Three sectors

Australian education and training has three accredited sectors:

• Schools, normally up to year 12 of secondary school
• Training, characterised by the provision of employment-related skills
• Higher education, including all universities and some other institutions.

Adult Community Education is a de facto fourth sector. Unlike the other three sectors, it is by definition not accredited.

The three accredited sectors substantially differ in philosophy, purpose, and relationship with government. However, the government once decided to amalgamate the higher education and VET sectors, although it did not actually work so they are still quite separate.

People from higher education and school backgrounds who come to teach in the training sector are often quite frustrated by the training sector emphases and assumptions.

The training sector is so wide that many of its procedures have leaned toward a particular kind of teaching and assessment: practical, applied skills, training in the workplace, and individualized approaches.

Even though conceptual learning is prominent in all training qualifications at Certificate IV or higher, the protocols are not substantially different from the lower levels. Of particular note, the learning process in the higher qualifications takes longer because they require students to reflect more on what they do.

What's an RTO?

A "Registered Training Organisation" (RTO) is an approved college that is registered in the state to deliver VET training. Through cooperation between states, RTOs are nationally recognized.

An RTO can be anything from a large institution to a lone person who has contracted to comply with all the registration requirements. All government TAFE colleges are RTOs, but there are many private RTOs as well. Some universities are also RTOs, even though they are mainly higher education providers.

An RTO can also work with other organizations in a partnership to provide VET training. The partner organization is not an RTO in its own right, and must comply with any relevant policies in order to provide training.

About Competency-Based Training

The present training approach is called Competency-Based Training (CBT).

In short, it means that students should be able to do the job for which they are being trained.

Even shorter: Can you do it?

As an assessor, you find out how well they can do it and students will be certified on that basis. So a large part of having credible graduates rests upon how well you assess. In short, the system is assessment-driven.

The abilities that make up a job should be written down as a list of skills. For example, a trainee team leader's list might be:

"The student will be able to:

1. provide leadership, direction and guidance to individuals and teams
2. maximise own performance outcomes
3. manage effective team relationships
4. manage and improve the performance of individuals
5. support, participate in and review team development

These are real skills and are basically observable, but the role of primarily conceptual work is important.

The idea of listing skills means that:

Of course, being good at the job and the list of skills are not always the same. A student might be able to think through issues very well without having the related work skills. The opposite might also be true: students might be good at routine skills, but not know what to do when the job requires conceptual work. In this case, the course produces people who can't really do the job they're trained for.

Most applied work skills require some knowledge and understanding, and this is also listed in the units. (More about that later). A competency-based approach means that students who are brilliant at theory but can't actually have the required work skills don't pass the course. In some situations, of course, the ability to think through issues is the main skill that students need to learn, and the competency approach can be effectively used for academic skills.

The learning activities must naturally suit what you're teaching. We can also look ahead to how to provide practice and give assessment:

The skill to be learned must match:

• the way it is taught,
• the way it is practiced, and
• the way it is assessed

For example, if the skill is bicycle riding, you teach it with a bicycle, then the learner practices bicycle riding, and then you assess it through a demonstration of bicycle riding. Writing essays on bicycle riding doesn't help anyone learn to ride a bicycle.

Training that is based on competencies is known as Competency-Based Training (CBT), and its assessment is Competency-Based Assessment (CBA). Together they are known as CBTA (Competency-Based Training and Assessment).

Working within a quality framework

Your organization has a Business Plan. Get a copy and see how it can help your work roles and responsibilities. It might provide useful information that helps you contribute to meeting the organization’s goals. You might be asked for comment to improve it.

Your organization also has a quality assurance process. It includes actively seeking feedback and advice from colleagues and students.

At this stage, however, it's necessary that you identify the documents in your organization that tell you what you must do as part of its quality system. The documents could be a policy, a procedure, an orientation handbook, a memo, your job description, or instructions on a form. The RTO should also identify your legal and specific ethical responsibilities. Some ethical items may be called regulations or professional codes of practice, or discussed as risks. You will find that systems and practices of prevailing industrial and employee relations will affect how you do them.

You'll need to identify them and understand them know how your system works. You will also have to show that you follow them.

You will commonly face operational limits within which you will have to work. You will probably have a designated level of responsibility and limited autonomy. You will face limitations in staffing resources and in your physical environment. You'll have limits to the time and funds available, and scheduling can be difficult.

How quality assurance systems work

If you're either in an audit or contributing to program improvement, you might want to know what is going on.

Here's how it works ...

Quality systems are basically about checking that you have proper ways of doing things and reviewing them so that they can improve. Systems tend to be cyclical: after you run the program, you check it, improve it, run it again, and so on.

