well NoCare, as you might have deduced from my earliest post on the matter, it's something that a Group of us have taken up the Chain several times now.
It comes down to the fact that SAAS are digging in on the Cert IV is all that is needed path. It's about money, its about the fact they cant do anything else with their RTO status becuse of the cost to increase the scope, and it's about the Union....they are all blockers to an expanded skill set/scope for Vols. What do we do about it, well, having beaten my head up often enough over it, I have chosen to fork out the $$ myself and go to Uni and not rely on SAAS to provide it - but then SAAS dont recognise it so its for my personal betterment, rather than any change in my SAAS pratice. For others that dont want Uni there are a couple of providers that can do the Diploma, one in NSW, and one in WA. Unless you have a $$ tree in your backyard, then avoid the WA company. They also have at least one complaint outstanding against them as an RTO based on their practices. $10000ish for the Diploma is rubbish
and so NoCare, I dont have any easy answer....it's for all of us as Vols to continue to remind the General at every opportunity, that learning shouldn't stop 12 months after we join at the completion of Cert IV, PDWs are not career progression they are skills maintenance, and that people in the country deserve the opportunity for the highest trained people they can get. The only way that will all happen, is if enough people bang the gong
