In the view of a continuing education unit in a rural health education center in Australia, competency-based training emphasizes what a person can actually do as a result of training. Professional continuing education courses are being developed using accredited guidelines from the national Vocational Education Training Assessment Board. (SK)

Competing pressures on Australian educational managers include pressure to implement competency-based training, to manage using the industrial model, and to husband resources, conflicting with traditional educational goals, government policies, and demands for accountability. (SK)

This literature review examines seven issues: describing minimum requirements for qualifications, distinguishing qualification levels, recognizing prior learning, using short courses, recording competency-based assessment results, keeping records of individual achievement, and deciding whether to record exact competencies. Recent movements to…

The issue of training career counsellors in Australia requires considerable review in respect to theory and practice. This paper describes an internship model of training career counsellors. The model is derived from a current program of workplace training for candidates doing their masters in psychology. The program takes a competency-based…

This study examined a model of assessment that could be applied nationally for Year Twelve Vocational Education and Training (VET) subjects and which could yield both a differentiating score and recognition of competence. More than fifty colleges across all states and territories of Australia field-tested the approach over one school year. Results…

Suggests several areas in Australian adult education and training where a competency-based educational model would have application. Areas include the professional development of staff in educational institutions and industrial training establishments, training of educational administrators, vocational training of college students, and the…

A survey of 72 New South Wales vocational teachers revealed that competency-based training has created perceived pressures to pass students, is difficult to implement with limited resources, encourages modularization, and is hampered by unsatisfactory assessment and standards. Over 61% of the teachers felt that it has hindered or severely hindered…

Three options for competency-based assessment in Australia's national standards system are grades, merit, and end-of-course assessment. Grades are well established; merit has flexibility and provides progressive feedback. All three have advantages and disadvantages. (SK)

Inadequate conceptions of the self underlie vocational education and training policy and instruction. The concept of a socially extended self, a social being who is complex and multifaceted, is incompatible with competency-based approaches to vocational education being used in Australia. (SK)

Skills acquisition is complex and cyclic rather than linear and modular as in competency-based training methods. It depends not only on mental attributes that infuse meaning but also on personality dimensions, learning styles, and self-concerns. This raises ethical questions about policies emphasizing competency-based methods. (SK)

Data from an Australian evaluation of competency-based training (CBT) suggest that it emphasizes development of procedural, technical knowledge over reflective problem solving and precludes transformative learning. CBT's empowerment discourses are often belied by workplace realities. Identities of workers and vocational educators are circumscribed…

Focuses on the quality of competency standards used to inform curriculum development processes in Australia. Argues that quality issues have received scant attention in the development of standards, leading to the use of inappropriate methods to establish competency standards. (12 references) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education)…

This report adds to the work on recognition of prior learning (RPL), particularly as it focuses on private registered training providers' RPL processes--how it is practiced and the factors that facilitate or impede its implementation. It reports that advantages of RPL can be found in the information gained from students', trainers' and employers'…

This paper outlines the background and preliminary findings of a study currently in progress in Perth, Western Australia, to investigate the relationship between competence based training and the development of lifelong learning skills. The paper explores both the underlying aims of competency-based training (CBT) and the educational antecedents…

This paper addresses the issues raised in a recent review of postcompulsory education and training in Victoria. In the interim report (April 2000) it is stated that employers found that the skills of new graduates appear to be most deficient in the areas of creativity, flair, problem solving, oral business communication, and interpersonal skills.…