SSA and 21C Training Products
August 2011
New National Regulator for (VET) sector: Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA)
Course owners to work with relevant ISCs towards course accreditation
As of 1 July 2011, the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) is the new national regulator for Australia's vocational education and training (VET) sector. This comes as part of The National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011, to ensure that all VET courses meet nationally approved quality standards, provide greater national consistency and more attention to the way providers are registered, courses are accredited and the system's quality is monitored. ASQA will now be responsible for accrediting all vocational education and training sector courses in the Australian Capital Territory, the Northern Territory and New South Wales, and some RTOs in Victoria and Western Australia. Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania are referring their powers in the regulation of VET to ASQA later in 2011.
All courses submitted for accreditation will now be required to meet the Standards for VET Accredited Courses. These Standards formally identify the requirements for accrediting VET courses, similar to those previously found in the Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF), except where necessary to reflect the new legislative regime (see Standards for VET Accredited Courses and AQTF). To be accredited under ASQA, it is a course owner's responsibility to demonstrate that the courses they put forward for accreditation have been designed, developed and documented in compliance with the requirements of the relevant standards for accreditation.
Amongst other requirements, the standards require that accredited courses are based on on established industry, enterprise, education, legislative or community need. A course owner is required to engage with a relevant ISC to establish the need for a course and to provide confirmation from the ISC that no training package qualification outcome exists to meet the identified need. The rationale for this requirement is that often courses evolve during development from the original course concept. By ensuring that there is no duplication of training package qualifications, ASQA can address the skill requirements that have not been covered by other nationally endorsed Training Packages. Course owners may also choose to engage the relevant ISC, as a stakeholder of the course throughout the course development process so far as the intended course outcomes fall within its area of industry coverage.
An application for accreditation (or the renwal of accreditation) process by a course provider must be preceded by a course concept proposal. Upon receipt of the course concept proposal, the ISC will provide a brief, succinct letter or email to the course owner stating that the proposed course doesn't duplicate, by title or coverage, the outcomes of an endorsed Training Package qualification. The course owners are responsible for documenting all engagement with the ISC and can submit it as supporting documentation with their application for accreditation to ASQA.
Further information can be found on the ASQA website (www.asqa.gov.au) or by calling 1300 701 801.
Changes to the Australian Qualifications Network (AQF)
Under the leadership of the Australia Qualifications Framework Council, the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), the national policy for regulated qualifications in Australian education and training has been revised this year.
This has been done to ensure that the qualification outcomes remain relevant and nationally consistent, continue to support flexible qualifications and pathways to enable national and international portability and comparability of qualifications.
The strengthened AQF is an integrated package of specifications for the 16 qualification types and policies. The AQF has an explicit levels structure of 10 levels against which the qualification types, with the exception of the Senior Secondary Certificate of Education, are located. The policies specify the requirements for issuing qualifications, for registers of qualifications and issuing organisations, and for pathways between qualifications. Service Skills Australia Training Package qualfications already specify pathways into and from occupations and list further qualifications that can be undertaken. The Training Packages will now also ensure that they reflect the new terminology specified by the strengthen AQF.
For more information, visit Australian Qualifications Framework First Edition July 2011
July 2011
Streamlining and What it means for the Service Industries
Streamlined Training Packages with their simplified, shortened and segmented content are expected to be released by July 2012/14. The proposed changes to the Training Packages aims to make them more "fit for purpose" i.e. more focussed on the needs of the industry and employers as well as training providers. The structural amendments will strip out supporting information into a companion volume while retaining only the information that mainly relates to competency standards and requirements in the body of the new Training Packages.
What does the change mean for Service Industries?
The change will mean that RTOs will have greater control over their own business and will be able to focus more on clients, less on paperwork. The changes have also been designed to ensure that the training sector can be more flexible and more relevant and responsive to industry needs.
The new Training Packages will be shorter, written in plain English and much easier to understand. The new Training Packages will set out more clearly the performance standards and requirements for learners to be assessed as competent. For employers, the streamlined training packages will be easier to navigate and essentials like competency standards and assessment requirements related to specific businesses easier to find.
The companion volumes, released concurrently, will contain supporting information about teaching, learning and assessment strategies and guidance on delivery, making it readily accessible.
The new flexibility provisions mean that every Training Package will offer more electives thus enabling trainers to work with learners and employers to tailor the right combination of core and elective elements to specific client needs, in particular any needs for training in literacy, numeracy, basic communications or employment skills.
Streamlined Units of Competency
A unit of competency, with its focus on the expected standards of performance required in an workplace, is the first part of the Training Package to be streamlined.
This will be done by:
Positioning the performance standard as the central outcome
Reducing the level of specification
Removing training delivery advice and guidance information
Including information on foundation skills, sustainability, occupational health and safety and licensing information
Combining the unit descriptor with the unit application section
Including a link to mapping information
Avoiding the use of unnecessary technical language and obscure syntax and generic, non-relevant content
Guidelines on the components included in the streamlined Units of Competency are outlined below:
M=Mandatory field, O = Optional field
| Components | Guidelines |
| Unit Code M | |
| Unit Title M | Concisely describe the unit outcome and not to exceed 100 characters |
| Application M | Briefly describe the unit's practical application, who might use it and its relationship to licensing, legislative, regulatory or certification requirements. |
| Prerequisite Unit O | List only those units critical to achieving the subsequent unit. |
| Competency Field O | Allows retrieval of information in companion volume common to a group of units. |
| Unit sector O | Allows units to be displayed on search engine in sector groups. |
| Elements M | Describes essential outcomes that are demonstrable and assessable. |
| Performance Criteria M | Specify the required performance in relevant tasks, roles and skills and must be expressed as a standard. |
| Foundation skills M | Employability and language, literacy and numeracy skills essential to performance are the focus. |
| Range of Conditions O | Allows for different work environments and conditions that may affect performance and includes essential operating condtions that may be present with training and assessment. |
| Unit Mapping Information O | Provide link to mapping where applicable advising of the change between the current version of each unit and its previous version. |
June 2011
Welcome to our monthly update on VET products for the 21st century. Training packages are changing. They have been around for over ten years and even though there have been content changes driven by industry and policy, the structure of a Training Package remains the same. The existing structure of Training Packages is no longer fit for purpose. Stakeholders have said that Training Packages have become too hard to understand and use. It's time for structural change.
Training package reform is part of the COAG reform agenda for VET in Australia. The reform to Training Packages is focusing on:
- Making training packages more flexible so that they can be adapted to meet specific client of industry needs. This will be achieved by allowing RTOs and their clients to package more electives with core elements into qualifications.
- Streamlining Training Packages so that they are easier to understand and use. This will be achieved by stripping out all the supporting information into a companion volume and including only the information that relates to competency standards and requirements in the Training Package itself.
- Increasing the focus on underpinning knowledge to ensure that people in the workplace have knowledge and skill to work effectively.
- Developing a national framework for foundation skills so that industry can be confident that all learners will have the necessary level of skill in literacy, numeracy, communications and employablity.
For more information and answers to frequently asked questions on Training Products for the 21st Century go to: www.21c.tvetaustralia.com.au/faqs#55871
Next month, SSA and 21C Training Products discuss streamlining and what it means for the service industries.
