Author: Alan Maguire

40+ years experience as a trainer, instructional designer, quality manager, project manager, program manager, RTO auditor, RTO manager and VET adviser.

Is ‘performance’ still important in the Australian VET system?

The Australian VET system is changing.

I’ve recently published the following articles relating to the current VET Reforms:

In this article, I want to emphasis the ongoing importance of ‘performance’ in the Australian VET system.

Competence relates to Performance

The Australian VET system is still based on competencies.

Competency, in the Australian VET system, is defined as the consistent application of knowledge and skills to the standard of performance required in the workplace.

Three key words that I want to focus on are: Knowledge, Skills and Performance.

A fundamental purpose of the Australian VET system

A fundamental purpose of the Australian VET system is to ensure Australia has a productive workforce. This is achieved by delivering training that develops the ability of people to perform work. Each year, billions of dollars are spent by governments on the VET system. It would be a waste of Australian taxpayers’ money if VET didn’t produce people with the ability to perform work safely and effectively.

A major outcome for VET should be work-ready people. These people may be seeking a job, seeking a new job, or seeking a better job.

Capability is not the same as Performance

VET must focus on ‘performance’. Having knowledge is not enough. Having skills is not enough. A person may know the theory (knowledge) and possess the capability (skill), but without action and real-world application, they remain unable to perform work.

The new Application of Skills and Knowledge (ASK) units will remove information about Elements and Performance Criteria. This significantly de-emphasises ‘performance’. However, each RTO delivering an ASK unit will still need to interpret it, contextualise it, and reconstruct it to describe the required performance.

Focusing on performance allows us to see how work actually happens. The required performance must be clearly described before assessment tools can be developed and before training programs can be designed.

Describing performance, linking knowledge and skills

The ASK units will specify the required knowledge, required skills, and application of knowledge and skills. However, the application of knowledge and skills in the ASK units do not necessarily describe anything about performance.

An RTO may use task breakdowns and step-by-step procedures to describe the required performance, as illustrated by the table below. In addition, extra columns can be added to the table to include information to show the link between each step of performance and the required knowledge and required skills.

This table format reconstructs the three piece of information: Knowledge, Skills and Performance.

This example clearly describes the required performance, and the step-by-step procedure can be used to develop observation checklist for assessment. Also, it provides information about when and what knowledge and skills need to be covered during training.

Do you want more information?

Are you an RTO manager or course coordinator?

Could your RTO team benefit from professional development about changes to the Australian VET system? In particular, how the Training Package Organising Framework or how the new EPC and ASK formatted units impact their work as VET practitioners?

Ring Alan Maguire on 0493 065 396 to discuss.

Contact now!

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Training trainers since 1986

How is the Australian VET system changing?

Introduction

Some people have been against a competency-based VET system for a very long time.

In November 2018, the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, commissioned a short-duration review of the Australia’s VET sector. The review was led by Steven Joyce, a former New Zealand Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment. He was later appointed Chair of the Skills Expert Panel, providing strategic advice to the Australian Government on VET reform implementation. [1]

People who were against a competency-based VET system had their say and Steven Joyce included their ideas in his report.

In April 2019, the Australian Government released the report with the title, ‘Strengthening Skills: Expert Review of Australia’s Vocational Education and Training System’, also known as the Joyce Review. [2]

In 2020, work on the VET Reforms begin. Later, VET Reforms were rebranded as Skills Reforms.

What is the planned change?

The planned change to the Australian VET system starts with changing qualifications and unit. The ultimate goal to the creation of a harmonised tertiary education system.

Not everyone thinks that VET should become a curriculum-based education system. There are some people who want VET to retain as a competency-based training system. I think a compromise has been made so that everyone gets what they want. The people want to introduce a vocational education system can have what they want, and those wanting vocational training system to continue to have it.

What are the two systems?

VET is splitting into two systems:

  • Vocational training system
  • Vocational education system.

The following table shows some differences between the two systems.

And the following illustrates the one VET system splitting into two.

Options for the future may include:

  • Vocational training (VT) is completely replaced by vocational education (VE), returning the entire VET system back to pre-1992 settings
  • Continues as 2 different systems, VE system and VT system
  • After the curriculum-based experiment fails the entire system returns to competency-based vocational training (VT) system
  • AI destroys the economy and society as we know it (let’s hope this is not a real option).

The following illustrates potential future options.

