RTO Rules of Evidence Prove Confusing for Candidates

Recognition of Prior Learning, or RPL, is all about boosting your qualifications in a shorter amount of time. It allows you to make that next step in your career without having to study information you already know. To get to that point, you need to be assessed by your RTO and prove your experience and skills.

But lots of applicants are unsure about the evidence process. They are finding that their assessment outcome isn’t what they expected, with their documents missing information or misrepresenting their skills.

Let’s clear it up so that your assessment is accurate and you only do the coursework you need to.

Interested in RPL and RTO courses? Read more here.

Types of RPL Evidence

There are three types of evidence you may need to provide before starting your RPL course: direct, indirect, and supplementary. Different types of evidence will be needed depending on the course you are applying for, but most of the time, you will need to supply a combination of all three.

Direct Evidence

Direct evidence is all about demonstrating your skills in real time and clearly indicating your knowledge in your chosen area. Depending on your RTO, your RPL assessor can do this with you in person or watch a video you provide. Direct evidence includes the assessor watching you work, observing you complete a task, or directly making assessments of your skills and knowledge. 

Indirect Evidence

Indirect evidence refers to any kind of evidence that an assessor can use to determine your specific level of skill. This can include demonstrations of your work like documents, portfolios, videos, photos, written assignments, work communication and test results. 

Supplementary Evidence

Supplementary evidence is anything that isn’t an example of your skills, work or knowledge but rather supporting information about your capabilities and capacity. This evidence includes third-party verification like references, testimonials, and interviews. Aside from these, you may also have to provide work logs, certificates, licenses, and other education you already have.

Rules of Evidence

Any evidence that you supply for RPL assessment must follow certain requirements to ensure an accurate judgment is made. There are four rules of evidence that you must follow. These are:

1. Sufficiency – you need to have enough quality evidence so that the RPL can make an informed decision.
2. Authenticity – your evidence must be truthful, trustworthy, and completely your own.
3. Reliability/validity – you must ensure there are no falsehoods, skill gaps, or lack of transparency. Your actual skills should match with your evidence.
4. Current – your evidence must all be within the last three years and accurately reflect your current skill and knowledge level.
   
   

Advance Your Career with RPL

You’ve done all the hard work getting the right skills and knowledge – with RPL, you can utilise your prior knowledge to fast-track new qualifications and pursue your dream career. Find out more.

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