Profile: Shruti is an education innovator, quality and compliance consultant entrepreneur and manager with over 35 years of experience in education across secondary school, English Language, Vocational Education and Training and Higher Education in Australia as well as internationally.
Shruti is the founding director of NEXTEXT, a vocational education and quality and compliance consultancy that assists registered training organisations with their compliance, quality management and registration with the National VET Regulator requirements.
Shruti has been an accredited Health Check Services Consultant for Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET).

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Here is the copy of the interview:
For more than two decades, you have provided assistance to the VET industry. How has your experience been?
Thank you for inviting me to share my experience with your readers!
I have been in the field of education for 35 years now, and have spent more than 25 of these years involved in teaching and vocational training in India, Oman and Australia. Every moment in each sector has been a lot of hard work but has also been a rich learning experience.
As a teacher and trainer, I value appreciation by past students who found a vocation or career, developed self-confidence, or the love for a language. I also value the learnings from my mentors, and appreciation by peers and employers. As the founder and director of an RTO, I grew with my colleagues and employees, and enjoyed the recognition my RTO received in the industry.
In the last 10 years, I have continued to support the VET industry as a quality and compliance consultant and resource developer. So overall, I can say I have had a long and successful run, and it has been a very rewarding experience.
What are your most important services for the VET sector?
At Nextext, we offer a wide range of services for the VET sector, such as, internal audits against SRTOs 2015, ESOS / NCP 2018 compliance, government funding requirements, post-audit rectification services, initial registration and re-registration of RTOs, and CRICOS registration. Our services also include ELICOS, such as addition to scope, internal audits and ELICOS assessment and curriculum development.
Apart from this, I personally sit on the academic boards of some RTOs, providing them with leadership in assuring academic standards and quality and compliance with various regulatory standards.
The other important aspect of our services is the designing of detailed compliant assessment resources for VET qualifications from several training packages and accredited courses such as BSB, SIT, HLT, CHC, TAE and EAL. We also develop LLN tests and provide assessment validation and training and assessment strategy validation services.
Why did you decide to pursue a profession in vocational education and training?
I am an educator and lifelong learner at heart, and have worked as a teacher, teaching English language and literature ever since I started working. My introduction to vocational education and training was through teaching vocational English in Oman over 25 years ago.
When we migrated to Australia, my husband and I established an RTO in 2002, which soon became very successful and gained a reputation not only in the student market, but also with the regulators, as one of the nine best and largest private RTOs on CRICOS in Victoria at that time.
This rich and varied experience of running my own RTO, ensuring its quality and compliance, showing empathy and commitment as an educator and instructional designer, has led me to carve out a career in VET quality, compliance and resource developing.
Even today, as a consultant, I continue to learn from every assignment. I am also an educator in every assignment, in that I provide mentoring and training to all my RTO clients overtly and covertly. In the same way, every VET training and assessment resource we develop is also a learning opportunity for me.
Perhaps this is the reason the VET industry has become my vocation!
What has been the biggest significant change in the VET industry during the past ten years?
I think there isn’t just one significant change.
In fact, this past decade has been one of turmoil and flux, with so many changes such as introduction of new regulatory standards, regulatory regimes, changes to government funding models, overhauls in international student visa models and immigration policies, all of which have impacted significantly on RTO operations and compliance performance and student enrolment numbers. The global pandemic has necessitated a sudden and fundamental shift in training and assessment delivery modes and the adoption of hybrid models.
These changes have posed many challenges for providers, trainers and students alike.
What are the most significant concerns and challenges now confronting the vocational education and training (VET) industry?
Again, one can’t talk of the ‘now’ without referring to the pandemic that has affected every area of human activity, and the VET industry is no exception.
In the wake of the “Great Resignation” the VET industry is also facing trainer assessor shortages, as training staff were laid off, or have moved on. The shortage is also for staff with digital skills required for hybrid training modes. Therefore, trainer upskilling or reskilling to use technology is a challenge.
The pandemic has changed the way employers do business, and the current VET system may not be ready with courses to meet these new needs of employers and industries. VET training package developers need to develop new products or revise existing training products by identifying and forecasting emerging skills required by industry.
VET providers need to increase training products’ ‘speed to market’ by developing suitable content and effective assessments for ‘microcredentials’ to quickly upskills learners and trainers.
We’ve worked on countless projects together in the past, and I’ve always found you to be exceptionally knowledgeable and resourceful. However, what skills do you believe are necessary for employment in the education and training sector?
Thank you for your kind words, Sukh! It’s been fun working with you.
I think people who want to work successfully in the VET sector, whether they are in training/assessment, student services or administration roles, need technology and digital literacy skills, a working knowledge of cyber security tools and processes, and people skills and subject area knowledge.
VET providers need to continue to focus on student experience and ensure that new modes of delivery continue to meet their compliance and quality requirements.
Workplace mental health skills training for managers and employers has become more relevant now than ever. This will enable those who manage people to implement preventative strategies to reduce sickness absence and create a supportive organisational culture.

