How To Become a TAFE or RTO Trainer

How To Become a TAFE or RTO Trainer

Whether you’re at the point in your career where you’re considering how you can pass on your industry knowledge to the next generation, or you’re looking to upskill and prepare for your next career move, studying a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment is the first step to helping you secure a rewarding role as a TAFE, RTO, Enterprise or VET trainer.

With good salaries as well as flexible working hours, for many it’s the perfect match. If you’re still locked into your current role, you might consider becoming a trainer to teach short courses, which are often held outside of nine to five work hours. The options are extremely flexible around your lifestyle and around what you really want to teach.

So why not use your skills to help others, while helping to shape the future of your industry?

1. Study at TAFE

If you’re wondering how to become a trainer in Victoria, the answer may be easier than you think. Unlike school or secondary teachers, you don’t need a Bachelor’s degree from a university. In fact, the training time is between six months and a year, with strong employment prospects awaiting you once you graduate. Choose a TAFE course like a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment to qualify you for this role.

Of course, it makes sense that you should learn in the environment that you hope to eventually teach in. By first being a student before becoming a trainer, you’ll be able to better understand your students’ experience and help them to improve.

2. Learn to Facilitate Small and Large Groups

As a trainer, you’re in charge of translating the curriculum to your students through each class or workshop. How you achieve that is largely up to you, and you might employ a range of strategies like presenting with multimedia aids, roaming and delivering one-on-one demos, or even showing by doing when leading laboratory classes.

Whichever method of instruction you choose, you’ll need to be able to command the attention of your students and engage with them. Make sure your delivery is relevant to the audience in front of you, and that you’re changing it up enough so people don’t get bored. Draw in what you know about each student individually and incorporate it into your teaching method. Even if you’re teaching short courses and don’t yet know your students, make an effort to tailor your workshops to them in any way you can.

3. Build Your e-Learning Skills

Increasingly, higher education study is moving out of the classroom and into the e-classroom. Some students might choose to complete their entire TAFE course this way, and almost any modern TAFE course will incorporate at least some element of e-learning. Far from being the ‘easy’ option, online learning is largely self-directed and takes a significant amount of discipline.

If it has been some time since you completed your studies, then it is certainly worth taking a TAFE course—or even one of the many short courses available—as a refresher, to understand the online dynamic between trainers and students.