Skills Assure Supplier contracting for Career Ready

The introduction of a new Career Ready vocational education and training (VET) in schools program is a key action under the Good Jobs, Great Training: Queensland Skills Strategy 2024–2028 released in May 2024.

Career Ready will help secondary school students get set for life after school, with career information, training and industry experience. The program focuses on improved support for secondary school students who have career aspirations aligned to priority VET pathways and improved school to work employment transitions and pathways.

Career Ready encompasses a suite of complementary programs supporting students across their secondary schooling to choose the right career and training pathways for them including:

• Gateway to Industry Schools program
• new non-accredited Career Tasters for Year 10 students
• certificate I and II qualifications aligned to VET careers in demand for the economy and informed by industry consultation
• school-based apprenticeships and traineeships providing strong post-school employment opportunities.

Career Ready for VET in schools opened 24 February 2025 through an expression of interest (EOI) process, for registered training organisations (RTOs) interested in working with us to achieve the objectives of Queensland's publicly funded training to secondary school students.

Eligible RTOs are invited to express their interest in delivering certificate I and II training to secondary school students under the Career Ready subsidy program, starting 1 January 2026.

Learn more about the new SAS framework, including what is changing what will stay the same.

EOI process

RTOs must express their interest to deliver VET training to secondary school students under Career Ready, including public providers and current Skills Assure Suppliers (SAS). The EOI process will be:

• Mandatory eligibility criteria
  • Open from Monday, 24 February 2025 and closing at 12pm (AEST, Queensland time) on Friday, 21 March 2025.
  • RTOs must meet the mandatory eligibility criteria—RTOs that don't will be deemed ineligible and will be excluded from further consideration and selection criteria assessment for a SAS Agreement for Career Ready.
• Selection criteria
  • Responses to selection criteria will be assessed by an independent panel.

Outcomes advice will be issued in writing after all aspects of the EOI process have been assessed and finalised.

Submitting EOI responses

EOI responses must be submitted through the Purchasing Online (POL) application in Partner Portal.

Read how to use the POL application to submit a Career Ready SAS EOI response.

Current SAS with an existing Partner Portal account

• Your organisation should have access to POL.
• Your organisation's Partner Portal Administrator will be able to add additional users to use POL if required.
• If you have any issues accessing POL, email PartnerPortal@desbt.qld.gov.au. Note that Partner Portal cannot assist you with Career Ready SAS EOI questions.

RTOs (currently not a SAS) with an existing Partner Portal account

• Check with your organisation's Partner Portal Administrator if your organisation has access to POL.
• If not, they can request access to POL.
• Email PartnerPortal@desbt.qld.gov.au. Note that Partner Portal cannot assist you with Career Ready SAS EOI questions.

RTOs without a Partner Portal account

• Your organisation will need to create a Partner Portal account and request access to POL only, prior to submitting your Career Ready SAS EOI. Allow up to 2 weeks processing time.
• Find help to create and access Partner Portal accounts.

EOI assessment

1. Mandatory eligibility criteria

To be eligible for assessment of selection criteria, RTOs must have:

• an Independent Financial Assessment undertaken by Corporate Scoreboard
• current RTO registration with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) or the relevant jurisdictional regulator, for at least the last 2 years
• relevant scope of registration with ASQA and/or relevant jurisdictional regulator for the qualifications they would like to deliver. These qualifications will be listed on the online form and will be the basis of the new Queensland Subsidised Training List
• 12 months delivery history in the full qualification(s) they are applying for
• sufficient history of delivery to Queensland students
• RTO place of business in Queensland
• third-party arrangements – RTOs must deliver at least 50% of training and assessment services
• capacity to electronically report AVETMISS compliant training and assessment activity
• RTO compliance, legal and trading history
• an Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) current and historical extract dated within the last 30 days
• employer and school referees (these cannot be labour hire companies).

2. Selection criteria

RTOs must provide written qualitative responses addressing pre-determined criteria:

• delivery of quality training outcomes
• meeting local community, employer and industry needs
• supporting the student journey – school to work transitions
• RTO history and past performance.

Due diligence checks and independent assessment of RTO's qualitative responses to criteria will inform recommendations for contracting.

For more on these requirements, refer to the Career Ready SAS EOI application guidelines and frequently asked questions below.

Career Ready key documents

• Application guidelines
• Provisional qualification list
• Delivery form (XLSM, 2.2MB) and instructions on how to complete
• Application questionnaire
• Applicant checklist
• Delivery of training outcomes form (application if applying for more than one industry training group)
• Frequently asked questions
• Purchasing Online (POL) instructions
• Webinar providing an overview of Career Ready coming soon.

Stay up to date

Updates on the implementation of the new SAS framework will be provided across departmental communications, including the SAS newsletter, Contract Connector, and this website.

To learn more about the new SAS framework, subscribe to updates or visit Queensland Skills Strategy.

Help and support

For EOI questions, email SAS.EOI@desbt.qld.gov.au.

For Partner Portal help:

• refer to our manuals – some steps of setting up a Partner Portal account may be supported by Australian Government agencies
• email PartnerPortal@desbt.qld.gov.au. Note that Partner Portal cannot assist you with Career Ready SAS EOI questions.

Related information

• Find out more about operating as a Skills Assure Supplier.