Dragon College is a registered training organisation (RTO) that specialises in providing quality training in business studies in Australia by distance learning education and workplace-based traineeships that take advantage of government funding.
Founded by one of Australia's leading business educators, Dr David Poole, Dragon’s mission is:
To create one of the nation’s best distance-learning, workplace-based and online vocational business schools, relying on adult and flexible learning concepts to deliver diplomas in business and management to learners around Australia. We support the need to learn and apply new skills quickly and through modes of learning that respond to the dynamism, mobility and rapid pace of today’s workplaces and the career trajectories of our learners.
As a student of Dragon College you will gain the knowledge and skills that will help you succeed in today’s workplace. Our course content uses the latest examples from the world of business and organisation to give you cutting-edge learning. The assessment tasks provide you with an opportunity to put your learning into practice. Our goal is for you to enjoy your learning with Dragon College since more enjoyable learning equals more engaged learning, better results, and more opportunities to use what you’ve learned in the workplace in order to become a more effective employee and, we hope, an even better manager.
We provide a holistic model of learning, assessment and personal development that is consistent with what we know about how people learn and develop. We have found that distance learning and workplace-based learners in Australia:
- are eager to learn
- are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning
- are keen to have input into their learning – for the learning occurs through their insights and experiences
- are encouraged to use reflection and self-evaluation
- are stimulated that their learning needs focus on factors that help them solve significant problems in their own work environments.
Not all students learn in the same way. That’s one of the reasons we adopt a threefold approach to teaching and assessment – through theory, practical work and project work. We also recognise that, with an amount of reasonable adjustment, students who may not learn best using traditional learning and assessment methods are still able to achieve excellent results. Consequently, whenever possible we try to accommodate any students with special needs in our training and assessment program.
As mentioned above, the Diploma you are doing is an accredited qualification, a nationally recognised qualification under the Australian Qualifications Framework. The 8 units in your diploma have been chosen by Dragon College of Business to represent the broadest and best mix of units that are available. Many of them are among the most popular units offered by colleges throughout the Australian vocational education system.
We hope that, as one of our students, you will have the opportunity to experience all the aspects of business covered by your course in your own workplace and be able to increase the knowledge and skills you use every day at work.
Workplace-Based Traineeships
Dragon College provides workplace-based traineeships. These integrate the ideas, models and theories of business and management with your ongoing experience at work. In this way, your learning becomes very practical and applied.
You will be assessed as “competent” in our system of vocational education when you can apply your knowledge and skills to successfully complete work activities in a range of situations and environments to a standard that is appropriate for your workplace and industry. Each unit that you complete is known as a Unit of Competency because the learning is applied directly to your work experience.
During your traineeship, your employer is obligated to provide you with the time, support and resources required to assist you to successfully complete your studies. In addition, your company’s contracted Registered Training Organisation (in this case, Dragon College of Business), will provide your learning content, work with you, your supervisor and employer to ensure that the training program meets your needs, and support you with personal contact and advice as you move through your program.
Your Individual Learning Plan (ILP)
Dragon College helps and encourages students to use a training plan as a means of reflecting on their progress in the course and the duties they perform at work. As a student you will be encouraged to be committed to constant improvement and self-assessment.
A training plan will help guide you through the process of self-assessment, and help you to plan your targets and goals, record what you do and review your progress. In effect, it will work as a journal.
Also, by working through a number of questionnaires during the year, you will increase awareness of your strengths and weaknesses, consider what your overall goals are for the course, and produce a useful record of your achievements. You may either work through the suggested questionnaires we provide or use those ideas and frameworks to develop your own training plan.
How we communicate with you during the course
You will have regular contact with your trainers-assessors during the course and ample opportunity to discuss any matters that concern you with Dragon’s management team. And, of course you will also receive regular information from Dragon College. It is therefore important that you check your email account regularly for important communications that will be sent throughout the course as well as your home or post office mail box.
One of the most important methods of communicating with you is through the Online Forum that has been created to allow you to comment about your course, communicate with your trainers and assessors and other learners who are studying the same units or qualifications as you, and obtain answers to many of questions that you might have during your studies. Helpful tips and advice from the college will also be provided on the Forum.
The qualification you get when you complete the course
After you have met all the requirements of your course, you will be issued the relevant Diploma, with a transcript listing all the units of competency that you have completed.
Statement of Attainment
Nationally recognised (AQF) qualifications are made up of individual units of competency. In some cases, a student progresses towards meeting the qualification requirements by completing the units in sequence or small groups (eg of two or three units). If you do not meet all the course requirements, but have completed all the requirements for one or more units of competency, you will be issued an AQF Statement of Attainment for the unit(s) you have completed.
