The building blocks of all training packages are competency standards –
the nationally endorsed standards that form the basis for recognising and assessing people's skills. These are the benchmarks upon which all recognised training and assessment and all VET qualifications, are based.
Generally, a work function - including a basic outline of the skills and knowledge required in a job - is formally described in a unit of competence. Because a unit is written so that it can be applied to different enterprise situations, it does not describe the fine detail of a job. Instead, a unit of competency focuses on the key knowledge and skills and the process involved in a job. This allows the unit to be used in different contexts.
Facts About Competency Standards
Competency Standards are nationally endorsed. They are developed with input from industry experts and agreed by industry as the standard to which work functions should be carried out
The Forest and Forest Products Industry Training Package has about 400 Units of Competence.
Around 300 of these are Forest and Forest Products Industry Units - (they have a code FPI)
The remainder are units from other industries which are also relevant to the Forest and Forest Products Industry including:
Transport and Distribution
Business Services
Rural and Agricultural
Mining
Retail
Public Safety
CompetencyStandards and Units of Competence are always expressed as an outcome - describing what a person can do.
What is a Unit of Competence?
The competency standards in a Training Package describe work outcomes.
In describing a work activity, a unit of competence also identifies a range of conditions under which it may be conducted and the evidence that can be gathered in order to determine whether the activity is being performed in a competent manner.
(When assessing against a unit of competence it is possible to assess particular enterprise standards that may exceed the unit of competence requirements.)
Additional performance requirements cannot be added. The content of the Competency Standard cannot be changed without industry and DEST endorsement. This is to ensure that the standard is consistent across the whole industry.
The underpinning knowledge and the activities related to the way a person learns the competency may vary from workplace to workplace.
Competency Standards embrace enterprise specific standards. What is important is that somebody can work to a particular standard.
Competency Standards are improved over time as part of a Training Package review process.
Duration of Competency
Once issued, a Statement of Attainment awards the holder competency in that unit for life. A Statement of Attainment for a particular unit needs be issued once only.
However, a unit may change (as a result of, say, a periodic Training Package Review). Although they remain competent in the "old" unit, a person may not be competent in the "new" unit until assessed.
Many workers choose to be assessed against the new unit as a way of ensuring their competency is current.
In some circumstances organisations periodically reassess employees for risk management reasons. This does not require re-issuing a Statement of Attainment.