What is tertiary education harmonisation?

Harmonisation refers to the strategic alignment of the Vocational Education and Training and Higher Education (University) sectors. This initiative is driven by the Australian Universities Accord reforms and guided by the Jobs and Skills Australia Roadmap. The aim is to create a seamless tertiary education system.

I will assume that harmonisation is not about creating one tertiary education system. The vocational education (VE) system would continue to exist. The dream is for vocational education (VE) course to provide a pathway to higher education (HE) courses.

In conclusion

Ultimately, the ongoing evolution of the Australian VET system highlights a long-standing tension between competency-based training and curriculum-based education. What began with the 2018 Joyce Review has culminated in a strategic compromise: rather than forcing the entire sector into a single system, the system is splitting into distinct vocational training (VT) and vocational education (VE) streams. This dual-system approach attempts to satisfy both traditionalists who value practical, work-ready competencies and reformers advocating for broader, knowledge-based curriculum structures.

Looking forward, the success of this reform hinges on how effectively these two systems co-exist and align with the broader goal of tertiary harmonisation. The future remains open to several paths, ranging from a total shift back to a pre-1992 curriculum model to a potential return to a purely competency-based framework if the current experiment fails.

References

[1] https://www.dewr.gov.au/expert-review-australias-vet-system accessed 9 June 2026

[2] Strengthening Skills: Expert Review of Australia’s Vocational Education and Training System | PM&C accessed 9 June 2026

Do you want more information?

Are you an RTO manager or course coordinator?

Could your RTO team benefit from professional development about changes to the Australian VET system? In particular, how the Training Package Organising Framework or how the new EPC and ASK formatted units impact their work as VET practitioners?

Ring Alan Maguire on 0493 065 396 to discuss.

Contact now!

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Training trainers since 1986

Deep dive or deep water? Why I’m sinking in this ASK unit of competency

Okay, I get it. The Australian VET system is changing but I’ve deep-dived into an ASK unit of competency and it is officially time to throw me a lifeline.

Recently I have published the following articles:

This time it is a deep dive into an ASK unit of competency that has been developed by Future Skills Organisation. It is radically different to the other two ASK units that I have unpacked.

I have randomly select the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit to unpack. Please note, that it is a draft unit. It hasn’t yet been finalised, endorsed, or released for implementation.

Let’s dive in.

Unpacking the unit of competency

1. Unit outcome

The following is the Unit outcome for the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit.

Analyse the Unit outcome by highlighting key words and writing notes.

Extract performance requirements from the Unit outcomes.

2. Knowledge (K)

The following are the Knowledge items for the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit.

Analyse the Knowledge items by highlighting key words and writing notes.

There is a great amount of ambiguity.

3. Skills (S)

The following are the Skills items for the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit.

Analyse the Skills items by highlighting key words and writing notes.

Extract performance requirements from the Skills items.

There continues to be a great amount of ambiguity.

4. Application of knowledge and skills

The following are the Application of knowledge and skills for the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit.

This information is aligned to the AQF, but it is an unstructured and an unhelpful way to describe the application of knowledge and skills. This information seems to better fit under the Assessment conditions heading.

Analyse the Application of knowledge and skills by highlighting key words and writing notes.

Extract performance requirements from the Application of knowledge and skills.

After analysing the Knowledge, Skills and Application of knowledge and skills, there remains is a great amount of ambiguity. Greater specificity is required before designing assessment tools and developing training strategies.

5. Performance evidence (PE)

The following are the Performance evidence for the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit.

Analyse the Performance evidence by highlighting key words and writing notes.

Extract performance requirements from the Performance evidence.

6. Knowledge evidence (KE)

The following are the Knowledge evidence for the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit.

The following table compares the list of Knowledge evidence (KE) items with the list of Knowledge (K) items.

Clearly, there is a duplication of information.

7. Assessment conditions

The following are the Assessment conditions for the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit.

Analyse the Assessment conditions by highlighting key words and writing notes.

Extract performance requirements from the Assessment conditions.

Clearly, there is a great amount of ambiguity. Ambiguity is being called ‘flexibility’. Calling it ‘flexibility’ often masks information that is devoid of meaning. Ambiguity leads to inconsistent and unreliable assessments, while creating confusing, unmeasurable learning objectives where learners don’t know what success looks like. Nobody knows what success looks like.

Without clear, unambiguous descriptions of performance requirements, it is impossible to commence designing assessment tools and developing training strategies.

