Advisory, not assumption
The training provider remains the regulated entity, and the duty of care to the learner remains the training provider's. We work alongside the in-house team, never in place of it.
SWDA Audit Matters
Ready for every SWDA audit.
SWDA audits the training providers it funds, and a poor result can end your funding. We get your documents, your team and your day-to-day operation ready, months before the letter arrives.
In plain terms
Two audits. One preparation.
SWDA checks its funded training providers in two ways. The first is the Training Provider Quality Assessment (TPQA), a review of your whole organisation, from how you handle learner feedback to how your board signs off on policy. The grade decides whether you keep full funding, partial funding, or lose your registered status altogether.
The second is the Course Quality Check (CQC), a closer look at the actual course materials you teach from, to confirm they still match what SWDA approved. Materials that have drifted from the approved version are one of the most common findings in the sector.
Both are manageable, and neither should be frightening, provided the preparation starts early. That preparation is exactly what this service provides.
Our commitment
Ask for a complimentary reading
Our first work is always pro bono.
Every training provider should be able to reach the standard SWDA asks for, whatever its budget. When a provider meets that standard, the learners are the ones who gain, because the training they receive is at its best. Helping providers get there, for the sake of every learner in the room, is why the first stretch of our audit advisory is offered pro bono.
The opening consultation, an honest reading of your TPQA and CQC readiness, and a gap analysis against SWDA's criteria are given without charge and without obligation. Deeper work is scoped and priced in writing, but the guidance that shows you where you stand is always ours to give.
§ I · What TPQA is
A thorough quality assessment, not a paper exercise.
The Training Provider Quality Assessment is SWDA's holistic assessment of a funded Registered Training Provider. It asks whether the provider has adopted a systematic approach to good training methods and industry-relevant courses, supported by sound administration and corporate governance, and whether those processes show up in real outcomes for learners and enterprises.
In practice, this means SWDA reads your documented procedures and your implementation evidence side by side. Where documents and practice do not match, the grade suffers.
The mechanics are fixed. SWDA notifies a provider roughly two months before the application deadline; the Management Representative submits the documents through TPGateway; a team of SWDA assessors then conducts a one-day onsite visit. There is no application fee. The grade and the assessment report return through TPGateway, and a provider that disputes the outcome has ten working days to request a review, at a fee of $3,052 inclusive of GST, on the narrow grounds that procedure failed or that findings contradict the evidence examined.
Two recent details matter. Providers holding a four-year EduTrust certification may qualify for TPQA on a reduced scope. And the item covering the management of marketing activities was updated with effect from 1 December 2025, which is one reason our Creative Marketing work is built to the same audit standard as everything else.
Not a transfer of responsibility.
Engaging 2birds is not a way to outsource regulatory accountability. Under the SWDA framework, the obligation to deliver quality training rests, at all times, with the Registered Training Provider. Our work is advisory, and it is intended to leave the training provider better governed than we found it. It falls into four pillars.
Documentation, when manpower is short
Where the Management Representative and the in-house team are stretched, we draft, version-control and prepare the documentation for submission, in the training provider's own voice and on the training provider's letterhead.
Corporate governance, strengthened
We advise on the governance structures that support good training, the policy stack, the management review cycle, the trainer-records regime, and the assessment integrity controls. A robust system pays for itself across cycles.
Complimentary consultation
The first conversation is, and remains, free. We discuss industry best practices, the protocols in the latest SWDA circulars, and the specific areas in which a training provider may fall short. There is no fee to ask, and no obligation to engage.
Two training providers, two Grade 1 outcomes.
We have walked alongside the senior teams at both Adept Academy and QD Academy through their respective TPQA cycles. In each case the grade returned was Grade 1. The outcome rests with the training providers themselves; the structure that supported the outcome is one we are glad to have played a part in building.
We congratulate the senior teams at both academies on their Grade 1 outcomes, and wish them continued success in their operations, in the standing they have earned with their learners, and in the work that will follow from it.
TPQA · Grade 1 outcome
Adept Academy
TPQA · Grade 1 outcome
QD Academy
The TPQA procedure, in four movements.
The procedure is fixed by SWDA. Where 2birds adds value is in the rehearsal, preparing your team, your documents and your operating reality for the day SWDA arrives. The working papers SWDA publishes are linked alongside the step at which they apply.
Step I
Self-Assessment Checklist
We work the SWDA-issued checklist against your operating reality, page by page, and surface the gaps before SWDA sees them.
Step II
Application via TPGateway
Your Management Representative submits the application through TPGateway. We assemble and version-control the supporting documents in advance, so the two-month preparation window is spent improving the operation rather than hunting for evidence.
Step III
Onsite Assessment
A team of SWDA assessors conducts a one-day onsite visit, interviews staff and clarifies the documents examined. We rehearse this in the fortnight leading up to it, with the people who will actually answer the questions.
Step IV
Case Closure
The grade and the assessment report are returned through TPGateway. Where a review is appropriate, the request must be lodged within ten working days on the grounds SWDA allows, and we assist in drafting it within that procedure.
Three grades. Three outcomes.
Under SWDA Circular RD/2023/1, in force from 22 November 2023, the assessment produces one of three grades, and each carries a different consequence for the training provider's funding eligibility.
