RTOs are fortunate to have a huge untapped resource at their fingertips: students. Students are the foundation of an RTOs business, and without them, they wouldn’t be operating – so why not use this resource to gain a competitive advantage? Student surveying is one of the most undervalued activities in the VET sector, with many RTOs viewing this as a compliance imposed cost rather than a valuable source of knowledge.

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.