The National Skills Standard Council has released new Training Package Standards & Policies.

You can take a look here (nssc.natese.gov.au).

Training Packages will now consist of one or more quality assured "companion volumes" and the following NSSC endorsed components:

• units of competency;
• assessment requirements (associated with each unit of competency);
• qualifications; and
• credit arrangements.

The new unit of competency template is really interesting. Instead of Required Skills and Knowledge we now have Foundation Skills which describes language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills that are essential to performance.

The Assessment Requirements section specifies things like the required product and process evidence, the frequency and/or volume of product/process evidence, the relationship between the product and process evidence and the performance criteria. It includes:

• Knowledge Evidence (what the individual must know in order to safely and effectively perform the work task described in the competency)
• Assessment Conditions (any mandatory conditions for assessment)
• Links (to Companion Volume Implementation Guide)

I wonder if this will make the job of designing courses easier, harder or ensure more consistency overall? The 31st of December 2015 is when all Training Packages must comply with the new standards, like most things it will take a while to see the impact of these changes.