation—has assured RTOs across Australia that the USI’s implementation should not dramatically affect their business operations. However, a new identification number means more information to maintain and report, which in turn means all student management systems must be upgraded to comply with the latest Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS 7.0).
A major benefit of the USI implementation is that RTOs will have improved access to a student’s historical training records, which will simplify the process of assessing pre-requisites, credit transfer (CT), Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), and entitlement to funding for training. In practical terms, however, these benefits will only start to flow from 2015 onwards as more and more student training data is captured by the USI system. Having access to a student’s training history will also streamline the management of VET records when students move between institutions.
Our aXcelerate clients, however, can rest assured knowing that our development team is well-apprised of the necessary adjustments, and we’ll do everything within our power to make the conversion as seamless as possible. We are currently working on USI enhancements in aXcelerate, which will enable you to do the following:
- Create a USI record for a student and receive an immediate response from the USI database
- Verify a USI for a student and receive an immediate response
- Submit bulk student records for processing
- Receive the results of a previously submitted processing bulk request
We just ask that you take a few proactive steps to ensure that the transition goes as smoothly as possible. The new components of aXcelerate won’t be available for testing until mid-to-late September, but we recommend that you go ahead and register for both an AUSkey and an AUSkey Device identity, which aXcelerate will need in order to access the USI web services on your behalf. (Please be advised that your business will need an ABN to register for an AUSkey.) As part of the USI implementation, you will be required to enter the AUSkey data into the relevant fields in aXcelerate once we notify you that we are ready to commence testing.
We plan to provide a monthly update via our aXcelerate Update newsletter specifically related to USI/AVETMISS 7.0 implementation. Please READ CAREFULLY all updates to stay informed of our progress and your responsibilities in relation to this important change.
We at aXcelerate want you to know that as these changes are being introduced, we’ll support you every step of the way. No hassle, no worries!