I
Grade 1 · the strong outcome
Full funding retainedThe training provider retains full eligibility for SWDA funding under both Tier 1 and Tier 2 of the revised funding framework. This is the grade we work towards.
II
Grade 2 · the conditional outcome
Tier 1 funding onlyThe training provider retains eligibility for Tier 1 SWDA funding only. Tier 2 funding is unavailable until reassessment. For PWM training providers, transitional provisions apply until 31 December 2026.
III
Grade 3 · the terminal outcome
Status terminatedFailure to undergo TPQA when requested, failure to submit by the stipulated deadline, or failure to obtain the minimum quality grade leads to termination of Registered Training Provider status, of SWDA funding, and of eligibility for SkillsFuture Credit. A terminated training provider may only reapply after twelve months, and the list of terminated providers is published on TPGateway. Read the SWDA notice ↗
Each criterion is also a return on investment.
SWDA measures a training provider across three criteria and twelve items. Each item, done well, returns something measurable to the business, whether in learner retention, governance posture or enterprise standing. Score yourself below, or read the market best practice for each item.
Read in this light, the assessment looks less like an annual cost and more like a five-year investment. The training providers we advise return to us because the year between assessments is the year in which an operation is quietly tightened, or quietly left to drift.
Keith was a speaker at the 2025 TPQA Engagement.
In November 2025, SWDA held its annual TPQA outreach with training providers from across the sector. Keith was invited to speak on best practices in courseware development and pre-audit preparation.
Our belief is that the sharing of knowledge in our field should remain free. The deck SWDA distributed at the event is available below. Email us if you would like to discuss how its practices might apply to your training organisation.
Speaking engagementTPQA Outreach 2025 · Best practices in courseware development
ConvenorSkills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA)
DateNovember 2025
SpeakerKeith Ho Zheng Yu
AudienceRegistered Training Providers
DocumentTPQA Outreach Deck (PDF)
§ VI · Course Quality Check
The check that sits alongside TPQA.
CQC was introduced in SWDA Circular QMD/2024/7 and rolled out in phases from January 2025. Where TPQA looks at the training provider in the round, CQC looks at the courseware itself, the Learner Guide, the Trainer Guide, the Lesson Plan and the Assessment Plan as they are actually used in delivery.
CQC is typically a document review rather than a site visit. SWDA places greater emphasis on newly approved courses, courses with high enrolment, and courses with weaker TRAQOM performance, and considers whether a training provider has recently undergone TPQA when selecting for the check.
The impact. CQC findings can lead to remedial action and, in serious cases, the withdrawal of funded-course status. Because CQC looks at materials currently in use, frequent review of courseware is no longer optional. We assist training providers in keeping their courseware current with market conditions, the latest Skills Framework iteration and the prevailing assessment standards.
Alignment of courseware
With the approved learning outcomes and the Technical Skills and Competencies on the course application.
Principles of Assessment
And the Rules of Evidence, applied to the actual assessment instruments in use, not the ones submitted at approval.
Relevance of instruction
Courseware, instructional methods and learning materials measured against the course objectives and outline currently in market.
Keeping the courseware in use audit-ready.
Because CQC reviews the materials a training provider is actually delivering, the work cannot wait until a notification from SWDA arrives. We support training providers across the CQC lifecycle in five ways.
01
Pre-notification readiness review
We benchmark the Learner Guide, Trainer Guide, Lesson Plan and Assessment Plan against the approved Course Application, the latest Skills Framework iteration and the prevailing Principles of Assessment.
02
Courseware refresh and version control
Where the documents in delivery have drifted from the documents at approval, we revise, re-align and version-stamp the materials so that what is taught matches what was approved.
03
Assessment instrument audit
We apply the Rules of Evidence to actual question banks, rubrics and learner submissions, with corrective recommendations tied to each finding.
04
Submission preparation
We assemble the document pack SWDA requests on notification, in the order and format SWDA expects, with a covering note explaining the materials and the version history.
05
Improvement plan drafting
Where SWDA returns findings, we prepare the response and the timeline that addresses each item, within the procedure set out in the SWDA Terms for Training Providers.
CQC is not a one-off exercise. The training providers we support keep their courseware under quarterly review, so that when an SWDA notification does arrive, the materials are already where they need to be.
Questions providers bring us about audits.
For TPQA, roughly two months to prepare and submit your documents, with the one-day onsite visit about a month after that. It sounds generous. It is not, if the evidence has to be created rather than collected. The comfortable position is to be ready before the letter exists.
No, and you should be wary of anyone who says otherwise. The grade rests with SWDA's assessors alone. What we can do, and have done, is close every gap the checklist can find, put the evidence in the order assessors expect, and rehearse your team for the interviews. The two providers we have walked through TPQA both returned Grade 1.
SWDA allows a review, requested within ten working days of the outcome, at a fee of $3,052 including GST, and only on narrow grounds, a failure of procedure, or findings that contradict the evidence examined. We assist you in judging honestly whether those grounds exist, and we draft the request if they do.
Before the date is set
Ready for the audit, long before the audit.
The first consultation on your TPQA and CQC readiness is complimentary, with a pre-audit gap analysis against SWDA's criteria.