Steering committee
You need to form a steering committee. This committee provides advice and approval for course development and validates the course contents.
The role of the steering committee includes to:
- confirm the course meets skills and knowledge outcomes
- provide advice on new and existing units of competency
- provide advice as subject matter experts
- confirm the AQF qualification is appropriate to industry needs
- confirm the foundation skills for the course
- confirm the risk assessment report for the course.
Members must sign the Course contents endorsement form to confirm to the VRQA that the course meets all requirements.
Membership
Most steering committee members must be industry representatives, including the chairperson.
Industry representatives may include members from:
- Jobs and Skills Councils or industry advisory groups
- employer or professional associations
- key peak industry bodies
- stakeholder groups or individuals
- curriculum maintenance managers
- other RTOs or education providers (if appropriate).
The chairperson must be independent and not affiliated with the course owner.
The course owner can have a maximum of 2 members on the steering committee. Others may be listed as in attendance.
Rules
All members of the steering committee must declare any conflict of interest in the development of the course. This must happen at the first meeting of the committee. Record all conflicts of interest in the minutes.
Everyone on the committee must sign the course contents endorsement form. Include the signed form with the course accreditation submission.
There are no set number of meetings, but a minimum of 2 is usually needed.
Include the minutes of steering committee meetings with your course accreditation application.
Develop a course
You need to document:
- course content
- expected skills and knowledge outcomes
- training and assessment structures.
You can use existing units of competency from endorsed training packages to cover the course content or create new ones.
New units of competency
You can develop new units of competency, called enterprise units.
You should do this in close consultation with relevant technical experts and industry practitioners.
Foundation skills summary
You must have foundation skills in your course. If they are not clearly identified, you should complete this summary and include it in your application.
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