Qualification Prices: How Much is That Piece of Paper Worth?

Have you ever wondered about qualification prices, how they are set, and how the cost of Recognition of Prior Learning is calculated? In November 2020, we were approached to participate in the National Skills Commission’s review of the price of VET qualifications. 

This was a review of what it costs to deliver quality training in Australia across qualifications from Certificate I level all the way up to Graduate Diploma.

We explained that we are focused largely on Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) assessments, rather than delivering training, so together, we agreed that we were not best placed to assist the Commission in this instance.

We were eager to read the results, though.

Why does RPL cost less than studying?

Here’s the short answer: RPL costs less because it skips the teaching, not the assessment. You are not paying to be taught something you already know. You are paying for a qualified assessor to test the experience you already have against a national standard, and for the Registered Training Organisation that stands behind the result.

Three things drive the difference:

• No teaching time. Studying a qualification is priced to cover trainers, materials, and 1 to 2 years of delivery. RPL is priced to cover the assessment.
• Your time is already spent. A good RPL candidate has spent years learning on the job, well in excess of the time a student would spend in a classroom. That investment has already been made. It just hasn’t been recognised.
• The compliance still applies. This is the part that does not get cheaper. Assessment against the national standards is what our regulator scrutinises in an audit, and it is what makes the qualification worth holding.

In numbers: a Diploma through RPL with Churchill starts from around $1,895. The national average price to STUDY a Diploma in this field was $6,600. That’s roughly a 70% saving, and the tables below show where those figures come from. Fees are current as at 15 July 2026 and match our RPL pricing page.

What did the national price review actually find?

The report has now been completed and the results are useful for considering the questions of price and value when it comes to getting qualified.

Price and value are both subjective.

What is costly in the minds of one person is not in the mind of another, and what is valuable in the minds of some is not in the minds of others. It is something we all experience in different areas of our lives from big purchases to small.

RPL assessments take considerable time, staff, compliance and expertise. Being accredited as a Registered Training Organisation takes considerable time, expertise, staff and compliance.

If it was simply a case of eyeballing someone and saying, ‘Yes, your experience warrants a qualification. I’ll hit print now, just go stand by the printer,’ it would make sense that it was the cost of the paper and the printer. But in the same way the experience took a lot more to build up for the RPL candidate, RPL as an assessment method takes a lot more to complete.

So, how do you measure the cost and value of an RPL assessment?

When we began offering our Recognition of Prior Learning services back in January 2006, we used a benchmark of approximately 50% of the cost of training and assessment.

It is the assessment process and adhering to the national standards that draws the greatest scrutiny from our Regulator, the Australian Skills Quality Authority, in any audit, and protects the integrity of Australian qualifications. This is vital in ensuring your qualification is viewed positively by employers and industry bodies.

Using that benchmark, we looked at the National Skills Commission’s results for the highest volume qualifications completed in Australia. The results show that our RPL fees are sitting well below the average cost of studying qualifications.

One caveat worth stating plainly, because it is your money: these figures were published by the National Skills Commission in 2021. The Commission was abolished in 2022 and its work now sits with Jobs and Skills Australia, which has not published a replacement. We checked again in July 2026 and nothing of this scope has been released since.

We have kept the figures because they remain the only national price benchmark of their kind, and because course fees have not fallen in the years since. If anything, the savings shown below are conservative.

If we consider the Management and Commerce qualifications, which many of Churchill’s qualifications fall under, the average prices are:

Source: National Skills Commission, Average Price Benchmarking Report, 2021. Still the most recent national price study of its kind, see the note above.

Our scope of registration extends to Graduate Diploma level but the Commission didn’t examine the Graduate Diplomas in this field. Looking at what universities charge to study a Graduate Diploma, the fees range from $20,000 to $30,000 on average.

These specific qualifications were considered by the Commission and are qualifications we issue:

Source: National Skills Commission, as at April 2021.

Whilst there are always cut-price sellers in any market, when you look at average prices coming out of the Commission, it is easier to get an idea of prices for courses (using training and assessment) coming from quality providers.

Churchill’s RPL fees

Rather than having different RPL assessment prices for different qualifications, we have taken a simpler approach. We have a consistent fee structure according to the level of qualification.

Churchill RPL fees, current as of 15 July 2026.

Two things worth knowing before you budget:

• Payment plans. Instalment payment plans are available for any amount over $995, paid over three months, with the first instalment made when you enrol.
• Churchill Priority Upgrade. If you need the qualification sooner, a $350 Churchill Priority upgrade has it issued within 7 days of enrolment and full payment.

Your appraisal is free either way, and it comes before any of this: you find out what you are eligible for before you decide whether to spend anything. See the current RPL pricing and fees, or read how the Diploma of WHS Priority Upgrade works in practice.

What could you actually save?

Set the national average training price against Churchill’s RPL fee, level for level, and the gap looks like this:

National averages: National Skills Commission, April 2021. Churchill RPL fees: current as of 15 July 2026.

Save time and money

Across many courses, the expectation by the Australian Government is that you will take between 1 and 2 years on average to study a qualification.

For many of the people Churchill has worked with, this means you are finding time outside of your ongoing commitments to your employment and family to wedge in your study.

This then brings us to the cost and value of an RPL assessment.

A good RPL candidate has spent significant time learning on the job, usually well in excess of the 1 to 2 years you would expect to spend if you were studying the course afresh.

For that reason, we have made sure that we have developed an RPL assessment method that lets you get on with your regular life once you have given us the proof of your experience, while our team gets on with the job of lining up all of that experience against the assessment requirements of the qualification.

You have saved time and there is both a cost saving and value to be found for the RPL graduate.

Then we have layered in additional time savings, moving quickly to complete your RPL assessment so that you are able to be competitive promptly in the job market.

More and more, qualifications are being required by employers to be successful in meeting their position requirements.

Higher-level qualifications are linked with higher wages across Australia, and higher wages also lead to higher superannuation contributions. The most recent national figures support it: in NCVER’s 2025 student outcomes survey, which covered more than 275,000 students, 62.4% of those who completed a qualification had improved their employment status afterwards, and 86.7% achieved the main goal they trained for. Your financial well-being can be helped or hindered by how well placed you are for career progression.

Find out what you’re eligible for

In the first instance, you still need to pay for the qualifications you want to obtain by RPL. Some training organisations have a confusing mix of prices. Others try to sell you every level of qualification in a particular field, even though you may only need one qualification. They are focused on their sales rather than your career.

Churchill is different for a reason

We started offering RPL services after Randall found himself in a position where his experience needed to be translated to something other employers would understand, outside of the police.

We found the money to pay for the qualifications because we knew they were vital assets for his next career step, but we still had to find the money from the family budget.

So, we decided to offer prices and a service that represented the best value we possibly could.

And because we felt like we could really have used the help to choose the right qualifications for Randall’s situation, we promised ourselves we would always give you the best advice around qualifications for industries and opportunities.

When we give you qualification recommendations, we make sure that these line up with the career you have carefully built and the direction you are heading. This means that we will never list every qualification that you have sailed through as you grew in your career, just the highest level in that qualification package for where you are sitting now. 

If you are wondering which that is, our rundown of the most popular RPL qualifications is a good place to start.

The number that actually matters

Churchill’s RPL fees run roughly 70% to 75% below the cost of studying the same qualification, and wider again at Graduate Diploma level. But price only tells you what something costs. Whether the qualification is taken seriously comes down to who assessed it and against what standard, and that is the part we have never discounted.

The free appraisal turns these general figures into your figures.