How We Assess

CLET's Assessment Processes

One of the great achievements of holding a Nationally Recognised Qualification is the confidence that your skills and knowledge have been assessed against learning standards that apply across Australia. This means, regardless of where the qualification is issued, it is recognised in all States and Territories.

All Nationally Recognised Qualifications come as Training Packages or Accredited Courses and have a set of criteria that all Registered Training Organisations (RTO's) are required to meet when assessing. Assessment for a Nationally Recognised Qualification can be done using recognition of prior learning (RPL), credit for prior study, or in training-based assessment tasks. The criteria are grouped together as:

Performance Criteria including foundation skills
Performance Evidence
Knowledge Evidence
Assessment Conditions

The criteria inside each unit assigned to a qualification are comprehensive and each RTO is required to have trainers and assessors competent in the skills and knowledge of each unit together with industry currency and training and assessment qualifications to conduct assessments.

The Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) is a tool that assists the assessment process focusing on the five core skills of learning, reading, writing, oral communication, and numeracy attached to each unit inside a qualification.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is a term used to explain how an individual who has existing skills and knowledge in a certain area can be assessed against the criteria for nationally recognised qualifications to measure their learning. This is an important assessment process to ensure that individuals are not undertaking learning for subject matter for which they are already competent.

Under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Outcome Standards for NVR Registered Training Organisations) Instrument 2025, a RTO, such as CLET, is required to consider and recognise existing workplace skills and knowledge when assessing clients against the criteria of a nationally recognised qualification.

The easiest way to explain this is everything you do every minute of every day you are in the workplace, you are learning something new and stacking new skills on top of current skills, building your experience. Most workplaces are not RTO's and even those who are RTO's do not have every qualification on their scope and cannot offer you the recognition needed to showcase all your knowledge and skills when you leave that employment or service.

This is where the CLET RPL process is invaluable for our clients as we understand how to convert all this workplace learning and experience into our carefully selected scope of qualifications we have available for our clients.

CLET provides a comprehensive RPL process that minimises the amount of paperwork done by the individual and instead explores the individual's skills and knowledge from their workplace (current and former) to measure and assess against the relevant criteria. This process can be applied to all qualifications held on scope by CLET.

CLET provides a two-step RPL assessment process. The first step is to identify all possible qualifications from CLET's scope that may be a RPL option for an individual. This is termed the initial RPL review. This takes approximately 14 days for the CLET RPL Team to complete, depending on access to information and successful verification when required.

The second step is the final assessment which is conducted when an individual identifies which qualifications from the initial review list are of interest. The CLET RPL Team conducts a detailed assessment of the individuals existing skills and knowledge against the criteria from the requested qualifications and confirms the eligibility for full or partial RPL. No RPL may sometimes be the outcome.

Often the most challenging part of a RPL assessment is gathering sufficient evidence to support the comprehensive criteria of the nationally recognised qualifications. Below is a list of the types of things that can be considered evidence. CLET has a detailed and well researched evidence vault that supports individual assessments, particularly when individuals hail from confidential workplaces such as police, military, intelligence, defence security, and the like.

Suggested RPL Evidence

The suggested evidence set out below is informed by the client groups that CLET most commonly works with. A selection of the following list of evidence may be provided to support a RPL application. The CLET RPL team will review all evidence, including documents relevant to your experience from our own evidence vault and role mapping. If additional evidence is required the RPL team will advise. All evidence is secure and confidential and can be destroyed after sighting upon request.

Level 1 Evidence

HR employment record

SAP or Service record (for Health and ES workers)

Training records (for Health and ES workers)

Service history (for police)

PMKeys (for military)

ADF Course reports (for military)

ADF performance appraisals (for military)

Position appointment documents

Certificate of service

Rank certificates (for police)

Employment contracts

Letter from employer confirming years of employment, tasks and position.

Level 2 Evidence

Some examples include:

Other qualifications (including certificate and transcript)

Certificates from internal courses

Position descriptions for current or former positions

Level 3 Evidence

Some examples include:

Statutory declaration for work performed in absence of evidence

References

Commendations

Credit for Prior Study

Similar to RPL, under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator (Outcome Standards for NVR Registered Training Organisations) Instrument 2025, a RTO, such as CLET, is also required to recognise prior study and provide credit for equivalent units of competency.

