CAQA, a division of Career Calling International, hosted a fifteen-member delegation of Master Trainers from India on 29 April 2026 as part of the Australia Awards Agriculture Master Trainers Study Tour. The three-hour session, held at Pegasus Apart'Hotel in the Melbourne central business district and coordinated through the University of Adelaide, was received with substantial positive feedback from delegates.
Australia Awards, funded and administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, brings senior professionals from partner countries to Australia for Short-Course and Fellowship activity aligned with Australia's development cooperation and bilateral engagement objectives. The 2026 Agriculture Master Trainers Study Tour was one such activity. The delegation of fifteen Master Trainers from India spent several weeks in Australia in April and May, engaging with the Australian skills sector across a structured programme.
CAQA's component of the programme was a three-hour session on the morning of Wednesday, 29 April 2026, from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon. The session was coordinated by Dr Tamara Jackson and Dr.Shweta Singh of the University of Adelaide, who led the broader Study Tour. The session focused on the Australian Vocational Education and Training Quality Framework, with particular attention to the Outcome Standards for NVR Registered Training Organisations Instrument 2025, the Compliance Requirements Instrument 2025, and the supporting regulatory architecture.
About CAQA
CAQA (Compliance and Quality Assurance) has been in continuous operation since January 1999. Career Calling International, the group within which CAQA sits, was established in August 2009. The organisations provide compliance advisory, audit preparation, assessment system design, validation, professional development, and resource development services to Registered Training Organisations, TAFEs, universities, and enterprise training providers across Australia. CAQA's consultants are ISO auditors. The organisation maintains a substantial library of vocational education and training resources developed over its years of operation.
CAQA's engagement with international training system counterparts has developed over time, with delegations and professional visits from a number of countries over the years. The 29 April session was a scheduled activity within the Australia Awards framework, sitting within the ordinary course of CAQA's professional work.
How the session was structured
The session was organised around three Priority Areas covering the principal elements of the Australian VET Quality Framework. Priority Area One addressed delivery and assessment practice: the eight Standards of Quality Area 1 of the Outcome Standards Instrument 2025, covering industry engagement, training product design, the assessment system, validation, recognition of prior learning, credit transfer, and facilities and resources. Priority Area Two focused on Standard 1.5 in depth, covering assessment validation methodology and the seven Performance Indicators that define compliant validation practice. Priority Area Three addressed the broader regulatory architecture: the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 and its subordinate instruments, the Data Provision Requirements, the Fit and Proper Person Requirements, the Financial Viability Risk Assessment Requirements, and the fifteen Standards across Quality Areas 2, 3, and 4.
The session combined short presentations on each Priority Area with structured discussion. Delegates were invited to reflect on points of similarity and divergence between the Australian framework and their own Indian Technical and Vocational Education and Training context, and to identify elements that may be of interest for further consideration. Comparative reflection and questions from delegates formed a substantial part of the three hours.
Facilitation team
Four senior practitioners from CAQA and Career Calling International led the session.
Sukh Sandhu, Director of CAQA and Career Calling International, was the main presenter. He brings over thirty years of experience in education, training, compliance, risk management, and auditing, including prior experience at the Australian Skills Quality Authority. He is Editor-in-Chief of VET Sector Magazine and is currently a Doctor of Business Administration candidate at Golden Gate University. He opened the session, led the presentations across all three Priority Areas, and closed with synthesis. His professional expertise spans compliance, risk management, property law, migration law, and research.
Michelle Newman, Chief Executive Officer of CAQA, supported the main presenter across all three Priority Areas. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in VET compliance, audit, and quality management, and leads CAQA's consulting, audit-preparation, and professional-development operations.
Anna Haranas, General Manager of Career Calling International, co-facilitated across all three Priority Areas. She has thirty-five years of experience in the Australian education and training sector, with particular expertise in assessment system design, training and assessment strategy development, and validation practice.
