Vocational Placements in Australia

Work placement if it is not madatory?

When writing a delivery and assessment strategy for a course, can the RTO decide to add a work placement component to the course if it is not a mandatory part of the training package? For example, Certificate IV in hospitality, it is a requirement of one of the units that they complete 36 shifts in the industry so that would be classed as mandatory for that course. A certificate IV in business does not have any requirement like this however in order to fill up some of the volume of learning and to improve their experience in learning, could one include a period of work experience? Would work experience be classed as 'contact hours' that students should be completing?

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Vocational Placements Fact Sheet
 https://www.fairwork.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/723/Student-placements.pdf.aspx