To do this, CLET will examine transcripts or records of results from an individual's prior study with a RTO or similar issuing agency, and map it against existing units of competency. This may be in pursuit of credit for some study already done, or when pursuing an upgrade or update of a changed qualification. When the industry bodies change qualifications, they decide whether units of competency are equivalent to the old ones, or whether sufficient change in the newer version renders it non-equivalent to the old one.

Equivalent units will be given credit and an individual will not need to study that unit of competency again, or can be given direct credit for it without further assessment as part of a RPL process.

Non-equivalent units will usually shift to the RPL process to see if existing skills and knowledge from both the prior study and the workplace will contribute to credit for the unit being assessed.

What is the difference between RPL and Credit for Prior Study

Credit for prior study requires previous study at vocational level (so with a RTO, a Tafe, or a University that is delivering vocational qualifications) and is evident on a record of results or transcript. The credit process must be applied by any RTO but only equivalent units of competency have to be credited.

Different to this, RPL assesses existing skills and knowledge that have been acquired from a working environment and is evidenced by workplace records rather than any official transcript.

An individual may undergo a combined process of credit for prior study and RPL if this is the best assessment pathway to correctly identify and measure past study and experience.

Training Based Assessment

Assessment Overview

CLET offers online training in selected qualifications it has on scope. These courses are available for individuals to study the full qualification and to individuals who may have some units credited through RPL or credit for prior study.

Courses are assessed using a diverse range of assessment strategies to ensure the assessment conditions for each unit of competency are well addressed and provide students with interesting and flexible assessment experiences.

Many assessments will include researching, reading and analysing information on your computer, laptop or tablet (Internet required). However, each unit of study provides assessment instructions and benchmarks you can easily follow to successfully complete each assessment task and CLET training staff are just the click of a button away if you have a question.

Assessment methods

The following assessment methods are a reflection of the tasks involved in the online study programs with CLET. Each assessment task will provide clear assessment instructions of what is required. The tasks you will most likely be asked to complete may include some or all of the following:

Knowledge questioning	Timed and untimed online quizzes and online assignments (short answer questions).
Written tasks	Case studies, scenarios, assignments, workbooks, forms, presentations, reports, essays, mind maps, reflections, self assessment, action plans, and research projects.
Audio recordings	Audio presentations using audio software on PC, MAC, smart phone or tablet.
Video recordings	Video presentations using video recording software on PC, MAC, or camera on smart phone or tablet.
Live online meetings	Online meetings that may include simulations and role plays
Simulated workplace	Assessment tasks such as online meetings, forms, emails, online database entries that replicate workplaces
Industry contact	Attending an industry location to observe and/or participate.
Industry consultation	Contact with industry bodies
Creative	Some tasks may require the use of creative software such as Canva, Miro, MilaNote for mindmaps, infographics, presentations, and brochures.
Industry requirements	There may be times where a course criteria requests a specific industry skill or use of specialised equipment, such as driving a motor vehicle or use of a camera. To check if this is a requirement for your selected course, please refer to the Entry and Equipment and Software Requirements on that course page for details.

Trainers and Assessors

CLET's assessors are qualified in the vocational qualifications they are assessing. They are also experts in assessing an individual's workplace experience against CLET's scope of qualifications. They have:

current industry skills directly relevant to the assessment being provided, and
current knowledge and skills in vocational training and learning that informs their assessment decisions.

In addition, CLET RPL assessment is only conducted by our staff who hold one or more of the following:

TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
TAE50116 Diploma of Vocational Education and Training
Bachelor of Adult and Vocational Education

Plus, CLET trainers and assessors undertake professional development in the fields of:

knowledge and practice of vocational training, and
learning and assessment, including competency-based training and assessment

HOW WE ASSESS - RPL, CREDIT & STUDY

RPL, Credit for prior study, and training based assessments are modern and flexible working closely with each eligible client to achieve their desired outcomes