In the new Post COVID-19 vocational & corporate training realm we will see more diversity in the way training is delivered. Functionality such as Virtual Classroom may become mainstays in the delivery mix for Australian RTO’s and other training organisations. As a provider of services across the broad spectrum of industry training, at Vasto we see a snapshot of the methods of delivery used by our training company clients. One thing that stands out is that providers with a more diverse offering covering both accredited AND non-accredited training, coupled with multiple delivery methods (pathways) including online, virtual, blended and traditional face to face have greater flexibility to change direction quickly in response to COVID-19 or other significant challenges such as financial crisis. Importantly, they have secondary income streams to bolster the business.
A strong commercial focus for RTO’s rather than an almost 100% focus on compliance can build a more robust, financially stable business which can react and change to the financial environment, as well as any curve balls thrown up by those changing compliance rules almost continuously. RTO’s delivering accredited training already have a wealth of content available which can be re-engineered to suit non-accredited, auto assessed short course delivery using Vasto’s In-Built LMS tools and any external LTI Compliant LMS content.
By way of example, a Fitness Training Provider has developed a large range of non-accredited short courses (1-3 exams in 1 unit) offered as inexpensive auto assessed units with auto enrolment and payment, no USI or AVETMISS needs and zero human intervention (other than certificate issuance). The content is derived from aspects of its accredited training courses and is offered automatically as ‘Free’ to accredited course students as an upsell and also to the public, with reduced price offers into accredited courses on completion. The result is income from the public course and effectively ‘free’ marketing into accredited courses, a win on both sides.
The question I pose to RTO’s in 2020-2021 is whether both their course offering, delivery options and marketing-to-enrolment automation are diverse enough to both ensure commercial viability AND to promote growth both within and outside of their current core target markets. It’s a changing landscape in training.