It’s where the partners, often an RTO and an enterprise or industry organisation, enter a two-way relationship that delivers benefit for both of them. Successful relationships usually:
- involve sharing resources and information
- develop partnering skills
- have clear, agreed goals and
- are focused on longer-term outcomes.
The benefits of partnership for providers include:
- Profile
Successful, long-term training partnerships raise the profile of training providers
involved. This can generate business as well as boost community standing.
- Innovation
Enterprises want access to training at times, and in ways, locations and settings that suit them . RTOs are developing flexible and innovative practices and products to meet the needs of their partners.
- Staff development
Vibrant, collaborative partnerships create opportunities for staff development for all partners.
An RTO can help its partner:
- navigate the VET system
- align business strategy and human resource needs
- manage the administrative work involved in training
- access training that is flexible and customised
- recognise the current skills of their workforce
- as a mediator or facilitator resolving issues or facilitating relationships between enterprises, government, communities, and training providers
- as a strategist, costing training for an enterprise or industry, making a case for training, and identifying sources of public funds.
Often partnerships are initiated when enterprises with specific training needs approach training providers for assistance. To seize opportunities for forming partnerships, training providers need to be ready to respond to the unique needs of specific industries or enterprises. Training providers can enhance their ability to respond to partnership opportunities by:·
- identifying the specialist skills and knowledge they have to offer partnerships in particular industry areas
- determining the type of services they would like to offer through partnership arrangements
- building innovation and flexibility into policies, business plans and mission statements
- encouraging staff to develop a responsive, customer-focussed approach.
By identifying the services and expertise they can offer to a partnership, training providers are then in a position to make direct approaches to enterprises that they feel could benefit.
There are risks for each partner when entering into a training partnership. Building a partnership requires an investment of valuable time and resources, but there are no guaranteed returns on investment. Identifying and allowing for possible risks in the planning stage is the most effective way to minimise their impact.
To succeed, each partner needs to plan their own involvement in relation to a shared vision and agreed roles and responsibilities. Trust and ongoing communication are cited by many partnerships as the most important elements for success.
A practical checklist 
(81.9 KB) for making partnerships work can be downloaded from this site.