Your staff can be trained inhouse or after hours. They can learn through distance education or online courses.

There are many training options to suit the training needs of your staff, while minimising the time they spend away from work.

Full-time or part-time

Full-time training generally allows people to complete courses faster than part-time training. Intensive, full-time training may take days or weeks, depending on the course. It requires your staff to be trained during the time they would normally be performing productive work.

Part-time training occurs in regular components over time. For example, you may allocate one day every week to the training.

Part-time training reduces the time employees spend away from work, but it often takes longer to complete a course than studying full-time.

Business hours and after hours

The vocational education and training (VET) system caters for people who have to juggle full-time employment with study. That is why most registered training organsations (RTOs) offer courses that run both during normal business hours and after hours, either at night or on weekends. You can negotiate with the RTO on a training delivery schedule which suits the operating hours of your business.

On or off the premises

Training can take place at an RTO but may also occur on the business premises. In this case, the RTO conducts the training at your workplace at times suited to your business. Employees can undertake accredited training in the workplace as part of their normal work.

If your business is located some distance from your RTO of choice, you may elect to train your staff via distance education.

Distance education

In distance education, the training is delivered by a training provider from a remote location or in a location convenient for the learner.

Distance education is often provided over the Internet and support materials such as course booklets, CD ROMs and training manuals are often provided by the RTO. Intensive training sessions are conducted periodically at the RTO's premises.

Combining your options

Most RTOs offer all of these options. You should be able to negotiate the training to suit your needs. For example, you may require the training to involve a combination of distance education via the Internet, frequent in-house training seminars, night classes, or a combination of all three.

Alternatively your business may choose to become an enterprise RTO and deliver nationally recognised training to employees itself.

For further information on the options available to your business, contact your preferred RTO or use our training provider search which provides a comprehensive database of Australian RTOs and the training they provide.