PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION

GQ Australia is committed to maintaining and safeguarding the confidentiality and privacy of all of the GQ Australia’s individual candidate’s information in accordance with the Australian Government Office of the Australian Information Commissioner requirements and in conformance with the Privacy Act 1988.

Get Qualified Australia has clearly documented procedures implemented into daily operations to assure the integrity and privacy of all personal information submitted as part of the RPL process.

Wherever possible, printed / hard copy candidate records are not used at GQ Australia and only electronic records of candidates are stored.  Electronic records are backed up weekly and are protected from unauthorised access by encryption and administration password controls.

Further computer system protection is provided by firewall, malware and antivirus software systems, which monitor and protect our server and computer systems from unauthorised access from the internet. These systems are monitored by our IT Administration team and automatically update their operating systems and protocols on a daily basis.

The Applicant’s RPL Assessment Kit is sent to our RTO Partners via Citrix Sharefile system which offers full privacy and encryption of the data contained within the folders being sent.  Once sent, it can only be accessed via a link that is received by the RTO.

Our RTO Partners are also aware that it is essential to keep this information private and secure. This is included as part of our Memorandum of Understanding which are signed, and establish our Partnering Agreements.

SCANNED COPIES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION & PROOF OF IDENTITY DOCUMENTS

Administration staff and Assessors at GQ Australia take great care in ensuring privacy of information submitted by Applicants. This is particularly important when dealing with identification documents which are required as part of the RPL Application Process and RTO Enrolment.

GQ Australia conforms to conditions contained within the Privacy Act 1988 to ensure that when you supply scanned or copied ID documents:

• It is only collected to obtain personal information for the RPL Application and Enrolment to verify the candidates’ identity;
• We will not disclose this information to any third parties apart from the RTO for enrolment requirements;
• We only use the information for the purposes explained above;
• We only retain this information for as long as is necessary to confirm your identity for enrolment with the RTO;
• It will be kept confidential at all times and will be kept in secure, encrypted files that require password access and;
• You can send this information to GQ Australia via private encrypted file sharing processes using our online Citrix system.

GQ Australia stores all information on a secure server that is protected with encryption, antivirus and malware software to ensure that your details are always protected and secure.

If there is ever a need to print your personal ID documents, they will NEVER be kept on file and will be shredded once they are no longer needed for the checks required during Application and Enrolment.

Your personal information will NEVER be distributed or used for any other purpose other than for the RPL Application and Enrolment.

We take great care in securing your personal identification and any staff of GQ Australia or our RTO partners that are found to breach this policy will be reported to Federal Police immediately.

If you feel that your personal information has not been treated in a confidential manner you have the right to make a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner http://www.oaic.gov.au.

You can find information on the complaints process at:
http://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy-portal/complaints_privacy.html

CANDIDATE RPL RECORDS PROCEDURE

Individual RPL Applicants have a personal electronic file created on our server for storage of all RPL records and submitted evidence. This information is stored in a secure manner in electronic files that require password access and are protected as detailed before.

RPL Assessors involved in the RPL Application and Assessment Process are informed of their responsibilities under this policy and this will be strictly enforced. GQ Australia will enforce internal disciplinary action IMMEDIATELY if there is any breach to be found.

ACCESS TO CANDIDATE RPL RECORDS

RPL Applicants have a right to access their records at any stage during the RPL Application and Assessment Process. Access to an Applicant’s internal RPL records is restricted to the RPL Facilitator, or RPL Assessor, and GQ Australia Head Assessor. These files are strictly controlled and are only accessed for the purpose of conducting a review and assessment of an Applicant’s evidence to verify competency.

Once the RPL process is completed, the Application & Assessment Kit containing personal details, evidence and assessment tools will be sent to the RTO for final review. This is an essential part of the RPL Application as the RTO is issuing the Qualifications. It will be reviewed by an Assessor at the RTO and filed securely for review by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), if required, to ensure the RTO has conformed to the RPL Assessment and Qualifications issuing requirements.

RPL Applications & Assessment information MUST be stored securely by the RTO for a period of 30 years as required in compliance with Commonwealth and State Legislation as detailed in “The Standards” (issued according to the requirements of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011).

Access to records is limited to:

• RPL Applicants wishing to access their own personal records by completing the Applicant Records Access Form;
• RPL Applicants authorising release of specific information to third parties in writing e.g. for references checks, job applications and to verify authenticity of qualifications that have been issued;
• GQ Australia Administration Staff and Assessors who require this information as part of their job role;
• Officers from the relevant RTOs or their representatives for activities required under “The Standards” and;
• Authorised individuals as part of Legal requirements as demanded by an Australian Court decision (e.g. subpoena / search warrants / social service benefits, etc.).

