Partnerships can be highly beneficial for registered training organisations (RTOs) as they provide an opportunity to share expertise and best practice while reducing costs by achieving economies of scale.
The Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) standards also allow for partnerships between RTOs and non-registered training organisations.
When entering a partnership, an RTO should assess its own capabilities against those of its community or client requirements, and then establish a clear picture of the training and assessment gaps a partner organisation will need to fill.
When discussing a partnership proposal, it is important to understand how the partnership arrangement will benefit each organisation, acknowledging:
what represents a fair input of resources (personnel, money, materials, space and equipment) from each partner
each partner's expectations in terms of time and deliverables
corporate culture and how the different cultures can work together
how representatives from each partner will be supported in a partnership arrangement
what attitudes and values each partner brings to the arrangement
the intent for mutual respect and teamwork
the likely strengths and weaknesses of the collaboration.
RTOs must maintain a register of any partnership agreements and take responsibility for the quality assurance that these agreements entail.