The Cert IV TAE has changed over the years. While the qualification has been transforming and evolving over a period of decades, public perception of what the course involves has remained largely the same.

In an effort to clear up any myths and misconceptions associated with the Certificate IV TAE, I interviewed Fortress Learning’s very own National Training Manager, Emma Siebuhr.

Here is what Emma had to say:

In your own words, what is the Cert IV TAE?

I believe that the CERT IV TAE is a great Qualification to support people already really knowledgeable about their own industries.

It lets you develop a lot more understanding of exactly what it means to design and create your own training and assessment materials – not just work off of someone else’s designs.

It gives you back the ownership for what you can do as a trainer and assessor and provides you with skills to be able to actually write your own sessions and design the perfect assessment tool for assessing the units that you deliver.

What are some common misconceptions about the Cert IV TAE? What is it not?

It is not a Qualification for the faint-hearted and don’t let the AQF level 4 mislead you. This is a difficult qualification and requires lots of work. It is not just about the actual training and assessment in practical terms but also the knowledge that goes along with training in this newly emerging and much more stringent VET world.

However, it will equip you with lots of understanding about said VET work if you can stand to wade through the various acronyms and get to the good stuff.

What are common myths that prospective students have about the Cert IV TAE?

Common myths would be that you can complete it in 3 days.

The volume of learning alone for the Cert IV is 600 – 2400 hours. That means that even if you have experience in training and assessment, this course still requires you to complete about 10-12 hours of study a week for a 6-month duration. This type of learning (and then we add assessment on top of that) cannot be crammed into 3 days or even 5 or 10.

Industry has, for too long, looked at the Certificate IV TAE as just a piece of paper but I really believe that in the current climate, industry are going to need to accept that employees just can’t get this done in a couple of days anymore. They will need to support their staff to be able to study while on the job.

This would benefit everyone as the employer would be getting awesome, well qualified and skilled staff and the employee would be getting the skills they need without feeling under pressure to complete in a short time frame.

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What are some realities about the Certificate IV TAE?

As I said before, it is Certificate IV, but it also requires a lot of work especially in regards to the knowledge requirements.There are many trainers and assessors out there who have been fighting the good fight for 20 years or more and although they have years of experience practically applying their skills, they may not have been keeping up to date with current legislation and policies within VET. This course puts that to the test and you will be required to demonstrate that you know all of this type of stuff to gain your new TAE40116.

It is a great course if you do it right and it can give you lots of skills in designing sessions, assessment etc… and also some really interesting insight into the theory of how adults learn and what we can to do to apply those theories to our practices.

Thinking about studying a course with Fortress Learning?

To help you make an informed decision, we invite you to complete the Personal Learning Plan Survey.  This is something that we usually do when people enrol, but you might find it helpful to do it now.

Simply click the link for our Personal Learning Plan Survey. Fill it out as best you can and we will be able to tell you precisely what you will be in for, and which program is most suitable.

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