Traditionally, vocational education and training (VET) has focused on delivery, not assessment.

However, the national training system provides considerable encouragement to develop new and customised services in assessment, especially to recognise learners’ current competencies.

Customisation requires registered training organisations (RTOs) to develop highly flexible approaches to assessment in order to take cognisance of specific needs of learners, their learning contexts or environments together with the needs of enterprises or other partners.

Training Package assessment materials project

This project was one of several initiatives managed by the Australian Government and funded by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) to facilitate the implementation of Training Packages and in particular Australian Apprenticeships.

It comprises a set of VET guides which provide assessors and managers of assessment processes with a range of practical tools and resources for improving assessment practices in both on– and off-the-job situations.

The ten guides are:

1. Training Package assessment materials kit
2. Assessing competencies in higher qualifications
3. Recognition resource
4. Kit to support assessor training
5. Candidate's Kit: Guide to assessment in Australian Apprenticeships
6. Assessment approaches for small workplaces
7. Assessment using partnership arrangements
8. Strategies for ensuring consistency in assessment
9. Networking for assessors
10. Quality assurance guide for assessment.

Each guide covers a broad range of industries and VET pathways, with relevance to workplace assessors as well as those working in off-the-job and VET in Schools programs.

The guides are all available from the Resource Generator, a free resource for trainers and assessors, providing information on units of competency, qualifications and learning resources across a range of industries. The service is free, but you will need to register to use the Resource Generator.

Emerging Futures - Innovation in Teaching and Learning in VET

The Emerging Futures report (pdf - 649k) finds that innovation in teaching and learning in VET is ideally non-linear, customised, inclusive and transferable. Innovative teaching takes account of individual learners’ differences, responding to thecontemporary push for all organisations including educational ones to be customer-centred.

The report contains examples of new approaches to assessment, including:

• Vignette 1.2 on TAFE NSW North Coast Institute and Centrelink - provides an example of how competency-based training and assessment can be customised to suit a large, national client’s specific needs in a regional call centre environment.
• Vignette 2.1 on the Brisbane and North Point Institute of TAFE - explains how trade-based teachers are developing new assessment strategies and tools to use in a simulated work environment.
• Case Study 2 on the Institute of TAFE Tasmania - describes staff assessing textile trainees undertaking work-related projects in a simulated factory setting.
• Case Study 3 on Torrens Valley Institute of TAFE - profiles a new approach to the assessment of key competencies in a simulated environment for electro-technology students.
• Case Study 5 on Goodwill Industries and West Coast College of TAFE - portrays customised ways to assess students with a disability.