Will the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment help me find a job? How long will it take? And how do I get started?
These are some of the questions that our trainers get asked almost everyday about the latest Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. You probably have similar concerns if you’re thinking of taking up this qualification or are already studying it today.
To save you time and give you enough peace of mind to finish your course, we’ve compiled the answers to the most common questions Cert IV TAE students ask. Hopefully, these will help you understand your qualification better and make it more manageable.
Let’s start with why many Australians take up the course in the first place.
1. Will the Cert IV TAE lead me to a job?
If you’re like hundreds of other TAE students, you either want to start a new career or enhance your current one.
Achievement of the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or equivalent is a requirement of the Australian Quality Training Framework Essential Standards for Registration. This means you need to hold this qualification or equivalent in order to work as a trainer or assessor at a Registered Training Organisation, including TAFEs. The skills you develop during this course are also suitable to deliver competency-based training and assessment in the workplace, or as part of a structured VET program.
Possible job outcomes include:
- • Enterprise trainer
- • Enterprise assessor
- • Registered training organisation (RTO) trainer
- • RTO assessor
- • Training adviser or training needs analyst
- • Vocational education teacher
- • Learning and development officer
- • Human resources officer for training
Getting hired for a job is partly dependent on your ability to market yourself through your cover letter and job interview. Hiring managers will also look at your unique set of life and work experiences, skills and qualifications, personal qualities and even consider your likability when judging your value to their organisation and how you will “fit” into their workplace culture.
No qualification can guarantee you a job. However, the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or equivalent is normally required to even be considered for vocational training and assessing positions and is therefore a valuable qualification to hold if you plan to pursue a career in training.
2. How long will the course take?
The Certificate IV in Training and Assessment is expected to take you about 610 hours to complete. This is only an estimate, as the actual time taken to complete the course varies from student to student.
For instance, if you are already familiar and experienced in the training industry, you may just need to complete the assessment workbooks and may be able to gain RPL for parts of the course. If you are completely new to the industry, you’ll probably have to dedicate more time to reading the learning materials and doing additional research before you complete assessments.
If you study online, the course is self-paced. You can study hard and complete the workbooks as soon as possible. You can plan out your course and only complete a small section each week. You can leave it all to the last minute and try to submit everything in a big rush at the end (we do NOT recommend doing this!). You can choose between a maximum of 6 or 12 months course duration, but your actual completion date depends on the pace you set for yourself.
If you study face to face, your time in the classroom will be structured and you will be guided by an experienced trainer. You then have up to 6 months to complete any remaining assessments at your own pace. We find that on average, face to face training graduates typically finish the course faster than online students.
3. Should I take the Face to Face or Online course?
Take a moment to think about the time you have and how you prefer to study.
If you can dedicate one or two weeks to attend classroom-based training and learn better with a teacher beside you, then Face to Face is really the best choice. A lot of the lessons will be covered in the training room and your classmates can even serve as the learners for your projects, saving you a significant amount of time.
Online Learning is available if you prefer to study in your own time and at your own pace. You can work on your assessment workbooks whenever you have free time and schedule a call with your trainer whenever you have questions.
4. What’s a Unique Student Identifier (USI) and how do I get one?
If you haven’t heard of the USI, don’t worry! It was only implemented at the start of 2015. If you did not complete any vocational training between 1st January 2015 and today, you did not need to have one.
The USI is simply a single, centralised record of all the nationally accredited training you’ve completed starting from January 1st 2015 . The USI itself is just a series of 10 letters and numbers. RTOs and employers can use the USI to check your qualifications and add new ones to your record as you achieve them.
5. Can I apply for RPL?
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) can be your express train to complete the Cert IV TAE if you’ve trained and assessed learners before or designed learning programs. By recognising your previous experience and knowledge, the number of units you need to complete can be reduced.
You can apply for RPL if you:
- Hold a similar qualification like the TAA40104 or the BSZ40198 or
- Have relevant work experience such as work as a corporate trainer or school teacher
To apply for RPL, simply tell your enrolment coordinator and submit evidence to prove that your skills are up to date. Examples of evidence are:
- Course transcripts, statement of attainment or certificates
- Work references, history and job description
- Samples of your work
Simply indicate when you enrol that you wish to apply for RPL and our RPL Assessor will give you a call. They’ll give you advice on the entire process and discuss what units you may be eligible for. You will also receive your own RPL Kit which you should complete and support with your evidence.
6. Where can I find information about training packages and units of competency?
Think of the www.training.gov.au website as your best friend when it comes to training packages. This is a database where you can search for any qualification and its units of competency. When you need a specific unit or topic, simply look it up here.
All trainers and assessors, course developers and training organisations use this information. Think of it as the “curriculum” for all Vocational Education and Training in Australia. From here, training organisations develop and tailor qualifications and units of competency to suit their delivery and assessment methods.
The www.myskills.gov.au website is another good source for course outlines, student outcomes and even average course costs. Just make sure that the course you’re viewing is the latest version since both resources also store past versions.
Inspire Education has heavily invested in its resource development, which provides a great experience for you. Rather than completing projects for individual units of competency, we have “clustered” the projects you complete. Feel free to speak with our trainers and assessors to discuss how this works.
7. How do I get started?
Once your enrolment is complete, you will get an email confirming the start and end dates of your training and assessment course. This will be followed by your student number and login details along with a guide on how to access the student portal.
Once you’re logged in, you can download the learner guides, workbooks and other materials to begin studying.
Our Trainers recommend that you work on one cluster at a time. Read the learner guide, complete the Written Assessment and then complete the projects for each cluster.
8. Is there a deadline for finishing each workbook?
When you study online the individual workbooks have no submission deadline, but we do provide a suggested study order and completion dates to help you plan your study. It is up to you to manage your time and make progress on the course.
When you study face to face, your time in the classroom will be structured and guided by your trainer. You will cover a significant proportion of the assessments while in the training room, but there will still be work remaining to complete later, at your own pace. How much work you have to do outside of the face-to-face delivery will depend on whether you choose the blended (1 week) or full (2 week) program.
The only firm deadline is your maximum 6 or 12 month course duration. You must complete all requirements of the course before this period ends to gain your qualification.
9. I was marked not yet competent. Do I get another chance?
Of course!
The Certificate IV in Training and Assessment is a competency based qualification. This means you can only gain the qualification once you have successfully demonstrated all required competencies.
If you don’t get everything right the first time, your trainers will give you feedback on how you can improve your answers. Once you have reviewed your work, you can resubmit it for assessment.
We do NOT charge additional fees for resubmissions of assessments. You can resubmit assessments multiple times if required.
10. Where can I find the answers to the workbook?
Your trainer is there to help you gain your qualification, but they can’t just supply you with answers to each question. After all, trainers and assessors do need to know how to research. It’s even written into the AQF specifications for Certificate IV level courses:
“Graduates of a Certificate IV will have: Cognitive skills to identify, analyse, compare and act on information from a range of sources.”
What your trainer can do is guide you so that you can find or formulate answers yourself. Everything you need is answered in the workbooks or the external sources (eg. government or regulator websites) you are directed to check.
Occasionally external resources outside our control are revised and updated. We aim to update our materials as soon as possible to match the changes. Please let us know if you discover a link to an external resource in the learning materials no longer works, or the site no longer contains the required information.
If you believe there is a gap in our learning materials, please discuss it with your trainer or leave feedback in the feedback forms we provide regularly throughout your training.
Summary
There you have it, 10 of the most common questions from training and assessment students.
Don’t worry if your concern wasn’t included. You can ask us more questions yourself by heading to the Cert IV TAE course page and signing up for an info pack.
