Hi, unsure what thread group this goes in so feel free to move it.
I am currently employed at a training company in Queensland. Now the governing body is the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) which is responsible for making sure all RTO's (Registered Training Organisations) are up to date with current courseware and ensuring all RTO's are up to scratch, which is great for the training industry in Australia.
The issue is, every time ASQA updates or changes a course (i.e Occupational Health and Safety) the RTO must apply for the new course to have it on scope (what it is legally allowed to train and assess in). Once a course is replaced or updated it is superseded and useless to the industry it addresses (lets say the mining industry for OHS). This means that to keep selling courses an RTO must apply for change of scope as soon as ASQA makes these changes.
It took ASQA 8 months to approve the last change to scope for our company (OHS to Workplace Health and Safety (WHS)). This meant that for 8 months we could not sell the OHS course due to it being outdated. What is worse is that the RTO must PAY the ASQA for changes to scope, as well as any auditing fees required. This means that dues to a loss of sales for 8 long months while we could not deliver the new course, the company that employs around 30 staff almost went broke. There were lay offs and there were cut backs and all the while the governing body just stated repeatedly that the application for scope is being processed and that they will inform us when application is complete.
Is this grounds for suing for loss of revenue/business? can a company even sue its governing body?
This was over a year ago but there is a new change to multiple courses and we worry that the same issue will arise again. Any help or input would be appreciated. Let me know if I need to provide any more details.
I am currently employed at a training company in Queensland. Now the governing body is the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) which is responsible for making sure all RTO's (Registered Training Organisations) are up to date with current courseware and ensuring all RTO's are up to scratch, which is great for the training industry in Australia.
The issue is, every time ASQA updates or changes a course (i.e Occupational Health and Safety) the RTO must apply for the new course to have it on scope (what it is legally allowed to train and assess in). Once a course is replaced or updated it is superseded and useless to the industry it addresses (lets say the mining industry for OHS). This means that to keep selling courses an RTO must apply for change of scope as soon as ASQA makes these changes.
It took ASQA 8 months to approve the last change to scope for our company (OHS to Workplace Health and Safety (WHS)). This meant that for 8 months we could not sell the OHS course due to it being outdated. What is worse is that the RTO must PAY the ASQA for changes to scope, as well as any auditing fees required. This means that dues to a loss of sales for 8 long months while we could not deliver the new course, the company that employs around 30 staff almost went broke. There were lay offs and there were cut backs and all the while the governing body just stated repeatedly that the application for scope is being processed and that they will inform us when application is complete.
Is this grounds for suing for loss of revenue/business? can a company even sue its governing body?
This was over a year ago but there is a new change to multiple courses and we worry that the same issue will arise again. Any help or input would be appreciated. Let me know if I need to provide any more details.