Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) in Australia’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector have a significant responsibility to deliver nationally recognised training and ensure students meet work-placement obligations to the standards established by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). SkilTrak has become the preferred partner for many RTOs, offering a placement management platform that is uniquely and accurately compliant and transparent, while maintaining the efficiency for which RTOs are known.
Let’s take a look at why RTOs searching for safe placements, which are ASQA-ready, turn to SkilTrak more and more.
1. ASQA Ready Data and Reporting
ASQA has strict and demanding data and reporting requirements, including Total VET Activity (TVA) reporting (AVETMISS compliant), annual Quality Indicator reporting, and documentary standards for clauses 7.5, 8.1 – 8.2 of the Standards for RTOs, 2015. SkilTrak streamlines compliance by:
o Providing templates and auto-generated placement reports that map to ASQA reporting requirements.
o Identifying placement hours, competencies achieved, and stakeholder feedback to flow directly into AVETMISS-compliant systems.
o Providing built-in Quality Indicator workflows for feedback from students and employers to submit for the annual submission.
2. Centralised, Real‑Time Placement Tracking
SkilTrak provides a simple, cloud-based, centralised dashboard that tracks placement information, including start and end dates, total placement hours completed, tasks completed, competency progression, and host employer information, all in one place.
Some key benefits of using SkilTrak include:
o Updates in real time when students, employers, or trainers contribute to the record of evidence.
o Automated notifications for any missing information, deadlines for information to be added to the record, etc.
o Advanced analytics and visual dashboards to assist with the monitoring of placement documentation metrics.
RTO administrators, trainers, and industry supervisors can stay on the same page while also mitigating gaps in documentation and placement hour availability.
3. Digital Evidence Collection & Audit Trails
SkilTrak offers:
Easy student and employer uploads of files, photos, or assessments.
Electronic signatures to support their claim that all placement documents are 'validated. '
An audit trail that shows the 'who', 'what', and 'when' of every action.
Data is stored encrypted, undergoing backups at regular intervals, and being kept in accordance with retention policy aligned to ASQA, which ensures records are secure while also enduring. All this mitigates risk should an audit occur externally.
4. Enhanced Stakeholder Engagement
SkilTrak goes beyond a record-keeping tool to allow RTOs to enhance engagement with students, employers, and trainers.
Students: Get clarifications on placement expectations, track engagement, upload documentation, and receive feedback in a timely way.
Employers: Evaluate and give a feedback report to the RTO, either through mobile or web-app, and engage with RTOs in real-time during the placement.
Trainers/Assessors: Track student progress or engagement, link with host organisations, and support their students during placement.
This continuous feedback and communication loop supports the quality of placement and increases overall engagement.
5. Placements Sourced from a Broad Industry Network
Numerous RTOs find it difficult to match students to suitable host employers for student placement. SkilTrak solves this with:
o Matching based on student qualifications, their location, and preferences in the industry.
o Access to Talent Pool of screened graduates and previous students identified by their skills and experience, which are good options for employers to solve workforce issues, and for RTOs to provide placement options.
With the scope and reach of SkilTrak, there are fewer delays in the student placement process and improved alignments between students and host sites.
6. Scalability & Customisation to Fit RTO Size
Regardless of whether an RTO has 50 learners or 5000, SkilTrak is tailored to suit the needs.
• Offers self-managed portals (for smaller providers) and a full end-to-end managed placement service.
• Options to configure workflows, approvals, and stakeholder interfaces that reflect each RTO's structure and needs.
· This flexibility provides an offering for both RTOs and national providers.
7. Continuous Improvement through Analytics & Feedback
SkilTrak collects feedback for each placement cycle as student reflections, employer ratings, and performance data. As the data grows, SkilTrak aggregates that data to spot trends and opportunities for improvement.
This feedback loop enables RTOs to:
Continuously improve placement policies
More effectively design a curriculum aligned with industry feedback
Continually improve the experience for students and employers
8. Compliance with Current and Emerging Standards
In light of the changes to VET compliance standards in 2025, including ossified industry engagement, properly supporting students, and technology-enabled compliance, it is more important than ever for RTOs to have solid platforms.
SkilTrak understands these changes in approach when it includes:
Automation of tracking around documentation and placement hours
Real-time communication/support via a mobile app
Functionality to evidence industry consultation and student support activities
RTOs using SkilTrak not only have the capacity to meet the emerging expectations from ASQA but also the changes made in the greater context of VET reform.
9. Ensuring Data Security & Retention
It is important to recognise security concerns when considering the storage of student and placement data. SkilTrak has sufficient practice to mitigate security risks, such as:
All timely personal and placement data has encryption in place to reduce the risk of unauthorised access.
All data is backed up regularly to help mitigate the risk of taking student or placement data home.
SkilTrak retains data as per learning organisation policies in keeping with ASQA’s record-keeping policy.
By utilising SkilTrak, the legal and regulatory risk has been significantly reduced, while retaining the full audit trail of recordkeeping.
Final Thoughts
For Australian RTOs, it can be hard to find a way of monitoring work placements that is not only compliant with ASQA, usually including wasteful activity just for the sake of it, but also at the same time relevant to changing VET standards. The value of SkilTrak provides a dedicated solution, designed specifically for the placement process. By integrating placement sourcing (that may include mapping, tracking and planning), as well as central planning, digital compliance tools, and overall engagement with all stakeholders, SkilTrak has features focused on transparency, and efficiency with scalability and industry network assurance offer, RTOs found that SkilTrak offers simplicity to placements, while focusing on improving student experience and industry regulation trust.
In selecting SkilTrak, RTOs have an ally to help them with their obligations and enable them to create better placement processes and efficiencies, while fostering trust with students, employers, and regulators of their outcomes. Through SkilTrak, RTOs can reduce administrative burden, reduce stress, maximise data securely, and improve placements.