Living costs in Australia are soaring, and international students are feeling the pinch. Some are being forced to rely on food vouchers and charity to get by.
The cost of living in Australia has been rising steadily over the past few years, and international students are feeling the pinch more than most. With tuition fees and other costs already putting a strain on their finances, the rising cost of living is pushing many over the edge.
Rising rent prices, fuel prices, and the high cost of food are among the biggest financial burdens for students. In some cases, these costs have resulted in students going hungry or skipping meals. This is having a serious impact on their studies and their health, and it is something that needs to be addressed urgently.
The situation is especially dire for those studying in metropolitan cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, where the cost of living is among the highest in the country. Students there are finding it increasingly difficult to afford basic necessities, let alone save any money for their future.
Charity organisations like Foodbank Australia are seeing an increase in the number of international students seeking assistance. In the past year, Foodbank has provided more than 20,000 meals to international students in need.
The situation has led to calls for action from the Australian government. Some politicians have suggested that the government should provide financial assistance to international students.
The high cost of living is just one of the challenges faced by international students in Australia.
Despite the difficulties, most international students say they are happy with their decision to study in Australia. They believe the experience is worth the challenges they face.
Do you think the Australian government should do more to support international students? Let us know in the comments below.

LGBT+ collectively refers to people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, and to people with gender expressions outside traditional norms, including nonbinary, intersex, and other queer people (and those questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation), along with their allies.
There are a number of things that training organisations can do to be more LGBT+ inclusive. This can include everything from ensuring that their organisation’s policies are inclusive of LGBT+ people, to providing training on LGBT+ issues and ensuring that their staff are aware of the needs of LGBT+ people.
Organisations should also ensure that they are providing an inclusive environment for all employees, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. This means creating a workplace where everyone feels comfortable and respected, and where they can be themselves without fear of discrimination or harassment.
Here are some things you can do to help make your training more inclusive for LGBT+ people:
Review your organisation’s policies and procedures to make sure they are inclusive of LGBT+ people.
Make sure your materials and curriculum are inclusive of LGBT+ people and experiences. This includes using language that is respectful and avoiding outdated or offensive terms.
Provide sensitivity training for all staff members, so they are aware of the issues faced by LGBT+ people and how to best support them.
Make sure your organisation is a safe and welcoming space for all employees, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This includes having clear anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies in place.
Use inclusive language when advertising your courses and events. Make sure that your communications do not use any language that might exclude or alienate members of the LGBT+ community.
Consider the needs of transgender and gender non-conforming participants when planning your events. For example, provide gender-neutral bathrooms and ensure that dress code policy are inclusive of all gender identities and expressions.
Be aware of the unique needs of intersex people when planning your events. For example, ensure that your medical consent forms do not assume that all participants are of binary gender.
Foster a safe and inclusive environment at your events by clearly stating in your code of conduct that discrimination or harassment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression is not tolerated.
Educate yourself and your staff on the needs of LGBT+ people. Make sure that everyone who works for your organization is aware of the issues faced by the LGBT+ community and knows how to support members of the community who may need assistance.
Speak out against discrimination and harassment of LGBT+ people, both inside and outside of your organisation.
By taking these steps, you can help make sure that everyone in the LGBT+ community feels welcome and included in your training events.