Maintaining confidentiality and the privacy of your personal information is critical to the business operations of GQ Australia.

EVIDENCE SUBMITTED BY APPLICANT

GQ Australia maintains full compliance with Legislative requirements as detailed in the Copyright Act 1968 and the Trademarks Act 1965 in relation to the handling and distribution of information and evidence submitted by Applicants as part of the RPL Assessment process.

GQ Australia clearly understands the issues in regard to privacy, confidentiality and intellectual property rights relating to any work based documentation that Applicants submit. We always consider the professional integrity of such information and have operational systems in place to ensure that any such information is only used for the process of RPL Applications and Assessment. This is also a primary consideration of RTOs with which GQ Australia has Partnering Agreements with.

According to the requirements of “The Standards” (issued according to the requirements of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011), the evidence and assessment tools used to issue Nationally Recognised Qualifications need to be stored for a minimum of 30 years for referencing if required. The only third party that will have direct access to this information is the Federal Government body responsible for administering RTOs in Australia – this is currently the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA). Files will only be accessed for the purposes of conducting checks to ensure that RTOs have conformed with the requirements of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) in conducting Vocational Education and Training (VET) assessments to determine competency and issue Qualification Certificates.

If you have Qualifications that have been attained through previous study, you should consider this to be important evidence to support your Application. If they were issued by an Australian RTO, they will also include an Academic Transcript which provides a full listing of all the Units of Competency that were successfully completed as part of the Qualification.

The RPL Assessor will be able to review the Units for which you were deemed Competent and wherever possible, the Applicant will be given Credit Transfer. If you have previously completed Units of Competency that are included in the Qualification that you are seeking via RPL, then you will not need to complete these Units and will be deemed Competent. This ensures that you only have to provide evidence for a reduced number of Units to complete the Qualification.

If you have International Qualifications for submitting, the Credit Transfer process cannot be completed unless you have had the Qualifications verified by Australian Education International (AEI), which is an Australian Government organisation. Higher education, post-secondary, technical and vocational overseas qualifications can be assessed for general purposes and fees apply. Please note that AEI qualification recognition assessments can take up to 3 months, so this should be undertaken before commencing RPL.

Further information can be found at:
https://aei.gov.au/Services-And-Resources/Services/Assessment-of-Overseas-Qualifications/Our-Assessments

Any RPL Applicants that are found to submit work that is not their own as evidence, plagiarised or in breach of the Copyright Act 1968 and Trademarks Act 1965 will have their RPL Application suspended IMMEDIATELY. 

If the RPL Application is suspended, you will be notified of this in writing within 24 hours and the Head Assessor will review the evidence to make a determination if there is a non-conformance issue and if further action needs to be taken.

Serious breaches will result in IMMEDIATE termination of the RPL process and the relevant authorities will be notified.

If an RPL Application is found to be in serious breach of this policy and their RPL Application is suspended, no refund will be given.

GQ Australia is not a Registered Training Organisation (RTO).  Instead, we have “Partnering Agreements” with many of Australia’s most established and reputable RTOs to conduct a review and assessment of RPL applications on their behalf.  You will be advised during the Application process on which RTO will be issuing your Qualification.

By working directly with RTOs, we use their assessment tools to ensure that we follow the correct Assessment Process so that the applicant can be issued with Nationally Recognised Qualifications.

By entering into Partnering Agreements with RTOs, GQ Australia maintains compliance in accordance with the requirements of The Standards”.

All RPL Applicants are provided with a copy of the GQ Australia RPL Information Kit which provides details of all the requirements for completing the RPL Application and Assessment process, along with suitable evidence that will support your application.

Our aim is to assist applicants to successfully achieve competency so they are issued with the Qualification from our RTO partners.  We want you to feel confident in choosing GQ Australia, so we offer a “100% money back guarantee” if your RPL application is unsuccessful.

Our Partnering Agreement with the RTO issuing the qualification permits GQ to conduct an assessment on their behalf – we are the RTOs contracted assessors and comply with all their requirements.  We are familiar with the competency requirements to achieve the qualification with the RTO, so rejection of RPL applications rarely happens.  Our assessors compile detailed evidence to support the application.

In most cases, RPL and skills recognition is completed within 4 weeks.  However, the final assessment decision and issuing of the qualification is the decision of the RTO.  If applicants have provided sufficient, valid, authentic and current evidence to the assessor and our partnered RTO rejects the application, we will refund the full cost of enrolment.  GQ requests that applicants allow a maximum of 90 days from the date of your enrolment for the qualification to be issued.

