What do I do next?

In order to get your skills assessed you will need to find a college or training centre that can help you. These are known as Registered Training Organisations.

Finding the right Registered Training Organisation isn’t always easy. They all have different specialties and you need to find one which is registered for the qualification you want to do. This may not be your local TAFE or college. To find the right Registered Training Organisation you can:

• Contact your local college or TAFE and ask them if they are registered for Rural Business Management qualifications or if they can help you find a TAFE or training centre that is.
• Contact Rural Skills Australia and ask them to help you find an appropriate Registered Training Organisation.
• Some State Farmers' Organisations can also advise you.

You don’t necessarily have to do a course but you may need to enrol with the Registered Training Organisation in order to be assessed.

The Registered Training Organisation will advise you on how to prepare documents and other evidence to prove you are competent in each assessable area.

The Registered Training Organisation may also advise you that you need to do some study in some areas to ‘fill the gaps in your knowledge’ or to bring you up to date in some subjects. You may need a ‘mix and match’ process to get the qualification, adding some study to your practical experience and know how.

An assessor will be allocated to you and will probably be able to visit you on your farm. You may have to show the assessor documents such as:

• Contracts you have put together for your employees
• Recruitment materials you have produced such as application forms, job specifications and duty statements
• Your farm business plan or financial plans
• Your risk management plans
• Your occupational health and safety procedures and guidelines
• Certificates from short courses you have completed

and so on. The assessor will interview you to try and determine how much you know about Rural Business Management. If you meet the right standards (known as competencies) then the assessor will award you with a qualification, or part qualification.

Farm Example (courtesy of Rural Training Council Australia)       When Christine Ireland got recognition of her rural business management skills it was quite a task to pull all the documentary evidence together for the assessor when he came to do the interview. "But," Christine said "the interview itself, although rigorous, was nothing like doing an examination. It was a three-hour verbal assessment around the kitchen table, with the assessor asking questions and me answering. The threat had been taken out of the process by the build-up of information over the three months that I was working out what documentation I would need, and what particular competencies I would choose to meet." She said the outcome, though, was like the euphoria of doing well in an exam. "It really builds up your confidence. It has given me a lot more confidence in talking to 'professional' people."

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