According to a study conducted by KellyOCG, a global outsourcing and consulting firm that specialises in providing workforce strategy, solutions, and operations, only 12 percent of respondents believed hybrid work had a positive impact on their company culture, which is significantly lower than the global average of 21 percent. Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said that it was difficult for them to hire contingent talent.
It is possible that this apparent uneasiness has had an effect on the long-term ambitions of some Australian company leaders; the poll respondents indicated that 76 percent of them were planned to leave their organisations within the next two years. This was 4% more than the average for the world, and the data predicts that Australia may witness a greater exodus of employees from top positions than other places across the world.
In its second annual Global Workforce Report, KellyOCG surveyed one thousand senior company leaders from ten different industries and twelve different countries. These senior business leaders included C-suite executives, board members, department heads, directors, and managers.
The purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of the most significant talent-related difficulties and dangers that organisations face as they recover from the pandemic. The proportion of people polled in Australia who believed that the complexity of managing a hybrid workforce will eventually need a return to the office was higher than the proportion of people surveyed globally who had the same belief, which was 28 per cent.
According to Peter Hamilton, who is the vice president and managing director, APAC, at KellyOCG, he feels that firms that are switched on will welcome the shift. “Smart firms are no longer thinking of flexible, hybrid, and inclusive work as something that would be good to have; instead, they are investing in the technology and experiences that make it more personalised to their workforce,” he stated.
“Australia is facing one of the greatest skills crises in our lifetimes. The battle for talent is fierce as the economy recovers from a challenging two years of border closures and lockdowns. However, the renewed optimism felt by organisations is also being echoed by employees themselves. They know that they could walk out the door into another job at any time, so the real challenge is not only finding new talent but also retaining and nurturing the talent you currently have.”
Intriguingly, despite the fact that some senior Australian leaders appear to be impatient for change, they reported being significantly happier than their peers from across the world. In comparison to the percentage of senior leaders expressing dissatisfaction with their jobs in Australia (45%), more over half of senior leaders all over the world (58%) said they were unhappy in their current position.
Business executives in this region are also more likely to be in favour of a four-day work week: seventy-five per cent of them claimed that they had already implemented it or planned to do so in the next twelve months, which is higher than the average worldwide percentage of sixty-nine per cent.
Tammy Browning, the president of KellyOCG, came to the conclusion that “Our research signals there is significant talent demand for a life-work shift”
“A shift in workplace culture is needed and organisations must evolve to remain competitive, profitable, and attractive to top talent”
It is the intention of KellyOGC that the findings of this survey will serve as a motivating model for businesses who wish to follow in the footsteps of the 15% of respondents to this study who reported an increase in employee wellbeing, productivity, and revenue growth in the preceding year.
According to the findings, these businesses are more likely to make use of contingent talent in order to improve workforce agility and to engage workers across the organisation in discussions around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). In addition to this, they are dedicated to reimagining the employee experience and using the appropriate tools and technology in order to empower the workforce of today. The countries of Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States were among those surveyed in this study.

We would love to have you join our professional development retainer agreement services or individual professional development opportunities through Edu Learning. Our organisation works with the aim to help you grow your skills in a fun and interactive way. The benefits of joining our organisation are numerous, from getting tips from VET experts and industry leaders to building a network of peers, who can help you move forward in your career.
Intellectually stimulating and engaging content is what we excel at. We offer training programs that will provide your staff with the practical skills and strategies that they need to be successful in their careers in this competitive market – whether it’s in marketing, finance or RTO operations.
The benefits of being part of our professional development group include:
– Developing a better understanding of the role of a VET professional
– Getting in-depth training in different RTO sector skill sets that meet your and your organisation’s needs and requirements.

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In partnership with Edu Learning and CAQA Skills, CAQA provides a variety of professional and personal development opportunities. We may also tailor the training to meet your specific requirements and skill level as well. For additional details, please contact us right away at info@caqa.com.au.
 

CAQA Systems provides technology services and support, and works in partnership with its customers.

We collaborate with innovative organisations and service providers, assisting them in maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of their technology investments.
We specialise in network administration, software systems and development, hardware and software support, software system and development, cybersecurity, information technology-related issues and matters.
We provide support to the education, medical, government, marketing, retail, hospitality, food, non-profit organisations, financial, and transportation industries.
Get in touch with us to discuss how we can assist you with your requirements.

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For additional details, please contact us right away at info@caqa.com.au.

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Are you looking for staff?
At CAQA Recruitment we help employers find talent for their organisation. We understand that hiring is a complex and sometimes costly process. However, it can be simplified and made easy on a budget by opting for our services. Our recruitment platform receives a huge number of interest from applicants who are seeking new opportunities in the VET sector. Best of all your first ad is FREE
For more information, please click here.
Looking for a new opportunity?
Whether you are a jobseeker, seeking additional hours, or not satisfied with your current job, you can find a new opportunity that suits your skills and experience through CAQA Recruitment. New vacancies are posted regularly. The process is simple! Register with us, upload your resume and begin your search.You decide how much or how little information you want to display. So what are you waiting for? Register today and let employers find you.
For more information, please click here.

Over the past two decades, Online Media Solutions (OMS) has provided assistance to clients worldwide. OMS merged into the CAQA and Career Calling brands in 2013.
Services offered by Online Media Solutions include: website design and development; website security; web hosting; domains marketplace; development of iOS and Android applications; software development; graphics design including logos, website graphics; social media graphics; marketing graphics; brand identity; stationery design; SEO; marketing services; website support; data entry; database management; and data entry and database management services
We have been working on hundreds of SCORM-compliant files and are making investments in virtual reality, gamification, artificial intelligence, and other cutting-edge technologies in order to meet new and developing training and assessment needs.