REFUND EXCEPTIONS

For the avoidance of doubt, GQ Australia does not accept the following circumstances as grounds for the refund of fees and will not refund fees where:

• An applicant changes his/her mind
• An applicant is unable to provide documentation to support the claim for a refund
• An applicant provides forged or plagiarised documentation, or the organisation discovers that provided documents are not valid in any way
• An applicant refuses to provide evidence
• An applicant has exceeded the 90 days in which an application is to be completed in, without an extension being granted
• An applicant refuses theoretical or practical assessment
• An applicant falsely claims that he/she is able to provide evidence for the portfolio, but neglects to do so

UEE30811 Certificate III in Electrotechnology Electrician – this refund doesn’t apply to our UEE30811 due to the extensive theory and practical assessment process prior to submitting the portfolio to our RTO partners.

If you need clarification, please contact the Head Assessor directly on 133 775.

BEST PRICE GUARANTEE

The best price guarantee does not apply where:

(a) the competitor is an RTO or a sub-division of an RTO;

(b) the lower price is offered for a bulk purchase;

(c) the lower price is offered under any promotion with a third party (including, but not limited to, promotions with newspapers, exhibitions or other special events);

(d) the lower price is not available to the general public;

(e) the lower price has been discounted by the competitor by use of coupons, loyalty rewards, redemption of frequent flyer miles or similar and other offers or incentives to reduce the total cost;

(f) the lower price is the result of an error by the competitor;

(g) the qualification is “Graduate Diploma of Management Learning”.

The time frame for completion of the RPL Application process is 90 days from the date of payment.  Requests for extensions will be considered on an “individual case basis”.

Applicants have 90 days to provide full documentation to verify competency and allow time for the RPL Application to be completed by the RPL Assessor and submitted to the RTO for final review and processing.

By special request, Applicants may be granted an additional 4 weeks extension of the 90 day RPL Application timeframe, if they need extra time to submit the necessary documentation to prove competency.  If granted, this is provided without any additional cost.

Any requests for this 4 week extension must be made in writing 7 days prior to the end of the 90 day RPL Assessment period.

If the applicant is granted an extension and is then unable to complete the RPL Application Process within the extra 4 week period, then extensions may be granted for an additional 14 days.  This will incur an additional fee of $100 per week.  Any requests for the additional 2 weeks extension needs to be made in writing 7 days prior to the end of the additional 4 week extension period.

When you first submit your Resume / CV for review by an RPL Assessor, they will conduct a comprehensive review and will only recommend for you to complete Qualifications that are relevant to your career and industry experience.  It is important that you are honest about the skills you have developed and the jobs performed in your career as this is the basis upon which the RPL Assessor makes recommendations.

Throughout the RPL process, your Assessor will assist and support you in gathering suitable evidence to support your RPL Application so that you can verify competency in all Units to achieve a Qualification.

When Applicants are unable to provide valid, sufficient, current and authentic evidence to support the full number of Units of Competency for the Qualification, then they may need to complete some form of Gap Training.  This is usually conducted by completing reports, assignments or question & answer assessments.

Additional charges apply for conducting Gap Training and will be quoted on a case-by-case basis.

These additional assessments will be supplied to the Applicant by the RPL Assessor and can be completed “on the job” as a self paced process before being returned.  The tools and resources used for Gap Training will relate directly to the Units of Competency that need to be achieved so that there is no ambiguity or confusion for the Applicant.

Once the Gap Training has been completed, they are sent back to the RPL Assessor for review before further Competency Conversations are undertaken with the Applicant to verify competency.

If Applicants are unable to successfully complete Gap Training to support all Units of Competency, then a Statement of Attainment will be issued that provides a full listing of the Units that have been successfully completed.

GQ Australia will provide full support and assistance throughout the entire RPL Application and Assessment Process.  You are entitled to receive updates and information on the status of the RPL at any stage of the process by contacting your RPL Assessor.

If for any reason you are unable to obtain the information or clarification that you require or are dissatisfied with the service or support you are being offered from the RPL Assessor, please detail your concerns in an email to the RPL Assessor directly.

This ensures that you have a record of the complaint that is detailed and can be tracked.

Your RPL Facilitator has an obligation to respond to this complaint within 48 hours, detailing how this situation is to be resolved.  The reply you receive will also be sent to the GQ Australia Head Assessor so that the issues can be reviewed if required.

If you feel the situation is not resolved adequately, reply in email or written correspondence.

You can send this directly via email or to the Head Office in Sydney for delivery to the Head Assessor.

You can also contact GQ Australia and ask to speak with the Head Assessor directly on 133 775.

If for any reason you feel that you have been treated unfairly by your RPL Assessor, or the outcome of the final review of Assessment by the RTO seems unjustified, you can follow an RPL Appeals process to seek resolution.

