Modern Slavery Awareness Training

Modern slavery awareness training is short, workforce-wide training that teaches people what modern slavery means in Australian law, what it can look like in a workplace or a supplier, and who to tell when something does not add up. Its job is recognition and escalation. It is not designed to turn anyone into an assessor or an investigator.

A question that comes up often has a reassuring answer. Awareness training of this kind is not an accredited course, and the Modern Slavery Act 2018 does not require training to be accredited. Accreditation is a specific thing. ASQA or a state regulator independently assesses a course against the Standards for VET Accredited Courses 2021 and the Australian Qualifications Framework, only a registered training organisation may deliver it, and it is listed on the National Training Register. That process makes a qualification portable between employers. It is not the measure of whether workplace awareness training is any good.

The useful tests are different. When reviewing a course, look at:

• whether it uses the statutory meaning of modern slavery rather than a loose one, because underpayment and poor conditions are serious but are not the same thing
• whether it names a real internal escalation route instead of a general instruction to report concerns
• how current it is, given the Act has been amended and the supporting guidance keeps moving
• what completion evidence it leaves behind, since a reporting entity describing its training will be judged on what it can show

If a provider describes a course as nationally recognised or accredited, that is a claim you can check on the National Training Register, and ASQA sets out what accreditation actually involves. Requirements differ by sector and change over time, so treat this as general information rather than legal advice.

Posts tagged here sit across compliance training and human rights. Sentrient’s modern slavery course is part of the wider compliance training courses library.