Reconstructing the unit of competency

The following is a 3-column mapping table that aligns the Performance elements from with the required Knowledge and required Skills.

Competency is defined as the consistent application of knowledge and skills to the standard of performance required in the workplace. The above shows the connection between performance, knowledge. and skills. However, the standard of performance is yet to be specified or determined.

Specifying the performance requirements

It is essential for the performance requirements to be known before designing assessment tools and developing training strategies. After unpacking the BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit, there are still significant work to be done by an RTO to specify or determine exactly what needs to be performed and what standard of performance is required in the workplace.

In this example, fundamental questions that must be answered are:

  • What types of digital content should a competent person be able to create? For example: text, images, audio, video, animated media, interactive media, etc.
  • How many and what types of digital content creation tasks should a competent person be able to use?
  • How many and what types of digital content creation tools should a competent person be able to use?
  • What programming skills should a competent person have?

Each RTO must consult with their local industry, in particular, potential employers of their VET graduates. These consultations seek to clarify requirements and remove ambiguity.

Each RTO may end up delivering the same unit of competency but with very different outcomes. Attainment of a unit of competency will be extremely variable. And variation is the enemy of quality.

In conclusion

In this article, I dived deep into one ASK formatted unit that has been developed by Future Skills Organisation (FSO). This ASK unit is very different compared with the other two ASK units that I have recently unpacked. Those units had been developed by Skills Insight and HumanAbility. The BSBXXX102 Develop Basic Digital Content Creation Skills unit is one of 39 Digital Capability Units of Competency developed by FSO.

Unpacking these new ASK units developed by FSO can feel like getting caught in a sudden rip. But when you are thrust into deep water, you need to know how to swim and, above all, stay calm. If we panic at how radically different this new ASK approach looks, we’ll sink. If we stay calm and tread water, we give ourself a chance to survive the new wave of changes to the Australian VET system.

I was intending to go deep into the Digital Capability Units of Competency as a whole, but this article is already long enough. Until next time, keep your head above water.

Do you want more information?

Are you an RTO manager or course coordinator?

Could your RTO team benefit from professional development about changes to the Australian VET system? In particular, how the Training Package Organising Framework or how the new EPC and ASK formatted units impact their work as VET practitioners?

Ring Alan Maguire on 0493 065 396 to discuss.

Contact now!

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Training trainers since 1986

Change management and the Australian VET system

Individual Change

At its core, “changing your mindset” means shifting the deeply ingrained assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes you use to interpret the world and yourself.

Think of your mindset as a pair of sunglasses you wear all the time. If the lenses are dark and grey, everything looks gloomy. If you change those lenses to a clear or rose-colored tint, the exact same scenery looks completely different. Changing your mindset isn’t about altering your physical reality; it’s about changing the filter through which you view it.

System Change

When you scale this concept up from an individual to an entire system, changing the mindset is known as changing the paradigm or changing the culture.

Just as individual sunglasses filter how one person thinks and acts, a system’s paradigm acts as a collective lens, dictating how an entire organisation or workforce behaves. Ultimately, if you change a system’s surface-level rules or tools without shifting these underlying lenses, the system will eventually snap right back to its old habits.

Is the Australian VET system changing?

Work is officially underway to overhaul the Australian VET system, a shift that VET practitioners will feel directly as the new Application of Skills and Knowledge (ASK) units of competency roll out. I assume that Skills Ministers and their government bureaucrats have change management processes designed to smooth this transition and alter the VET sector’s foundational paradigm.

In reality, these massive structural reforms are a live experiment, and VET practitioners should brace for significant disruption over the next year or two. But a critical question remains: what happens if the experiment fails?

Do you want more information?

Are you an RTO manager or course coordinator?

Could your RTO team benefit from professional development about changes to the Australian VET system? In particular, how the Training Package Organising Framework or how the new EPC and ASK formatted units impact their work as VET practitioners?

Ring Alan Maguire on 0493 065 396 to discuss.

Contact now!

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Training trainers since 1986

Another deep dive into unpacking an ASK unit of competency

Introduction

The Training Package Organising Framework 2025 has introduced two different formats for units of competency:

  • Element and Performance Criteria (EPC) format
  • Application of Skills and Knowledge (ASK) format.

