With a major increase in online learning over the past 18 months, an Australian technology company has developed a solution to assist training organisations continue to meet their stringent assessment and compliance requirements.

A recent research report by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has found that despite COVID-19 restrictions, the number of subjects delivered online has increased by 24 per cent between 2019 and 2020 and there were an additional 159,600 enrolments in online-only government-funded stand-alone subjects last year.

Queensland-based Cloud Assess has streamlined the record management obligations of the $A9 billion Vocational Educational and Training sector through turning cumbersome paper-based processes into a faster digital system that saves huge amounts of time and resources, and in turn helps the effectiveness of online delivery.

Managing Director, Rob Bright, said the need for training delivered digitally has increased exponentially as face-to-face is sometimes not an option, however keeping track of staff, trainee or student records hasn’t evolved.

“There are many industries that are required to meet high levels of standards and competencies through their training, however many records are still paper based,” Mr Bright said.

“This process is convoluted and takes huge amounts of time printing, processing, scanning, and storing, and even losing important documents which are integral to maintaining compliance.

“We’ve developed an online solution that transforms the traditional ways to conduct assessment so training organisations can achieve enrolment through to completion of students all in the one platform and with any device.”

An example of where Cloud Assess has allowed an industry to keep ahead of its training requirements is providing the Pharmacy Guild of Australia with the ability to roll out timely and efficient vaccination training to all their members.

“Where there was an urgent need to up-skill hundreds of pharmacy staff across the nation on information about the COVID vaccinations and how to administer them correctly, which was of utmost importance, we had the digital solution they needed to do this successfully on a large scale,” Mr Bright said.

“Our software and systems not only provide the training information and assessment tools, but it also allows business heads to keep tabs on their compliance obligations and store this information without limitations.

“If there were an audit or any safety concerns that came to light, records are there to support the company’s legislative compliance.”

According to the NCVER survey results, over 75 per cent of Registered Training Organisations have transitioned at least some of their training and assessment online and these sorts of transitions can be managed efficiently by companies like Cloud Assess.

Mr Bright said the evolution from paper-based to online assessment has a huge impact on the productivity of their clients with one training organisation automating over 300,000 tasks in less than a year and another client saving 30 tonnes of waste comprising of nearly 6 million sheets of paper.

“By digitising the assessment process the rate at which assessments can be deployed and completed is phenomenal, with four assessments completed per second every day and ultimately, Cloud Assess is providing compliance peace of mind,” Mr Bright said.

“Our Cloud Assess systems have saved organisations time, lowered their costs, and enabled growth for many businesses – no matter the current state of affairs.”

Since inception the company has achieved a strong growth trajectory, with all their activities 100% invested in supporting the Australian economy.

“Over the years we have successfully worked with a number of high-profile clients including McDonalds, KFC, Flight Centre, Queensland Rail, McMahon, Veolia, and Komatsu, and also servicing a wide range of other brands including operators in the Transport, Energy, Health and Construction industries as well as private RTOs and Schools,” Mr Bright said.

“If these businesses ceased training and assessments, they would be negatively impacted and this would be detrimental to their entire business and in turn, directly or indirectly impact the economy.

“Progressive technologies and keeping people connected are at the forefront of the future – and this is exactly what we are offering our clients in every industry.”

Founded in 2013, the Cloud Assess concept was identified after one of the founders worked as a consultant for a major mining business. Training systems were designed to support day to day validation of competency, but they did not have a system that could work with a massive team of individuals who worked shifts across 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, making scheduling and record retrieval virtually impossible. Conducting assessment via iPads was identified as the solution, and thus stemmed the business idea to fill the gap in the market for other industries.

Cloud Assess has won local business awards including the Award for IT and Digital Business at the Business Excellence Awards (2020) and the Mayors Award for Innovation at the Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards (2019). Founder Rob Bright was also a runner up in the Gold Coast 40 under 40 Young Entrepreneurs Award.

For more information visit www.cloudassess.com.au.

Cloud Assess Managing Director, Rob Bright (l) and Technical Director Andrew Baker.