The Outcome Standard 1.8 in the Registration Standards 2025 (2025 Standards) is designed to ensure that facilities, resources, and equipment in VET reflect those required by industry and are fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible, and sufficient. This Fact Sheet provides information to assist RTOs in understanding the requirements of the Standard.
What is ‘fit-for-purpose’?
The purpose of VET is to prepare students to function effectively in the workplace. This means that facilities, resources, and equipment must reflect the real workplace. This can happen automatically when training and assessment is delivered in a workplace and if this is not an option, must be simulated by the RTO.
An RTO’s facilities, resources, and equipment should be ‘fit-for-purpose’ to facilitate effective learning. This means that the training program, learning resources, materials/tools and equipment are well suited to achieving the intended learning outcomes as relevant to the training product, and ensures that students are equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge and competencies required to transition into the workplace.
Fit-for-purpose is also underpinned by the requirement that trainers and assessors must maintain currency of skills and knowledge, as per Outcome Standard 3.2, and through a regular process of validating assessment practices, as per Outcome Standard 1.5.
Industry engagement
The ‘Application’ section of a unit of competency provides crucial information into how the unit is utilised in real work settings. It offers valuable context for students, trainers, and assessors by detailing the typical work environments where the competency is applied and assists RTOs in ensuring that training and assessment practices are aligned with industry standards and workplace requirements.
To understand what facilities, resources and equipment are used in real workplaces requires engagement with industry. There are many ways RTOs can seek this information, for example:
- Outcome Standard 1.2 identifies the requirements RTOs must demonstrate in relation to engagement. Some strategies may include inviting industry representatives to visit the RTO, visits to a range of workplaces to enhance trainer and assessor knowledge of current industry standards and practices, or gathering advice and/or feedback to inform changes to training and assessment strategies and practices;
- Outcome Standard 3.3 includes industry engagement to ensure that trainers and assessors maintain an understanding of current industry practices; and
- Outcome Standard 4.4 ensures that continuous improvement processes are in place. These processes could validate the industry engagement and may include visits by employers or industry representatives to provide feedback about the quality of the RTO’s facilities, resources and equipment.
Facilities, resources and equipment aligned to the requirements of the training product
The facilities, resources and equipment needed by the RTO will be dictated by the relevant training product. For example, a unit of competency includes the following components:
- Application - describes how the unit is practically applied in the industry and in what context(s) the unit may be applied. It describes what students will do in the workplace;
- Elements of Competency and their Performance Criteria - describe the skills to be acquired and the indicators of achievement;
- Range of Conditions – may specify mandatory facilities and/or equipment;
- Performance Evidence - may specify tasks; time allowances; variations in context, personnel, or equipment; repeat performances; and/or work placement hours;
- Knowledge Evidence - defines knowledge to be acquired and demonstrated; and
- Assessment Conditions - specify the conditions under which evidence for assessment must be gathered, including any details of essential resources, equipment and materials, contingencies, specifications, physical conditions, relationships with team members and supervisors, relationship with clients or customers, and timeframes.
A unit of competency will outline the facilities, resources and equipment required for training to ensure students can develop and demonstrate the necessary skills effectively and will be specified in the Assessment Conditions section of the unit.
Facilities are fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible, and sufficient
Facilities are the physical environments within which work is performed. A student’s learning pathway typically begins in a carefully managed setting and progressively moves to more realistic and unpredictable environments including:
- Classrooms
- On-line and virtual facilities
- Excursions and workplace visits
- Workshops, laboratories, workrooms
- Virtual workplaces
- Simulated workplaces that meet all the dimensions of competency
- Replicated workplaces such as an on-campus restaurant or salon
- Real workplaces
The initial stages of the learning pathway are primarily learning environments. It is only at the more advanced stages that a student’s ability to function in a workplace can be truly assessed. While it is not necessary to progress through each stage sequentially, it is crucial that training culminates in the ability to perform within a real or realistic workplace environment as specified in the training product.
As students advance, facilities will become more complex, may be more expensive and involve greater risk. The assessment conditions in the unit of competency will indicate whether simulation is acceptable or if a workplace demonstration is required. In line with the relevant training product, an RTO may start learners on basic resources and equipment for initial training and progressively move towards those that reflect actual workplace conditions and standards. The staged approach mitigates risk for the RTO by avoiding the deployment of high-cost and high-risk resources for beginner students who may not yet meet the course outcomes. At each stage, it is essential to ensure that the facilities are large enough to accommodate the student cohort, accessible to all students including those with special needs, and provide the necessary amenities for student comfort and wellbeing.
In Outcome Standard 1.8, RTOs are required to demonstrate how they have identified the facilities required to deliver the training product, including facilities provided within the RTO or provided outside the RTO, how the RTO ensures that the facilities are suitable, safe, accessible and sufficient, and documents how risks associated with the use of those facilities are managed where the facilities and the students are not on the RTO’s premises.
