1.           Purpose

This policy is based on providing and maintaining training services that are fair and reasonable and afford a forum where issues or inadequacies can be resolved. This process provides opportunity for complaints and appeals to be forwarded to International Institute of Technology (IIT) management in a timely and confidential manner.

2.           Scope

The Director of IIT is the Complaints Resolution Officer. The Director may delegate responsibility for the resolution of the complaint if necessary.

The object of this policy is to ensure that IIT staff act in a professional manner at all times. This policy provides clients with a clear process to register a complaint or appeal.  It ensures all parties involved are kept informed of the resulting actions and outcomes.

3.           Procedure

3.1  Complaints and Appeals

Any feedback given to facilitators during training is provided to the Director of IIT for review and actioning where appropriate, as per IIT’s Continuous Improvement Procedure.

If a client has a complaint in relation to the Registered Training Organisation (RTO), RTO staff or facilitators, other clients (students) and/or any third parties such as facilities, they are encouraged to speak immediately with the trainer or administration staff or email the Education Team to resolve the issue.

At any point during the complaints and appeals process a support person can be brought in by the student.

If the complainant is not satisfied that the issue has been resolved they will be asked to complete a Student Complaints Grievances & Appeals (CAF) Form available from either the trainer or administration staff, or IIT website. IIT will then investigate the complaint and advise the complainant of the outcome.

If the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome they may write to the Director, setting out in detail the issue of concern. This may lead to occasions where an industry-training representative may be invited to act as an objective party in order to negotiate a satisfactory resolution.

If a participant is not comfortable with disclosing a complaint then they can call the National Training Complaints Hotline on 1800 000 674 and lodge the complaint with them. They will advise the participant of what actions may be required to deal with the complaint.

3.2  Complaints Process

All complaints shall follow the below procedure:

1. Made in writing within 5 days of the incident using the CAF Corrective Action Form
2. A submitted CAF Corrective Action Form will constitute a formal complaint from the participant
3. The Director must be informed of receipt of all complaints
4. The Director may delegate responsibility for the resolution of the complaint
5. In the case of a complaint, the Director will initiate a transparent, participative investigation to identify the issues
6. Assessment complaints will be processed in accordance with the Appeals Procedure – Annex A
7. Complaints where possible are to be resolved within 10 working days of the initial application
8. In all cases the final conclusion will be assessed by the Director
9. The Participant will be advised in writing of the outcome of their complaint
10. If the outcome is not to the satisfaction of the Participant, they may seek an appointment with the Director
11. If the participant is not satisfied with the decision they have the option to seek outside assistance to pursue the complaint
12. All complaints will be handled as Staff-In-Confidence and will not affect or bias the progress of the participant in any current of future training

4.          Appeals

IIT strives to deal with appeal issues as soon as they emerge, in order to avoid further disruption or the need for a formal complaint process.

4.1  Appeals Process

All appeals shall follow the below procedure:

1. Be made in writing within 5 days of notification of the assessment decision using the CAF Corrective Action Form A submitted CAF Corrective Action Form will constitute a formal appeal from the participant
2. The Director shall be informed of receipt of any appeal
3. The Director may delegate responsibility for the resolution of the appeal
4. In the case of an appeal, the Director will initiate a transparent, participative process to deal with the issues at hand
5. Appeals will be processed in accordance with the Appeals procedure – Annex B
6. Appeals where possible are to be resolved within 10 working days of the initial application
7. In all cases the final conclusion will be endorsed by the Director
8. The participant will be advised in writing of the outcome of their appeal
9. If the outcome is not to the satisfactory of the participant, they may seek an appointment with the Director
10. If the participant is not satisfied with the decision they have the option to seek outside assistance to pursue the appeal
11. All appeals will be handled as Staff-In-Confidence and will not affect or bias the progress of the participant in any current of future training

5.           Administration

All complaints and appeals will be discussed at Management Review Meetings for continuous improvement of the processes.

All Complaints and Appeals are to be held on file.

Details concerning the scope of the Complaints and Appeals Policy are to be clearly available throughout the organisation and contained within the Employee Induction Process and Student Information Guide.

6.           Unsuitable Outcome

After our internal processes if the complainant or appellant is not satisfied with the complaints and appeal outcome and they feel the matter is not resolved, the appeal is referred to an independent mediator. The appellant may again deliver their own version of the problem and request a support person be present.

The mediator should then consider the issues raised and attempt to resolve the appeal to the satisfaction of both parties. Appeals that are found to be proven must be acted upon through the Continuous Improvement process to make systematic changes to prevent the recurrence of this as a problem again.

The Independent Mediator (We use the Resolution Institute- http://www.resolution.institute/ ), negotiates an outcome according to the legal rules for alternate dispute resolution. The resolution is then placed into the local court system and orders are issued to enforce this outcome.

There is no further dispute resolution process available and the decision of the courts is final.

The RTO can provide suggestions of external mediators to students. Students will be made aware that any costs incurred through this external process is at their cost and not IIT.

These include:

1. Australian Mediation Association – Commercial and Business Mediation
   http://www.ama.asn.au/commercial-and-business-mediation/
2. The State Ombudsman Offices available from the websites below:
   https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au
3. The Commonwealth Ombudsman Offices available from the websites below: http://www.ombudsman.gov.au
4. Department of Fair Trading – for issues involving monies, service or product agreements.
5. Industry Associations – for judgement on course content and learning outcomes.

Student Complaints Grievances & Appeals Form (CAF)