SETO QUALITY STANDARDS

SETO is Committed to Building Confidence in Education Outside the Classroom

SETO Quality Standards are intended to provide national industry standards and a model for compliance on risk and safety management that can be referenced and relied on by schools when choosing a Tour Operator to partner with. 

We recognise that schools, parents and education departments are increasingly seeking ways to evaluate and understand the organisations they are partnering with and SETO wishes to develop a clear set of standards that are attainable, useful and easy to implement while raising the level of service delivery in student educational travel. 

The health and safety of those students and teachers that travel with SETO members will always remain as a number one priority. Although travel comes with inherent risk, our members' staunch commitment to safety is resolute.

The SETO Quality Standards (SQS) are split across two levels and are in the early stages of development. 

SQS Foundations

The initial level, already in place are the basis for sound corporate governance and operational effectiveness. These are standards that are generic to any business and are in line with ASIC guidelines and on going financial stability.  Currently the SQS Foundations are in the form of a Director's declaration of compliance, and are mandatory to gain membership as a Tour Operator member of SETO.This includes adherence to SETO's Guiding Principles.

SQS Domains

SETO is working to build on the SQS Foundations to create more specific detail in key areas of student travel provision, in what we have called the SQS Domains.  Given the broad spectrum of types of trips offered to schools, these standards are being created to allow for sector specific elective modules such as expedition management or snow sports where members can demonstrate compliance and quality in the fields relevant to them.  SETO is conducting research to develop the best approach here which includes liaising with other international systems such as Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) quality badge in UK and Student & Youth Travel Association (SYTA) in the US.  The 3 key Domains that have been identified are outlined below and more information about likely areas of examination can be found on the links. Initially this will be self-assessed. 

SQS FOUNDATIONS

SQS DOMAINS