There is a temptation to create learning facilities such as workshops that are so pristine that they do not reflect real workplaces. These are suitable for the initial levels of skill development but would not prepare students for the real world of work. An RTO may visit workplaces, as highlighted in Outcome Standard 1.2, to ensure that the workplace simulates and reflects the diversity of real workplaces and alert students to the workplace variations they might encounter when they enter employment.
Resources are fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible, and sufficient
There are many different resources that an RTO might use for training delivery and assessment. These are expressed in the Outcome Standards and include:
- Learning materials (Outcome Standard 1.1) which may include texts, guides and websites mapped to the unit requirements;
- Training materials (Outcome Standard 1.1) which may include delivery and assessment plans, trainer guides, PowerPoint slides and websites mapped to the unit requirements; Assessment tools (Outcome Standards 1.3 & 1.4) which may include knowledge tests, observation checklists, and marking guides mapped to the unit requirements;
- Trainers and assessors (Outcome Standards 3.2 & 3.3);
- Expert guest presenters (Outcome Standard 3.3);
- Workplace supervisors (Outcome Standard 1.1);
- Trainer support (Outcome Standard 3.1) which may include workshop managers, laboratory managers, farm managers;
- Student support (Outcome Standards 2.3, 2.4 & 3.1) which may include coaches, mentors, or Language, Literacy and Numeracy support;
- Student supplied resources such as uniforms, computers, tools;
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); and
- Consumables, including stationery, workshop resources, horticultural supplies, energy, software.
While mapping resources to unit requirements and industry practices is not mandated by the Outcome Standards, the mapping is a useful strategy to ensure that all resources are fit-for-purpose.
Safety issues may arise where consumable resources are hazardous (such as chemicals), where training materials are culturally inappropriate (Outcome Standard 2.5), or where students under the age of 18 interact with RTO staff who do not have a current Working With Children (WWC) clearance (Outcome Standard 4.3). Safety can also be an issue when students bring their own resources, such as importing a computer virus or by wearing a contaminated clinical uniform. Accessibility might be constrained by disability, scarcity, cost, delivery medium or location, and sufficiency may be limited by cost.
In Outcome Standard 1.8, RTOs are required to demonstrate how they have identified the resources required to deliver the training product, including resources provided within the RTO or provided outside the RTO, how the RTO ensures that the resources are suitable, safe, accessible and sufficient, and documents how risks associated with the use of those resources are managed where the resources and the students are not on the RTO’s premises.
It is not uncommon to find that resources purchased in good faith are not fit-for-purpose. Learning materials can be outdated, too parochial, or assessment resources can be incomplete. It is important to map these resources to the unit requirements to ensure that they provide sufficient content and valid evidence.
Equipment is fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible, and sufficient
Equipment includes the tools, instruments and machinery used in industry. If the equipment is complex, hazardous, or expensive, RTOs typically start the learning pathway with a simplified and easily managed version which may include:
- Virtual workplace equipment
- Simulated workplace equipment
- Disassembled workplace equipment
- Inoperative workplace equipment
- Off-line workplace equipment
- Fully functioning workplace equipment
It is important to recognise that the initial stages are only for learning. It is only at the final stage that a student’s ability to function in a workplace can be truly assessed. It’s not necessary to progress through each stage sequentially, however it is important to be aware that wherever you start, the training must culminate in the ability to use fully functioning workplace equipment that is typical of current industry practice.
As students advance through the stages, equipment will become more expensive, involve more risk, and be less accessible.
At each stage it is essential to ensure that there is sufficient equipment to accommodate the size of the student cohort and are accessible to all students. If modifications are made as reasonable adjustments, these must be modifications which can also be made in real workplaces.
In Outcome Standard 1.8, RTOs are required to demonstrate how they have identified the equipment required to deliver the training product, including equipment provided within the RTO or provided outside the RTO, how the RTO ensures that the equipment is suitable, safe, accessible and sufficient, and documents how risks associated with the use of that equipment are managed where the equipment and the students are not on the RTOs premises.
Like training facilities, equipment used in training can be so pristine and so sophisticated that it does not represent the equipment that the graduate will be required to use. The incorporation of digital systems can enable the student to appear to demonstrate competence, when it is the machine doing the thinking. The unit may provide guidance about the level of automation allowed, and your visits to industry should alert you to the level of sophistication of equipment that your students will encounter when they are employed.
Understanding the dimensions of competency in the context of facilities, resources and equipment
The dimensions of competency refer to various aspects that make up an individual’s ability to perform a task effectively in a workplace or learning environment.
To ensure students can be truly competent, it is helpful for RTOs to understand how the dimensions provide a useful framework when thinking about the facilities, resources, and equipment. The dimensions of competency include:
- Task skills - the ability to perform specific tasks or duties required in a particular role or industry.
- Task management skills - the ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks.
- Contingency management skills - the ability to respond to problems and changes in the workplace.
- Workplace environment skills - the ability to work within the workplace’s culture and interact within a team.
- Transfer skills - the ability to apply skills in other workplaces, with other tasks and using other equipment.
By aligning the facilities, resources and equipment with these dimensions, RTOs are able to create an immersive, practical learning environment where students build on their skills and knowledge in context of a real workplace.
