It’s not impossible – but here are some of the challenges

The biggest challenge with delivering the TAE40122 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment as an entirely face-to-face course, is in something called “performance evidence.”

These appear in all units in the Cert IV, and apply no matter where or how you do the course.

Performance evidence say that students must perform skills, or produce certain outcomes a specific number of times, meeting specific requirements.

There’s no escaping performance evidence requirements. They must be fulfilled by any student doing a course at any provider. Not doing them, or ‘cutting corners’ with these important parts of the course, would result in an invalid assessment.

Dodgy providers who don’t address the requirements properly are typically found non-compliant by the regulator (the Australian Skills Quality Authority) and usually have to re-train, re-assess or revoke the awarded certificate entirely.

So all training organisations typically take the performance evidence part of a unit very seriously.

How does this affect the Cert IV TAE in the classroom?

Let’s look at two core units in particular from the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, whose performance evidence make full class-room delivery very challenging:

TAEDEL411 Facilitate vocational training

This is the unit that deals with the skill of a classroom-based trainer/teacher. Students are assessed on their ability to deliver effective training to a group. It’s a great unit; it’s fun, challenging (in all the good ways), and extremely rewarding to complete.

At first glance it would seem logical that in a face-to-face TAE course, students would take turns at delivering short training sessions to each other. This is perfect for people to practice the skill of teaching adults and gain valuable feedback from others also developing their facilitation skills. But that only gets us so far.

Summarised, this unit’s performance evidence says that when we assess a student’s ability to facilitate learning, they must:

• Deliver 3 consecutive training sessions to a group of at least 4 real people
• These sessions must be at least 30 minutes in duration

So we can see here there’s a total of at least 90 minutes worth of delivery required when assessing each person. That’s without a break. So say you have 12 people in a group, all needing to do the same thing, you have at least 3 full days of just back-to-back training.

So you can see this requires some real black-belt ninja level organisational and logistical skills to pull of just the assessment of just one unit.

How we do it

We get students to arrange a work placement, or to create a simulated environment with colleagues, friends or family (subject to our approval). We get them to video record the sessions.

TAEASS412 Assess competence

This unit requires participants to conduct six complete assessments of other people. Initial impressions might suggest that students could just take turns assessing each other until they’ve completed six assessments. On further consideration one realises the challenge with the typically diverse groups seen in a TAE audience, for example:

• How do we know before-hand what the students will be reasonably knowledgeable and skilled in, to create a fair ‘mock’ assessment?
• How do we get the right assessment tools prepared for students to assess other students with?
• If you have participants assessing each other, how do we organise it? Not only must each person assess 6 other people, they themselves will have to volunteer to be assessed several times themselves.

How we do it

We do a range of case studies and role plays in the course to cover some of the assessments using carefully prepared scenarios and assessment tools. Students then are required to complete three more assessments in their own time. It just makes more sense and makes for a far better learning experience, and more valid assessment.

So can you do the whole TAE Cert IV Face to Face?

As we’ve discovered by looking at just 2 of the 12 units in this course, there are significant challenges with doing the whole course properly face-to-face. It is certainly possible with the right conditions and resources, however the conclusion we draw from this is:

• A full face to face delivery of Certificate IV in Training and Assessment done properly is necessarily a lengthy endeavour
• The optimum approach is to do parts of the course face to face, then provide students with guidance and support to complete remaining tasks in their workplace or at home (where appropriate)
• Choosing a reputable provider is paramount to success here. They need to be capable of maximising the usefulness class time, while providing first class support and guidance away from the class through communication, service and a modern, conducive online learning platform

What next?

If you’d like some assistance in choosing a TAE provider, whether it be for face-to-face, online or a combination, send us a message below and we can arrange a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our trainers.