High-Risk Products: What You Deliver Could Be Your Weakest Link

In this high-stakes episode, Angela Connell-Richards breaks down the reality of delivering high-risk training products in the VET sector. From early childhood to cookery, some qualifications are magnets for ASQA scrutiny—and Angela shows you how to stay protected.

Key points discussed:
 ✅ What defines a “high-risk” qualification or unit
 ✅ How to assess and strengthen your delivery of risky products
 ✅ Common pitfalls in assessment, placement, and validation
 ✅ Evidence strategies to demonstrate quality and improvement

Angela gives you the tools to handle high-risk delivery areas with confidence and audit-readiness.

Listen now and download Angela’s free High-Risk Product Watchlist to assess and manage your most vulnerable qualifications.

 Join host Angela Connell-Richards as she opens each episode with a burst of insight and inspiration. Discover why compliance is your launchpad to success, not a limitation. 

Wrap up with gratitude and guidance. Subscribe, leave a review, and join our community as we continue supporting your compliance journey in vocational education. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to High-Risk Training
• 1:52 Defining High-Risk Products
• 3:17 Why These Products Need Scrutiny
• 4:47 How to Audit Your Delivery
• 6:12 Common Pitfalls to Avoid
• 7:39 Strengthening Your High-Risk Delivery
• 9:50 Final Thoughts and Next Episode

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Welcome back to the RTO Superhero Podcast with me, angela Connell-Richards, and today's episode is one every RTO needs to hear, because, even if you've nailed your policies, updated your TAS and trained your team on the new standards, there's one thing that could still catch you off guard the qualifications and the units you deliver. In this episode we're talking about high-risk training products, the ones that ASQA pays extra close attention to. These products carry higher expectations, more scrutiny and a much tighter audit lens. So if you're delivering courses like early childhood, individual support, business cookery or security, this is a must listen for you. Today I'll walk you through what defines a high risk product, how to evaluate and strengthen your delivery, the pitfalls Asqua sees again and and the evidence you need to show you're doing it right. Let's dive in. What is a high-risk training product? Let's start by defining what I mean by high-risk.

Speaker 1: 1:40

Asqa has been identifying training products consistently with high levels of complaints, non-compliance at audit, poor learner outcomes, high attrition or low completion rates, concerns around assessment validity. Some of the most watched qualifications include CHC 30121, certificate 3 in Early Childhood Education and Care. Chc 33021, certificate 3 in Individual Support SIT 30821, certificate 3 in Commercial Cookery PSB 30120, certificate 3 in Business, cpp 20218, certificate 2 in Security Operations and several first aid and white card units. Now delivering these products isn't a problem in itself. The risk comes from how they're delivered, assessed and supported. If ASQA sees that you're running one of these quals, they expect you to have tight systems, strong evidence and a clear track record of quality. Why these training products attract extra scrutiny. So why is it considered that these training products are risky? Here are the most common reasons High enrolment and volumes. Some providers use these products as cash flow courses, enrolling large numbers without strong support or outcomes. Vulnerable learner cohorts these courses often attract students who need more support, such as migrants, career changes or school leavers.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Work placement challenges Many of these calls include mandatory hours in child care centres, aged care facilities or kitchens. Rtos often struggle to monitor and evidence these placements. Number four assessment inconsistencies. Assessors may not have vocational currency or tools aren't validated properly, leading to invalid or unfair judgments. To invalid or unfair judgments. Number five repackage content. Some RTOs reuse content and assessment tools across multiple quals or units without contextualizing them. Asqa knows that these are red flag areas, so when you deliver these products, you're automatically on the radar.

Speaker 1: 4:26

How to evaluate your high risk qualifications? Let's talk about how to audit your own delivery. Start with these four questions. Number one are your assessment tools unit specific, validated and contextualised? Do they reflect real world tasks? Do they map correctly to the unit requirements? Are they consistent across assessors? Number two is your work placement system documented and monitored? Do you have signed agreements with host organisations? Is supervision and learner feedback recorded? Are hours and tasks tracked per learner? Number three do your trainers and assessors have vocational currency and contextual knowledge? Have they worked in the sector in the last 12 to 24 months? Are they participating in PD relevant to the industry and assessment? Number four is learner support and progress tracked and reviewed? Are students engaging with the material? Are at-risk learners flagged early? Are completions tracked and analysed? This kind of evaluation shows ASQA that you're not just delivering, you're assuring quality.

Speaker 1: 5:51

The common pitfalls you must avoid. Now let's get into the danger zone. These are the most common pitfalls I see RTOs fall into when delivering high-risk training products. Copy and paste assessments Using the same assessments across different quals without contextualisation is a major risk. For example, a cleaning task used in a childcare and cookery that doesn't pass the sniff test.

Speaker 1: 6:23

No workplace evidence If placement hours are signed off but there's no task breakdown, supervisor verification or learner reflection. You don't have sufficient evidence Inexperienced trainers, trainers delivering aged care with no current sector experience, or assessors relying solely on their old job history without updated skills. This is non-compliant Lack of validation records, no pre-implementation validation, no moderation and no review of outcomes. Assessment chaos, ignoring feedback. Learner complaints or employer feedback are often dismissed or, worse, never collected. How to strengthen your high-risk delivery? Here's how you can flip the script and deliver high-risk products with confidence.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Update your validation plan. Schedule validation before and after delivery. Rotate assessors. Document everything. Use reflective tools in placements. Have learners reflected on their tasks. Link it to the units and have supervisors sign off on specific outcomes, not just the hours that they've completed.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Audit your assessment tools. Use mapping documents. Align to performance criteria. Eliminate fluff. Upskill your trainers. Make sure their PD logs show recent and industry training, industry or engagement, shadowing, short courses, site visits everything counts. Collect and use feedback. Implement structured learner and industry surveys. Act on what you find. Show the cycle of improvement.

Speaker 1: 8:30

To help you get a handle on this, I've created a simple tool the high risk product watch list. It includes a list of ASQA flag training products, key risks to look for in each delivery area, a checklist of assessment, placement and trainer indicators, a space to review your own courses and identify next steps. You can download the document at vivacitycomau or click on the link in the show notes. It's a great tool for internal review meetings or as a part of your self-assurance system. So here's the truth what you deliver could be your biggest compliance risk or your biggest quality advantage. If you're delivering high-risk training products, it doesn't mean you're in trouble. It just means you need to step up your systems, evidence and internal controls. Use the watch list, train your staff and get audit ready even before ASQA comes a knocking. Next week we'll be talking about complaints, how one bad review can trigger an audit and what your response framework must include in 2025. Until then, stay smart, stay prepared and keep thriving. Thanks for listening to the RTO Superhero Podcast.