Initially, an RTO will focus on task skills and associated knowledge – a simplified version of the skills needed in the workplace. This will be achieved through facilities that simulate workplace aspects (including virtual workplaces), resources that mimic workplace resources, and equipment that are components of workplace tools, such as virtual equipment, working models, and videos. As the student advances, they will move from simulated equipment to real equipment.
For example, in the dimension of task management, complexity is introduced and requires the need to prioritise and harmonise task performance with more realistic facilities, resources, and equipment. However, in the real world, not everything goes according to plan. Therefore, challenges must be confronted and overcome through contingency management skills, making a fit-for-purpose learning environment essential to add these complexities. Ultimately, these skills must culminate in demonstrations using real workplace facilities, real resources, and real equipment. Fit-for-purpose is judged by how well these reflect the real world of work and how effectively the learning can be transferred to various workplaces. The requirements for facilities, resources, and equipment will become more sophisticated and realistic as the student progresses through each dimension.
The provision of resources, facilities, and equipment by third parties
The provision of resources, facilities and equipment by third parties refers to sourcing these from outside the RTO.
In Outcome Standard 4.2, the RTO is responsible for ensuring that third party providers understand their obligations and compliance requirements and in Outcome Standard 1.8, RTOs must ensure the facilities, resources and equipment are fit-for-purpose, safe accessible, and sufficient for effective training delivery and in situations where RTOs are engaging third parties, they must ensure that the third party provides resources that are suitable and safe for learners. For example, the third party may be hiring a hall (facility), buying training or assessment materials (resources) or leasing heavy machinery (equipment), or it may be using facilities, resources and equipment in a workplace such as in a work placement, traineeship or apprenticeship. In these examples, in line with the requirements of Outcome Standard 1.8, the RTO is responsible for ensuring that:
- the learning environment of the hall (facility) is fit-for-purpose, meets health and safety requirements, is accessible and sufficient for the student cohort;
- the front loader complies with the unit requirements and safety regulations, and is accessible and sufficient for the student cohort;
- the trainee or apprentice is immersed in a workplace that provides access to sufficient facilities, resources and equipment that are fit for the purpose of acquiring and demonstrating competencies and meet WH&S standards.
The RTO is not responsible for making the resources, facilities and equipment provided by third parties fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible, or sufficient, it is responsible for selecting third parties who can provide facilities, resources and equipment that are fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible, and sufficient. That can involve the development and application of checklists that specify what is required by the unit of competency and industry practice (fit-for-purpose), what safety standards apply, what accessibility needs must be met, and what quantity is required for the student cohort. The checklist would be used for initial selection of the third party, and for periodically monitoring on-going compliance to manage risks.
If an RTO uses work-integrated learning, work placements or other community-based learning, the RTO may find that some placements cannot provide all the necessary resources, facilities and equipment that are fit-for-purpose, safe and accessible. Similarly, an apprentice might be working with an employer who cannot provide all the required resources, facilities and equipment. In such cases the RTO may consider organising a collaborative arrangement where students rotate through different workplaces that collectively provide all needed resources or offer on-site resources to address any gaps.
All workplaces are not perfect and have limitations. The challenge for on-the-job training and work placement is that the workplace may be very specialised and narrow in focus and not reflect the wide diversity of industry encapsulated in the training products. While facilities and equipment may be constrained by this context, knowledge and resources can provide an avenue to understanding the wider industry picture, supporting the transfer of skills beyond the confines of the enterprise consistent with the delivery of the nationally recognised qualification.
When engaging with work placement providers, RTOs may need to assist them to understand their responsibility to identify potential risks to students and support them in eliminating those risks. Where risks cannot be mitigated, restrictions on the use of facilities, resources and equipment must be determined and alternative placements or RTO-based training used to address any aspects that cannot be safely managed in the workplace.
Demonstrating compliance with Outcome Standard 1.8
In addition to the Self-Assurance Considerations and Reflective Questions in TAC’s Online Guidance hub, you may want to consider the following questions to identify and manage facilities, resources, and equipment.
- What facilities, resources and equipment are specified in the unit of competency?
- Considering the application of the unit, what kinds of facilities, resources and equipment would we find in industry?
- What facilities, resources and equipment will I need to access to deliver this unit of competency?
- Can I source these facilities, resources, and equipment within the RTO, or shall I need to find them outside the RTO?
- How can I ensure that we only use facilities, resources, and equipment that comply with regulatory requirements and industry safety standards?
- How can I ensure that students are instructed about identifying, managing and reporting safety hazards and potential risks?
- What learning pathway do I need to design so that students can eventually achieve competency working with these facilities, resources, and equipment?
- Are there any barriers to students accessing and using these facilities, resources, and equipment?
- How can I enable student access to these facilities, resources, and equipment?
- What risks are associated with the use of these facilities, resources, and equipment?
- How can I manage these risks to ensure the safety of students and staff (Outcome Standard 4.3)?
- If I am sourcing these facilities, resources, and equipment outside the RTO, what documented strategies do I have in place to make sure that they are, and continue to be, fit-for-purpose, safe, accessible, and sufficient?
Print this page
