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About Training Packages

 

Training Packages are developed by Industry Skills Councils on behalf of industry. They are sets of nationally endorsed standards and qualifications for recognising and assessing people's skills.  A Training Package describes what sort of skills and knowledge a person needs in the workplace.

Training Packages are continuously improved and nationally endorsed to ensure they continue to meet the needs of industry, training participants, and the community.  To obtain national endorsement, Training Package developers must consult with, and gain the support of, industry and enterprises with an interest in the Training Package.

Training Packages are also assessed for quality as part of the endorsement process by the National Skills Standards Council (NSSC) through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

This section provides guidance on:

 

Training Package components

Each Training Package is made up of three key components endorsed by the NSSC.  These 'endorsed components' are the:

  • Units of Competency (define the skills and knowledge to operate effectively in employment and how they need to be applied)
  • Qualifications (groups of units of competency ranging from Certificate I through to vocational graduate diploma)
  • Assessment Guidelines (detailing the industry's preferred approach to assessment, including the qualifications required by assessors, the design of assessment processes and  how assessments should be conducted).

When talking about 'Training Packages', it is the endorsed components that are being referred to.  The endorsed components provide the benchmarks for training and assessment and the rules that must be followed in assessing competency and issuing qualifications.   

To view the latest version of the CPP07 and CPC08 Training Packages and their components, visit the TGA website at www.training.gov.au

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Support materials   

A range of resources is also needed to facilitate the teaching, learning and assessment processes based on each Training Package.  These are referred to as the Training Package 'support materials' (or sometimes 'non-endorsed components').  The materials can include learner's guides, assessment tools and instruments, and professional development materials for trainers and assessors.

Support materials are developed by a range of people involved in implementing training packages, eg Registered Training Organisations (RTOs), the Industry Skills Council responsible for the Training Package, and DEEWR.

Traininers and assessors can decide which particular support materials they use to meet the outcomes of the Training Package and the specific needs of clients.  Resources that have already been developed by training authorities and other training providers can be accessed through the CPSISC resource database.

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How do Training Packages encourage flexibility?

Training Packages describe the skills and knowledge needed to perform effectively in the workplace without prescribing how people should be trained. They acknowledge that people can achieve vocational competency in many ways by emphasising what the learner can do, not how or where they learned to do it.  For example, some experienced workers might be able to demonstrate competency against the units of competency, and even gain a qualification, without completing a formal training program. 

With Training Packages, assessment and training may be conducted at the workplace, off-the-job, at a training organisation, during regular work, or through work experience, work placement, work simulation or any combination of these. This flexibility ensures that Training Packages can adapt to a diverse range of industry, employer and learner needs.

Flexibility is inherent in the way Training Packages are constructed and delivered. The process of contextualisation is integral to tapping the inherent flexibility.

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How can Training Packages be contextualised ?

Contextualisation means adjusting units of competency, or packaging certain units into a qualification, to suit the specific needs of the enterprise or learner.  Training Packages can be contextualised within limits set by guidelines for contextualisation. These guidelines mean:

  • units of competency may be modified to reflect the local outcome required by an individual and/or the enterprise - this may involve providing additional information to suit particular learner profiles, specific enterprise equipment requirements or other needs
  • units of competency may be packaged into a qualification using the elective options available, to suit a particular outcome.

Effective contextualisation can ensure a meaningful learning program, ie it caters for the individual needs of learners while at the same time ensuring that the standards determined by the unit of competency and Training Package are met. For example, when training in a face-to-face situation, the learning can be made more realistic for the learner by providing examples of actual workplace case studies. 

It is important that the integrity of the intended unit outcome is maintained during contextualisation. For this reason, there are rules about how contextualisation can occur, ie teachers and trainers: 

“Must not:
      remove the content of any of the elements and performance criteria
      distort or narrow the competency outcomes and limit its use
      diminish the breadth of application of the competency and reduce its portability
May:
      modify components of units of competency to reflect the local outcome required by an individual and/or enterprise
      - this may involve the provision of additional information to suit particular learner profiles, specific enterprise equipment requirements or other local needs
      package units of competency into a qualification, using the elective options available, to suit a particular outcome ."

Source: Training Packages @ Work Back 2 Basics Edition 4 (DEEWR 2011)

 

For general guidance on contextualising units of competency and qualifications, visit the Training Packages @ Work website.

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