Get up close and personal with RTO Works

The ups and downs of 2021

If you are wondering who the force behind RTO Works is, this is your chance to get the inside scoop! Sally Tansley and Brooke Lombard are the dynamic duo who are driving an ambitious plan to bring some personality, transparency, quality, and awesome service – while having some fun – to the RTO industry.  

Sally and Brooke fronted some questions about the year ending, what’s next, and a few sneaky personal questions. 

Sally – Give us a quick intro to your role at RTO Works  

My job title is Thought Leader and I predominately head up the RTO consulting side of our business. I’ve been in the VET industry for over 20 years. I’ve seen my fair share of industry changes which have driven me to become a passionate advocate for the VET industry. 

Brooke – Give us a quick intro to your role at RTO Works 

So my title is Chief Visionary and I run the day-to-day operations of the business predominately on the training resource and assessment material side. I am constantly coming up with and reviewing ideas of how to grow and transform the business while retaining our identity of being down-to-earth, quirky and fun.

Sally – What was a highlight for you this year? 

After many years of working very hard, I have finally managed to reduce my working hours and spend more time with my family and follow my own personal pursuits. This is all thanks to Brooke and our amazing team who have improved our systems to ensure the business is running more efficiently. The end result….less working hours for me!

Don’t get me wrong, I still put in a lot of hours but I am hoping they will continue to decrease into the new year allowing me a three-day week. Life is short, this has become very clear to me. I don’t want to look back and think that my life was all about work (although it is of course meaningful). 

Brooke – What was a highlight for you this year? 

My professional highlight is absolutely, without a doubt, the building and launching of our e-commerce store. It’s been a priority of mine for some time, but I wanted to be patient and do it right. We have hundreds of online products incorporating thousands of documents. I didn’t want to build a shop that would only be used for the odd sale, but one for all sales transactions. As well as completely automating the experience for both clients and our team members.  

Thanks to a talented pool of people, we have been able to build a system that completely automates the sale and delivery of our products. Clients now have access to unlimited updates for the life of the unit and can re-download the latest version whenever they like from their secure online account. So, I’m really proud of the efforts of everyone involved and happy at the efficiency it’s brought to our business.  

Sally - If you could meet any living person for dinner, who would you pick and why? 

Oh gosh, that’s so difficult to answer!  The ones that I would love to meet are no longer alive – that’s Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. I definitely would like to meet someone who I could persuade to make – what I consider to be – much-needed changes to Australia and globally but, having dinner with the person I have in mind, might not be that much fun!  So a better option is an insightful and thought-provoking dinner with the Dalai Lama! Yes, that’s the one I would choose. My second choice is a tie between Craig Foster and Behrouz Boochani – Craig for his work with refugees and Behrouz for surviving being a refugee and incredibly writing a book on his phone. 

Brooke – If you could meet any living person for dinner, who would you pick and why? 

Hmmm, this one I had to think about for a while but I’m choosing local and going with Mike Smith, the founder of an eco start-up in Byron Bay called Zero Co.  I’ve been following their journey for some time now including their record-breaking crowdfunding campaign to grow the business. As a firm advocate, I have been ordering their plastic-busting cleaning products for 12 months.  

I’m really inspired by what the company has managed to do. They are enabling everyday families to ditch single-use plastic and help “untrash” the planet.  

From a business perspective, I admire the way Mike has built a brand with such personality. You can feel the passion he and his team have for their purpose. In business, I think those things are vital for success. Mike would make for an interesting conversation at dinner. Maybe inspire my kids that if they have an idea, then it’s within their reach to think creatively and make it happen. 

Sally – What’s in store for RTO Works in 2022?  

Every year the VET sector brings change! For the upcoming year, it looks like we will start to see more detail about proposed changes to Training Packages which will be driven by new industry clusters.

My hope is that there are changes to the National Code 2018 so that online training can be a greater component of an international student’s learning – reflecting the needs of what I like to call the modern learner. 

I believe regulatory reform at ASQA will continue to evolve and I’m hoping to see changes that reduce inconsistency in assessment decision making, plus the lack of fairness and transparency around the initial application process. 

Brooke – What’s in store for RTO Works in 2022?  

Hmmm, we will mostly just be completing our current catalogues – BSB, Childcare, IT, and Building and Construction and Automotive Works. We are hoping international students will return and then those RTOs will be back to business as usual.  

I want to continue to streamline the business to make sure we deliver quality training and assessment resources that are affordable and delivered with a high focus on customer service. At the end of the day, that’s why we are here. To be good to our people, our clients, and the environment. 

Wishing all our clients and the VET industry Happy Holidays and all the best for 2022! 

Brooke Lombard