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Call us on 1800 961 980 or email info@careercalling.com.au to find out more on how we can assist.
 

Resource writers
CAQA Resources is looking for qualified instructional writers and subject matter experts to develop training materials for the community services and health services industries. If you are interested, email your resume and cover letter to info@caqarecruitment.com.au
Marketing Manager
This role is responsible for setting and applying the strategic direction and for the day to day management of our organisation’s marketing, communications, digital innovation, and community activities. Reporting to the CEO, this position will also play a pivotal role as a member of the management team of CAQA. The position will suit a person who wants to work from home.
Duties

• Oversee the development, implementation and ongoing evaluation of CAQA’s strategic marketing and communications strategies covering brand, products, services and sales promotions;
• Assess and provide recommendations on potential digital projects, including but not limited to the evolution of CAQA’s websites, lead generation platforms, customer communication opportunities;
• Manage social media profiles, create ongoing content and encourage engagement;
• Oversight of all communication activities to achieve communications objectives, maintaining consistency in message and presentation;
• Manage relationships with external agencies and suppliers in relation to marketing, communication and business development initiatives;
• Management and control of the marketing budget;
• Create and monitor insightful reporting across marketing activities, including campaigns and website.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in marketing, and/or product management roles required
• Interest in the Vocational Education and Training environment
• Advanced skills in Adobe Creative Suite
• Experience using a website CMS
• Experience using marketing software
• Experience with Pipedrive CRM, or similar

For more information, contact info@caqarecruitment.com.au

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Customer Service/Administrator
CAQA Resources is growing and we are now looking for a Customer Service/Administrator person to join our team. To be successful in this role you will need exceptional attention to detail and great English language skills. You will need to know your way around Microsoft Office and you must be able to work both as part of a team and manage your own workload. Location is irrelevant as the position will suit a person who wants to work from home.
Our customers are High Schools, RTOs and TAFEs. They mainly approach us by email, but we also receive a number of calls and requests for additional information. You must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident.
We are looking for someone who will stay with us long term, has the ability to grow with the role, and who is interested in learning about compliance and the VET sector. Previous VET experience will be helpful but is not essential.
For more information, contact info@caqarecruitment.com.au

One of the most important things you can do for your professional career is to continue learning and growing.
There are many different types of professional development (PD) opportunities available to you as a professional.

What is PD, and why is it important?
Professional development is a term used to describe any type of learning or training that helps you improve your professional skills and knowledge. It can include anything from taking online courses, to attending workshops and conferences to reading articles and books, to networking with other professionals.
Why is PD important?
Well, there are many reasons.
First of all, it can help you stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in your field, allows you to stay current in your field, learn new techniques
Additionally, it can help you learn new skills and techniques, which can make you more productive and successful in your work.
PD can also help you build relationships with other professionals, which can lead to new opportunities and collaborations.
It can also help you advance your career and get promoted. By continuing to learn and grow, you are demonstrating that you are committed to your profession and invested in your future.
So, what types of PD opportunities are available to you? There are many, but here are a few examples:

1. Conference or seminar: A conference or seminar is a great way to learn about new trends and developments in your field. It’s also a great opportunity to network with other professionals.
2. Workshop: A workshop is a great way to learn new skills and techniques. Workshops can be offered by universities, professional associations, or private companies such as EDULearning and CAQA Skills.
3. Online course: An online course is a great way to learn new skills and knowledge from the comfort of your own home. Many universities and professional associations offer online courses.
4. Webinar: A webinar is a live, online seminar. It’s a great way to learn about new trends and developments, and to network with other professionals.
5. Conference session: A conference session is a great way to learn about new trends and developments from experts in your field. Sessions are usually held at conferences or seminars.
6. Article: Reading articles is a great way to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in your field. Many journals and magazines offer articles online for free.
7. Book: Reading books is a great way to learn about new skills and techniques. Many publishers offer books online for free.
8. Networking event: Networking events are a great way to build relationships with other professionals. They can be hosted by universities, professional associations, or private companies.

So, as you can see, there are many different types of PD opportunities available to you. It’s important to find the ones that are right for you and that fit into your schedule. And don’t forget, the most important thing is to stay motivated and keep learning!
Professional development is an important part of any career, and it’s something that should be taken seriously. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, you need to continue learning and growing. Make professional development a priority in your life, and you’ll be rewarded with success.
For more information regarding the professional development opportunities and how CAQA can assist you and your team, please contact us at info@caqa.edu.au.