What is a Competency Standard?
Competency Standards describe what people do in the workplace at various levels and the standard to which they do it.
Competency Standards identify the characteristics possessed by individuals that enable them to be either assessed or judged competent in a particular task. The Standards specify how these characteristics are to be applied and reflected in the workplace.
Competency Standards cover all aspects of work performance. These include the particular skills and knowledge required to do the job and all the necessary safety, communication and attitudinal aspects of undertaking the job.
National Competency Standards for the Records and Archives Industry
National Competency Standards cover all aspects of work performance. They include the particular skills and knowledge required at different levels of employment and work within the Records and Archives industry throughout Australia. They identify the standard at which these tasks are carried out competently on a national basis.
Achievement of these standards enables employees to move throughout Australia with skills at identified levels that are transferable and uniformly recognised. A person who is regarded as competent at a particular task at a certain level in one State may also be expected to be competent to carry out a similar task in another State.
Competency Standards are also beneficial to employers by aiding job design and organisation structures, staff recruitment, on-the-job training, and practical implementation of the Australian Standard in Records Management.
What is a training package?
A Training Package consists of national competency standards, assessment guidelines and qualifications that are linked to the competency standards.
They describe what skills and knowledge you need to perform effectively in the workplace without prescribing the method of training.
Training packages are developed in consultation with industry through national Industry Advisory Bodies (ITAB's) to meet the training needs of specific industries or sectors.
A training package can provide you with a qualification that is recognised nationally. This means that regardless of where you gained your qualification, it is recognised throughout Australia. Training packages give you the choice on how, when and where your training is undertaken.
The RMAA is actively involved in a technical steering committee established by Business Services Training Australia (BST) to develop a Business Services Training Package which will incorporate the Records and Archives competency standards. Watch this site for further development.
More information about competency standards and training packages can be obtained from the National Training Information Service website at www.anta.gov.au/anta_prod/default.asp
Copies of the Records and Archives Competency Standards can be obtained from:
Australian Training Products Ltd
Customer Service Department
PO Box 12211
A 'Becket Street P O
MELBOURNE VIC 8006
Ph 03 9655 0600
Fax 03 9639 4684
Email sales@atpl.net.au NO SPAM
Click here to order copies of the Standards online (www.bsitab.org)
