There are strict financial guidelines and requirements which must be met, both prior to an RTOs registration, and throughout the life of an RTO. Between the sometimes demanding ASQA requirements, and complexities of student payment plans, it is important that you entrust your RTOs finances to someone who truly understands the VET sector and unique financial requirements of an RTO.

Applying For And Maintaining Funding Contracts

If you plan on applying for and maintaining funding contracts, the requirements are rigorous. Assessments are made on a range of financial factors on your RTOs financial viability, including financial projections and business ratios. An RTO specific financial advisor understands the complexities of the VET sector, the financial intricacies of dealing with students, and the concerns around the natural fluctuations in business that RTOs experience throughout the year.

By trusting your RTOs Financial Viability Risk Assessment to an RTO finance professional, you can be sure that your application will be to the highest standard, increasing your success in audits and applying for and maintaining funding contracts.

Audits

Similar to the initial registration of your RTO, ASQA requires an acceptable level of financial viability risk at all times. This ensures that RTOs are continuing to achieve quality outcomes for students.

Again, enlisting an RTO finance professional with the on-going financial requirements, you can be sure that you won’t suddenly be reviewing your finances, and making large changes to your RTOs financial structure just prior to an audit. However, if you are in this position – relax – an RTO finance professional will be able to get you audit and funding contract ready!

Student Payment Plans

RTOs cater to many different people, from different backgrounds. The variety of students they receive is reflected in their finances, with payment structures that can be reflected, including pay-as-you-go and fee-for-service often seen in smaller RTOs, and public funding, more commonly utilised in large RTOs.

The payment structure of which students are enrolled also effects ASQA’s assessment of RTOs. Not surprisingly, government funded RTOs present at a higher risk to ASQA, and for this reason, undergo more rigorous evaluation.

This variety of payment options alone makes RTOs finances difficult to not only set up correctly, but continue to run smoothly.

With the LionHouse team of directors all having owned and managed RTOs across Australia, there is a deep understanding of financial requirements and complexities of RTOs. With a Certified Practicing Accountant on the board of directors, you can trust that LionHouse have the experience and knowledge to ensure your RTO is in the best position to succeed and thrive, ensuring that all of your financial boxes are ticked!

If you have any finance questions you’d like to run past an RTO finance professional, or if you would just like to explore what the costs of and RTO specific bookkeeping service would be, feel free to contact the LionHouse team today.

By surveying students and actively implementing changes to business practices in-line with survey results, RTOs will find improved business practices resulting in happier clients.

This LionHouse benchmarking report conducted has unearthed some interesting and insightful facts that may convince you that your RTO should start conducting student surveys, immediately!

The below statistics represent LPR’s (low performing RTOs) and HPR’s (high performing RTOs).

An LPR is classified as having no growth or negative growth in the previous year.

An HPR is classified as having greater than 25% growth in the previous year.

• Student Surveying In-Person: 36% of LPRs vs 81% of HPRs

In-person student surveying really shows that the RTO cares about the outcome of every student. By getting in-front of students, RTOs are showing that they care about the student experience. This gives students a sense of security and encourages them to trust the RTO. Further to this, the responses will be more thought out and insightful.

• Conduct Ad Hoc Surveying: 37% of LPRs vs 20% of HPRs

While it can be commended that RTOs are attempting student surveying, an ad hoc approach will not provide the consistency required to make impactful changes. For student surveying to be properly beneficial to an RTO, this needs to happen at regular, pre-determined intervals. By doing this, results can be compared and monitored.

• Surveyed more than 70% of students: 45% of LPRs vs 67% of HPRs

It is important to ensure that a large percentage of the studied group are surveyed, in order to gain an accurate representation of the group. Then, with a full assessment of the survey participants, RTOs can effectively improve the student experience. The proof of this method becomes clear when reviewing the data, as 67% of HPRs surveyed more than 70% of students.

So what does all this mean for your RTO? LionHouse has created benchmarking reports so that RTOs can benchmark themselves against the industry, make changes to operations, and improve business and operations. By aligning practices with HPRs, RTOs can operate knowing they are on the path to success. The importance of surveying students cannot be stressed enough. Your students have the greatest insight into how your operations impact the student experience, providing RTOs with an opportunity to offer the best student experience possible.