The heart of the issue is that unit standards (which are curriculums) are being phased out and will not be re-registered. The QCTO is replacing them with skills programs (of about 8 credits minimum) but does not yet have enough curriculums to replace all the unit standards being deregistered. So training providers who train unit standards will have to stop training unit standards before their replacement curriculums (QCTO skills programs) arrive. This affects first aid, fire, OHS, LMO, and many many others.
Accredited providers will be able to train and keep enrolling new learners up until the unit standard “last date for enrollment”, which is end June 2024. That’s a full year after the unit standard registration end date which is end June 2023. The catch is that only accredited providers can take advantage of this year gap between registration end date and enrollment end date.
SETA’s are closing the door on new provider applications for accreditation. Sandy, the ETQA manager at TETA has said she is aiming for a date that may be as early as start December 2022 (about a month from today). Accreditation applications take about 6 months to complete, and the SETA’s are generally not looking to have new providers added to the register after the unit standard registration end date.
Because it is highly unlikely the QCTO will have sufficient skills program curriculums to replace the unit standards that will be de-registered it is my recommendation that every provider takes advantage of this narrow window of opportunity and gets accredited and can therefore enroll new learners until 1 July 2024. Those learners already enrolled can take the course and only need to officially be finalised by June 2027.
If you wait for this to sort itself out it is likely you will end up without a route to accreditation, or a route to accreditation will present itself but you will have a long delay (e.g. the application process) getting on board with the changes while your competitors continue to train and earn. This is exactly what happened with the last DEL / SETA changeover. The prepared flourished, the unprepared lost out.
The long term solution is to start writing curriculums to replace the unit standards that are being phased out. Some SETA’s and private individuals are already doing this. Lime Green has completed the process and knows how. Get in touch if you want to start getting curriculums together for specific unit standards that are expiring.