This process involves:

1. Send your formal request for Appeal in writing (email or correspondence) marked “Attention Head Assessor” within 14 days of receiving the notification of the unsatisfactory decision.  You can send this directly via email or to the Head Office in Sydney for delivery to the Head Assessor.  Be sure to provide full details of your complaint and why you feel that it needs to be reviewed for Appeal.  You can also contact GQ Australia and ask to speak with the Head Assessor directly on 133 775 if you need to clarify requirements for Appealing an RPL decision.
2. The formal written complaint requiring Appeal will be distributed to:
   • GQ Australia Head Assessor;
   • GQ Australia Managing Director;
   • Director of the RTO and;
   • RPL Assessor involved in the Assessment process.
3. The Appeal will be reviewed by all parties to determine if it is justified and the key points will be considered for further discussion.
4. If the Appeal is considered valid, a decision will be made for an Appeal Panel to be convened within 14 days from the date of receiving the Appeal Request from the Applicant.  The Appeal Panel will consist of GQ Australia’s Head Assessor & Managing Director, along with an Executive representative of the RTO.  The RPL Assessor will not be involved at this stage of the process, but they will be required to provide a full response to any complaints that can be reviewed without bias.
5. The Applicant will be notified via email that an Appeal Panel is to be convened. The date will be noted and the issues to be discussed will be listed.
6. The Appeal Panel will meet on the determined date and discussion will take place to make a determination on the relevant points contained in the written Appeal, and to consider detailed recommendations for resolution of the issues. The recommendations for resolution will be detailed in writing and sent to the Applicant within 24 hours of convening the Appeals Panel.
7. Recommendations for resolution will be sent to the Applicant for review, and he/she will then have a right to reply, which must be received by the GQ Australia Head Assessor within 14 days from the outcome being received via email.
8. If the Applicant is not satisfied with the options or recommendations that have been made for resolution of the complaints detailed for Appeal, they have a right to make a formal complaint to the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA).

ASQA can be contacted on 1300 701 801

Information for making a formal complaint about an RTO can be found at:
http://www.asqa.gov.au/complaints/making-a-complaint.html

Applicants in Victoria may instead contact the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA);
http://www.vrqa.vic.gov.au/complaints/Pages/default.aspx

Applicants in Western Australia may instead contact the Training and Accreditation Council (TAC);
http://www.tac.wa.gov.au/Thinking_of_registering/Complaints_handling_policy

Please note:  Every effort will be made to resolve problems or issues before any appeal process is required.  If you have any concerns, discuss this with the GQ Australia Head Assessor first by phoning 133 775.

Be sure to follow the formal complaint procedure to seek resolution of any issues that you may have before they escalate.

LANGUAGE, NUMERACY & LITERACY

In the process of developing assessment tools to verify evidence for RPL Assessment, GQ Australia pay particular attention to the language, literacy and numeracy skill level of the Applicant and the requirements of the Units of Competency.

In VET and adult education, there is often a tendency to rely on written tests and essays, particularly in Assessment of knowledge.  However, the RPL Assessment process allows for greater flexibility in methods for gathering evidence and it is personalised to the specific needs of each Applicant.

Additionally, for many Training Packages, writing and numeracy skills are either not determined within the Units of Competency, or it is a minimal requirement to perform the described work task.  Your RPL Facilitator will take this into consideration when assisting you to select the most appropriate Units to complete and evidence that supports your skills.

ACCESS, EQUITY, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

Making a positive contribution to the community and increasing Australia’s ability to remain at the forefront of global competitiveness is a key consideration in GQ Australia’s business mission and goals.

With this in mind, GQ Australia places great emphasis on consideration of full social inclusion in the methods and processes used to conduct RPL Applications and Assessments.  We are responsive to the diverse needs of our Applicants by providing services that contribute to inclusive Tertiary Education and avoid the exclusion of unfairly disadvantaged Applicants.

GQ Australia maintains policies and operating procedures that provide reliable, flexible and adaptable service allowing for the specific needs of each individual Applicant.  We are responsive to any special requests or considerations and maintain an innovative spirit to foster and support each Applicant to assist with the successful attainment of the Qualification they are seeking.

In order to achieve this, GQ Australia will always:

• develop products and services that consider social inclusion;
• consider the social, cultural and educational background of all our Applicants;
• provide support and assistance for Applicants that strengthens social inclusion;
• challenge anyone that privileges certain groups over others;
• maintain flexible approaches that contribute to an inclusive Tertiary education system and;
• regularly review our policies procedures, systems and services to ensure social inclusion and diversity is maintained.