Recently I had to undertake a training day at work to update my Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. The resources provided to us were actually designed by someone outside of the local TAFE. These were very generic units that could be utilised across a wide range of courses – anyone who teaches in any industry at tertiary level would need this upgrade that I was doing. (I was the only equine teacher amongst bakers, nurses, health care workers, etc). Of course I got to thinking about educational resources for the equine industry. Or the Equine Training Resources Hub, let’s call it.
This is the place you go for horse related resources that can be utilised by a Registered Training Organisation. You may or may not be aware, but there are horse qualifications relating to instructing horse riding, racing, training racehorses, working as a stable hand and breeding horses. And so there are many horse units that need to be assessed to deem people competent and provide them with a qualification.
The Equine Training Resources Hub
Although the horse qualifications may be different, there will be many that are the same across these qualifications. Consider
- occupational health and safety,
- handle horses safely and even apply basic communication skills
This is where the educator who knows horses comes in. They can develop resources that match particular units – or even whole qualifications – within the horse industry.
They then provide these resources – learner guides, assessment items and even teacher answers – to RTOs for a one-off fee. If one was wise with this idea, they’d first write resources for the unit/s that span across many different qualifications. This way they have more potential buyers.
They could then go on to write resources for whole qualifications. An RTO may not offer a horse course because they don’t have the resources. If they were able to purchase them, they could then easily seek out a trainer to assess students based on pre-written units. Food for thought.