Rajkiran Sandhu, Head of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at CAQA, served as Clinical Facilitator across all three Priority Areas. She is an endorsed Nurse Practitioner specialising in Intensive Care, holds two Master of Advanced Nursing Practice degrees from the University of Melbourne, and lectures in nursing at RMIT University. Her contribution drew on the assessment of competency in highly regulated clinical environments.
Delegate response
Delegate engagement throughout the morning was substantive. Each Priority Area generated structured comparative discussion, with delegates drawing parallels to their own Indian TVET context and to the National Skills Qualifications Framework, the Qualification Pack and National Occupational Standard architecture, and the Sector Skill Council governance model. Validation practice under Standard 1.5 attracted particularly active discussion, with delegates noting the structural protection of independence in the Australian framework and the operational discipline of the seven Performance Indicators.
Feedback gathered after the session was substantially positive. Delegates indicated that the comparative framing of the discussion, the depth of facilitator expertise, and the materials provided had been useful additions to their understanding of the Australian system. Several delegates indicated interest in continuing professional contact with CAQA after returning to India.
Session materials
Delegates received a materials package on arrival that included a Comprehensive Discussion Guide covering all four Quality Areas of the Outcome Standards Instrument 2025, a companion Facilitator Answer Key, printed handouts of the three Priority Area presentation decks, a one-page Session Agenda Card, and Facilitator Profiles. A Pre-Reading Pack had been distributed in advance through Dr Shweta Singh of the University of Adelaide.
Following the session, digital copies of all session materials were provided to delegates, together with references to the primary legislative sources on the Federal Register of Legislation and the National Register of VET. Delegates who wish to continue professional contact with CAQA may do so through the CAQA website.
Australia Awards context
Australia Awards is the Australian Government's principal international Scholarships, Short Courses and Fellowships program. It comprises three main streams: long-term Australia Awards Scholarships for full-time undergraduate and postgraduate study at Australian institutions; Australia Awards Fellowships for short-term professional development activity typically of two to fifty-two weeks; and Short Courses and targeted study programs such as the Agriculture Master Trainers Study Tour. All three streams are funded and administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Delivery of Australia Awards activities typically involves a delivery partner, most often an Australian university, managing programme logistics and coordinating subject-matter providers who deliver specific content. In the case of the 2026 Agriculture Master Trainers Study Tour, the University of Adelaide was the delivery partner, and CAQA was one of several Australian organisations engaged to deliver session content during the delegation's time in Australia. Similar arrangements have brought Australia Awards delegations to Australian organisations across the VET sector and related industries for many years.
Australia-India skills cooperation
The Australia-India bilateral relationship in skills and education has developed over several decades and is reflected in a range of current frameworks, including the Australia-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and sector-specific agreements between Australian and Indian institutions. Indian students have been a substantial presence in Australian vocational and higher education for many years. A growing set of institutional partnerships links Australian and Indian providers on curriculum, research, and credentialing matters.
Study tours such as the 2026 Agriculture Master Trainers Study Tour are one mechanism through which bilateral skills cooperation is operationalised. They bring senior professionals from the Indian skills ecosystem into structured contact with their Australian counterparts, with the intent of supporting mutual understanding, practitioner-level exchange, and the identification of areas for further engagement. Outcomes of such tours accrue over time, beyond any single event.
Looking forward
CAQA regards engagements of this kind as the beginning of continuing professional relationships rather than single events. Follow-up contact with the delegation is being maintained through the established Australia Awards alumni framework, supplemented by direct CAQA engagement where individual delegates have indicated interest. Several delegates raised specific reform questions during the session that may form the basis for further bilateral exchange in the months ahead.
CAQA acknowledges the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the engagement, Australia Awards for the structured framework that made it possible, Dr Shweta Singh of the University of Adelaide for the coordinating work that brought the fifteen delegates to Melbourne, and the delegates themselves for their substantive engagement and for their willingness to bring their own considerable expertise into the room.
Wednesday, 29 April 2026. Pegasus Apart'Hotel Melbourne CBD. 9:00 am to 12:00 noon. A fifteen-member delegation, four senior CAQA practitioners, and three hours of structured comparative engagement between two of the most ambitious national training systems in the region.