For example, this simple quality system is assumed in this Certificate IV:

1. Plan the program identify purposes, develop policy, and make concrete plans
2. Conduct the program
3. Review the program and list improvements

However, like many more sophisticated quality systems for services, the AQTF has the following components:

1. Written standards that are wider than the organization Examples include: endorsed units, industry standards, ISO standards, industrial relations rulings, legislation, OHS guidelines.
2. The organization's specific version of the standards The organization must have its own policies and procedures, which are written explanations and regulations on what it does and how it does it.
3. Written evidence of implementing the standards For example: letters, policies, procedure statements, check-lists.
4. Actual practice The auditor finds out what people actually do by walking around to observe and asking questions. This will be checked for compliance with policies and procedures. It is also a basis for reviewing policies and procedures, because:
• people figure out better ways of doing things, so the policies need updating
• people might try to cheat the system, so the practice needs to be tightened up to comply with the policies and procedures.
5. Participant feedback and collation, to be used in reviews.
6. Review The organization reviews itself for necessary changes in practice, policies and procedures, and review procedures.

The Australian Qualifications Framework

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is a unified system of qualifications applying to all sectors. The full text is available over the Internet at www.aqf.edu.au (opens new window).

The training sector offers Certificates I-IV and a series of Diplomas:

Certificate I:  Basic repetitive jobs under supervision

Certificate II: Basic procedures

Certificate III: Tradesperson/equivalent, now used for almost any vocation at this level, not only the traditional trades

Certificate IV: University admission standard, employment positions requiring stronger conceptual skills, lower levels of management.

Diploma: Paraprofessional or basic professional

Advanced Diploma: More complex skills or management of diploma graduates

Graduate Certificate: Nominal value is often one semester graduate study

Graduate Diploma: Independent professional. The nominal value is often one year of graduate study.

There is also a Statement of Attainment, which is issued for individual units and groups of units that do not add up to a qualification.

Each qualification defines a job role, that a job for which graduates will be trained. The exceptions are courses that are designed specifically as preparation for further study of some kind.

AQF inconsistencies

AQF levels can be inconsistent for several reasons:

• Legislators and licensing authorities sometimes determine requirements.
• Different industries have different contexts.
• Industrial Relations groups put political pressure on what can be approved.

AQF anomalies between sectors

There are anomalies and overlaps between sectors. For example:

• A training organization may offer a Graduate Diploma but not a degree.
• A training organization may offer qualifications equivalent to a high school graduation certificate and may determine the requirements. However, it will not be eligible for the same government funding, and its graduates seeking university admission follow a different route.
• Secondary schools work with RTOs to offer training sector qualifications.
• Some universities are RTOs and offer training sector qualifications.
• Some RTOs have higher education relationships (either accreditation or arrangements with universities) to offer degrees or parts of degrees.

Use of time

Qualifications are not necessarily time-based. Qualifications at the same level may take different lengths of time. For example, a Certificate IV may take from several weeks to one or two years of full-time study.

However, the states provide lists of nominal time totals, usually important for funding and Austudy purposes. (If you want, have a look at "Purchasing Guides" at VETinfonet.

When colleges aim to provide the whole education experience of the student and have full-time students, they tend to allocate time for levels as follows:

When colleges aim to provide advanced placement for university courses, they are more likely to offer the following levels:

However, courses may be very short, especially when they depend heavily on students learning mostly through work experience.

About jargon

(My cartoon, Sarah)

As you go along, you will notice that there is now a special training jargon, which mostly comes through the sectors tendency to talk about to work skills.

Someone said it is like talking with a mouth full of marbles, but you will need to get accustomed to using it without using it so much that you confuse people.

Here are a few examples:

Here are some more:

People find these three similar:

Compare these three:

Then there are many other terms with specific meanings:

Here are another two similar but different terms:

Besides, some people in the training sector don't like the word "research" and like the word "investigation" or "major report" much better. (They seem to think that research belongs in the university sector, although the word "research" is required for some training qualifications.)

Some of the jargon has been to call students "candidates" or "clients", which is confusing and cumbersome. "Learners" is also starting to appear.

"Candidates" is a better word for experienced employees taking qualifications by RPL. They don't like being called students as if they still had to learn their jobs.

It can be incorrect to call students clients. If a company sends you employees to do some training, the company is the client, not the employees who are taking the course.

Acronyms

Then there's a load of acronyms such as these:

AQF The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), a system of qualifications that ranges from the certificates for the simplest menial skill up to postgraduate research qualifications

AQTF Australian Quality Training Framework

AVETMISS Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard

CBA Competency Based Assessment

CBT Competency Based Training

CBTA Competency Based Training and Assessment

DEEWR Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations

NRT Nationally Recognised Training (the logo that RTOs may use)

NQC National Quality Council

RCC Recognition of Current Competencies:
  1. An obsolete term for RPL
  2. Verification that a student still has the competencies stated in a qualification or statement of attainment.

RPL Recognition of Prior Learning

RTO Registered Training Organisation

VET Vocational Education and Training

And in line with current trends, language may not be gender specific.