The adoption of the ASK format by Jobs and Skills Councils shifts the responsibility of defining detailed performance criteria directly onto RTOs. Because this framework provides only high-level overviews of performance requirements, individual RTOs must now undertake extensive interpretation and contextualisation. This shift creates a heavy administrative burden across the VET sector and risks producing highly inconsistent training outcomes and compliance standards between different training organisations.

Explicit, industry-approved performance requirements are essential to give these new units functional meaning and operational viability. RTOs must have clear task descriptions to collect the observable or measurable evidence required to validly judge competency. Furthermore, these detailed benchmarks form the absolute foundation needed to design compliant training strategies, valid assessment tools, and high-quality learning resources.

My approach to unpacking an ASK unit

This is another deep dive into unpacking an ASK unit of competency. The previous deep dive focused on the ACMGEN3X03 Maintain cleaning, hygiene and sterility standards in animal care workplaces unit, developed by Skills Insight.

This time I’m focusing on the CHCECEXXX Support play based learning with intentionality unit, developed by HumanAbility.

Important note: Both of these units are in draft. They haven’t yet been finalised, endorsed, or released for implementation.

1. Start by analysing the Unit outcomes

Here are the Unit outcomes for the CHCCEXXX Support play based learning with intentionality unit.

Analyse by highlighting key words and writing notes.

Extract relevant information that relates to performance requirements.

2. Quick read of Knowledge and Skills

A quick read of Knowledge items and Skills items is a prelude to the analysis of the Application of knowledge and skills. A useful technique is to give each Knowledge item a ‘K’ number and each Skills item a ‘S’ number.

The following shows the Knowledge items and the allocation of ‘K’ numbers.

The following shows the Skills items and the allocation of ‘S’ number.

3. Go to the Application of knowledge and skills

Here is the Application of knowledge and skills for the CHCCEXXX Support play based learning with intentionality unit.

Analyse by highlighting key words and writing notes.

The following shows the relevant information that has been extracted from the Application of knowledge and skills, and added to the Performance requirements.

4. Go to the Performance evidence

Here is the Performance evidence for the CHCCEXXX Support play based learning with intentionality unit.

Analyse by highlighting key words and writing notes.

The following shows the relevant information that has been extracted from the Performance evidence, and added to the Performance requirements.

5. Go to Assessment conditons

The draft CHCCEXXX Support play based learning with intentionality unit has been published without the Assessment conditions being completed. Therefore, currently there is insufficient information to be used relating to Performance requirements.

6. Go to Knowledge evidence

The following shows Knowledge evidence for the CHCCEXXX Support play based learning with intentionality unit.

The ASK format for units of competency has a list of Knowledge items and a list of Knowledge evidence items. This means there is an unnecessary duplication of information. A useful technique is to use a 2-column table to show the connection between to two lists (as shown below).

Note: The above two examples are incomplete lists because the number of Knowledge evidence items very long.

7. Describe the Performance requirements

There is still work to be done to clearly describe the work tasks to be performed. A technique for describing the performance of work tasks is to use a 4-column approach. This provides a clear and structured approach to describing performance.

The following is an example of the Performance requirements described for the CHCCEXXX Support play based learning with intentionality unit.

Further work can be done to develop ‘Performance criteria’ for each step. Instead of calling them ‘Performance criteria’, they could be called ‘Assessment criteria’. This would then lead into the development of an assessment tool, such as, an observation checklist.

In conclusion

The primary shortcoming of the ASK format for units of competency is that its Performance Evidence provides only a high-level conceptual summary, lacking explicit, step-by-step requirements. Because the ASK format treats knowledge and skills as isolated pieces of information, relying on it alone makes practical competency assessment nearly impossible. We must reconstruct these broad pieces of information into explicit, industry-approved task descriptions that yield observable, measurable evidence. Only by describing these clear procedural elements can we design compliant training strategies, develop valid assessment tools, and build fully aligned training resources.

Next, I’ll explore the drastic shifts underway as the Future Skills Organisation re-engineers units of competency using the ASK format. In my opinion, it’s wild! It’s wacky! It’s un-workable! [insert smiley face]

Do you want more information?

Are you an RTO manager or course coordinator?

Could your RTO team benefit from professional development about changes to the Australian VET system? In particular, how the Training Package Organising Framework or how the new EPC and ASK formatted units impact our work as VET practitioners?

Ring Alan Maguire on 0493 065 396 to discuss.

Contact now!

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Training trainers since 1986