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With the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) carefully monitoring training practices in the real estate sector after flagging concerns last year, an industry body is urging agencies to take action to ensure their business is protected.
The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) is urging employers to ensure their staff members have been trained by high-quality education providers.
In October 2023, ASQA announced that it had concerns about some practices by registered training organisations (RTOs) delivering training and assessment for the Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice, Diploma of Property (Agency Management), and Certificate IV in Strata Community Management.
As a result the body said it would be auditing the activity of RTOs where concerns had been raised.
REIWA has flagged that while ASQA has ensured that education providers have been brought up to standard, the issue still remains a concern for the industry, with professionals who may have received substandard training now at work in the field.
To ensure that any employee has adequate training, and to assist bringing real estate professionals up to code, REIWA has suggested that employers should check the qualifications of staff.
“This lack of appropriate training harms the reputation of our industry and can have a serious impact on individual businesses,” said REIWA CEO Cath Hart.
“As employers, it puts you at risk if new staff lack the necessary legislative knowledge to represent your business and the skills to best serve your clients. Always check their qualifications, and if you don’t know and trust the provider, dig deeper,” she commented.
While ASQA did not mention the concerning RTOs by name, REIWA said that the issues related to lesser-known providers offering “cheap online courses or promising to fast-track people’s qualifications”.
Hart stated frankly that graduates of these programs “aren’t job-ready and can lack the skills and competencies to meet licensing requirements”.
“This will have repercussions for the agencies who employ them. Not only are they employing staff who are inadequately trained and assessed, it may put their licence at risk,” she added.
REIWA’s comments come after NSW Fair Trading made similar warnings to the state’s real estate and strata industry, cautioning businesses not to scrimp on quality when it comes to professional development and training.
“If a training provider is promising quick qualifications at a low cost, they are highly unlikely to deliver the skills needed to be a professional agent,” warned NSW Strata and Property Services Commissioner John Minns.
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