Sunday, August 31, 2008

Skills Recognition - Small Business Solutions

Presenter - John Tucker
Qld State Manager, Small Business Solutions
13/08/08 – Pavilion on the Park
SA Workplace Assessors Network Relaunch Breakfast

What is the role and purpose or a modern VET practitioner?
How is it different to a traditional teacher?
Is your RTO business currently driven by a demand model or a supply model?

TAFEs are operating in a supply model – this is what we offer – but needs to move to a demand model – offer what’s needed in the training market – this will take a significant shift.

Do you need to speak English to complete a skills recognition process in a VET Business Qualification?

Is it possible to recognize competencies and coach, mentor or help a client at the same time? That is, to do two things at once?

A change in focus from RTOs:
- Courses for Sale to Job Solutions
- Fixed Product List to Tailored Solutions
- Supply Driven to Demand Driven

Small Business Solutions is a product mixing business mentoring to support small business owners with a seamless qualification outcome – present two products together to small business – offer them a way of improving their business – and at the same time provide a qualification – seamlessly.

Business Owners want:
- one on one mentoring – someone to come to them
- real tangible benefits to the business
- small business means small budget

Mentors:
Small Business Solutions mentors are real life small business experts with whom small business owners can identify with. Credibility of the business mentor is paramount. Mentors with English as a Second Language is beneficial to deal with businesses from different cultural backgrounds. Business mentors also have an ‘assessor’s’ hat whilst they are mentoring the business owners. The mentoring solution must also need to be able to offer skills gap training. This system recognizes that this skills gap training is not always formal training – offer a range of small business training options through other a ‘training events’ calendar of their website.

Challenges faced by Small Business Solutions:
- Commercially focused mentors need to be skilled in assessment
- Clients are not qualifications focused particularly at the start
- Finding the right funding model

Offering recognition processes for a Certificate IV in Small Business Management

Skilling Solutions offer training vouchers which can be used to partly pay for the process.

Features of this model
- Mentors are the assessors
- Educational quality is the responsibility of the educational facilitators in conjunction with the assessor
- Tailored to the individual’s need

This system offers a great way of interacting with industry.

The initial profiling of the small business owner helps determine whether they will be able to gain recognition – if not – directed into training.

This service is customer centric.

Skills First RPL Resources
Skills First RPL Assessor Kits

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