The Wisenet Blog

The Australian Prime Minister announced the Australian Government will partner with state and territory governments to establish a new $1 billion JobTrainer Skills Training Fund.

This is clearly welcome news, but what does it actually mean for registered training organisations (RTOs) and their learners?

The fund will provide training places to help school leavers and job seekers access free or low-cost courses in areas of identified skills need, with the Federal Government providing $500 million with matched contributions from state and territory governments.  Let's hope everyone is on board!

To inform the identification of courses, the National Skills Commission (NSC) will create an indicative list of qualifications based on its own research, analysis and consultation with stakeholder organisations. This list will help inform discussions with state and territory government, with those discussions to determine the qualifications and short courses to be funded via the JobTrainer Fund.

For participating state and territories - and let's hope that's everyone - it is expected that training places will be available from September 2020. Information on training places delivered under the JobTrainer Fund will be made available through the National Careers Institute on the My Skills website.

Given the rapidly changing labour market and economy, this list will be live and will be updated and refined as required, based on both data and analysis from the NSC and states and territories, and intelligence on the ground.

The key takeaway is that RTO technology platforms that are agile and adaptable will be key to accessing the opportunities that JobTrainer offers.  Strap in - it's going to be a wild ride!

Here's a few things to think about when it comes to Job Trainer:

We are all on a bus ride to the other side of COVID-19 Town - wherever that is!

Simple but incredible customer service.  

This is Disney’s magic answer for increasing attraction and student retention rates. And it works. According to Disney’s book “Be our Guest: Perfecting The Art Of Customer Service”, a huge 70% of first time customers to their theme parks return for a second time.

Yes, Disney are a multinational company operating in the entertainment and experience business. They are not a registered training organisation dealing with students and education. But there are lessons in the way they operate their business that can be applied to fields vocational education training sector. And used in your registered training organisation to help attract and retain more students.

The corporate sector across the globe has been adopting their approach for years. Only last year banking giant Westpac shifted their focus to become more customer centric and appointed an ex-Disney great, Tom Doyles as their new Chief Customer Officer to help them do it.

So what are Disney doing? And what can we take from it? Here's how to attract and retain more students, based on three key lessons from Disney’s “Be Our Guest”.

Trust is the new currency in our economy.  From airbnb to Uber; from Volkswagen to your registered training organisation, trust is a valuable commodity in this new economy. Betray your customers' trust at your peril.

If you've read our opinion piece on the Volkswagen emission scandal, you're going to want to read this. 

Here are three ways registered training organisations can build trust.

Training providers who genuinely engage in building trust with their customers are sure to see the rewards in positive word of mouth and high staff retention, and will enjoy good relations with regulators.

The recent Volkswagen emission scandal is an example of industrial-scale deception. Why does this matter to VET Fee-Help Providers in Australia, and how can businesses and registered training organisations ensure sustainability? Who are the real victims of scams?