Ever wondered what the difference between training packages and accredited online courses is? Well, here’s the most simple explanation you are going to get…
In short, a Training Package is a group of courses that’s developed by a Service Skills Organisation otherwise known as an SSO. SSOs are an organisation or a mob of people, if you like that are employed by the government to create qualifications around particular industries and provide a framework that qualifies people on a national level.
A great example of a Training Package is the Business Services Training Package or BSB. If you’ve been on the hunt for nationally recognised training lately, you may have seen some courses with a funny code like “BSB40215” in front of the course name. This code means that the course has been created by a Government-funded organisation and meets the national qualification framework.
In simple terms, you could look at the term Business Service Training Package as a “family name” and the courses in the training package are the family members.
For example, the BSB40215 Certificate IV in Business, BSB50215 Diploma of Business, and BSB50415 Diploma of Business Administration, which may include administration courses, are all completely different nationally recognised training courses but all fall under the same Business Service Training Package that the government has put together.
Another important thing to know is, that a course that is part of a training package is referred to as a nationally recognised qualification or training package qualification and not an accredited course. Not understanding this terminology properly can get very confusing which is why it’s important to know the difference between training packages and accredited courses.
Accredited courses in Australia are courses that have been made privately by an individual, group, or business that has not been employed or funded by the government.
If an individual, group, or business wishes to have their course made nationally accredited, they must present it to the Government to be approved. Once the course is approved, it then becomes nationally recognised, and any student who completes it is then qualified to work in that industry.
When a course becomes nationally accredited, it remains as intellectual property of the creator and can be sold to Registered Training Organisations for delivery.
Nationally accredited training courses will also have a funny code in front or behind the course name that looks something like “18273NAT or 7283WA”.
So now we’ve hashed out the difference between training packages and accredited courses, let’s talk about how they are delivered and who delivers them. To deliver any training package qualifications, accredited courses, and competency-based training, an organisation must be registered to do so. This is where the term RTO comes from, it stands for Registered Training Organisation.
If you are looking at a college website it will usually be made apparent that the organisation is registered as they are forced to display a special RTO code that will look something like this “RTO123”.
That code means that the college or organisation has been approved to deliver training package qualifications, accredited courses, and competency-based training by the Government.
Once an RTO is officially registered, they are then able to access any Training Packages created by Government-employed organisations and Nationally Accredited Courses.
There are funding options available for certain courses, but that is best kept for enquiry as there are tons of rules and regulations surrounding the topic.
For more information, visit our courses section and make an enquiry.
The difference between training packages and accredited courses is that training packages are a group or family of courses created and approved under a government framework and are often referred to as Training Package Qualifications, and Nationally Accredited courses are created privately by an individual, group, or business and have been approved by the government for national recognition.
Both can be delivered by RTO, otherwise known as Registered Training Organisations.
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