Course participants have three ways in which they can obtain an assessment of “competent” in various units of a Competency Based Training (CBT) course.

1. Give proof of competence by providing sufficient evidence through the “Recognition of Prior Learning” and the “Recognition of Current Competency” process. (RPL/RCC)
2. Complete appropriate course work and/or exercises suggested by a course facilitator to prove competence in the various units of work required in a course.
3. Any combination of the requirements listed in “1” and “2” above.

An example of a successful submission of material for the RPL/RCC process for a unit of work in the former Diploma of Business (Frontline Management) is given as Reading number 45 on the Secure Readings page.

Regardless of the choice of the three ways above to show competency, it is important for participants in a CBT course to understand the basic requirement involved in being assessed as “competent”.

Any Nationally Accredited Competency Based Training award in Australia will have the following components.

1. The Units of work, or “subjects” associated with the award. Generally there will be a combination of “core units” and “elective units” in most awards. The core units are units which must be completed. From the electives list a certain number is required for completion. In the Certificate IV in Frontline Management course for example, there are four core units which must be completed and six electives need to be chosen from a quite extensive list. That is a total of ten units of work need to be successfully completed to gain the award. If you are participating in a Certificate IV course as a traineeship, then the electives were probably chosen through a collaboration process involving representatives from a Commonwealth government apprenticeship centre, a Registered Training Organisation, your supervisor or employer and perhaps you as well.
2. Elements are components of a Unit of Work. For example in the Unit of work “BSBWOR402A - Promote team effectiveness”, there are four elements - (i) Plan to achieve team outcomes (ii) Develop team cohesion (iii) Participate in and facilitate work team (iv) Liaise with management
3. Performance Criteria are the criteria attached to each element that course participants need to prove they are competent in. For example in the first elective of the above-mentioned unit there are two Performance Criteria. They are: (i) Identify, establish and document team purpose, roles, responsibilities, goals, plans and objectives in consultation with team members. (ii) Support team members in meeting expected outcomes.

Regardless of whether the course is being completed via course work or RPL/RCC processes, in a CBT course participants need to provide evidence of competence in all performance criteria of all elements of all units of work in a course. This evidence also need to meet all Principles of Assessment.

The process that I suggest you use with regard to submitting material for assessment is as follows:

1. Gain a basic understanding of Competency based Assessment and the Principles of Assessment.
   (refer to the links on the Readings/Resources page of this site)
2. Get an overview of the Unit of Work you are about to start work on.
   (use the National Training Information Service web site link for this and/or refer to your commercial booklet)
3. Download your own copy of the RPL/RCC template for the Unit of work on the secure
   readings page of this site.
4. Complete the above template to the best of your ability before you start gathering evidence
   of competence.
5. If you are using commercial course material ensure that the assessments you submit cover
   the performance criteria that are listed in the template you have downloaded.
   (If you are using smallPRINT commercial material, these are also listed on the competency assessment map pages)
6. Complete a self-assessment before submitting your work to your assessor. Be confident
   yourself that you have addressed all the performance criteria for all elements in the unit of work.

I do have a dilemma with regard to commercial material that has been published for some accredited courses. Much of this material has been designed to be used in a classroom situation in which the teacher/facilitator will be continually assessing course participants and contextualising material to suit the participants and the assessment processes required. I am not aware of any commercial material currently available with which participants can do just some of the listed assessments and be assessed as “competent” for the units of work in question.

Regardless of the assessment tools that have been developed and published for any commercial course, it still is an ethical requirement for the assessor of any CBT course to be confident that participants are indeed “competent” before being given that assessment result by an assessor. That fact that a particular assessment tool has been commercially published, does not necessarily mean that the tool in question will meet the assessment requirements for a performance criterion or a number of performance criteria for elements in any units of a CBT course.

You may be using the “smallPRINT” participants workbooks. Supposing that you are, I shall use one of these publications by way of example. The booklet I have chosen is “BSBMGT401A - Show leadership in the workplace”. This booklet, along with the booklets for other units of work has a “Competency assessment map” for the unit of work. This is on pages 52 and 53 of my booklet.

The competency assessment map lists the elements and the performance criteria for the unit. It also lists the assessment tasks included in the booklet that supposedly assess those performance criteria.

Assessment Project 1 in this unit is an essay. This project is listed on page 60 of the booklet. Here is the project requirements:
“Write an essay (at least 1,500 words) on leadership. This will require you to develop your own ideas and to conduct some research of your own. ...”

If you return to the competency assessment map on pages 52 and 53 for the unit, you will notice that every single performance criterion for this unit of work is listed as being assessed by this project.

A participant can follow all of the instructions listed for this project and write their essay of at least 1,500 words and still not be assessed as “competent” in any of the performance criteria for the unit of work, let alone all of them.

The competency assessment map does list some other activities and questions in the workbook which supposedly assess each of the performance criteria. However, most of these questions are generic in nature and do not give “proof” the participant answering the particular question is indeed competent in the performance criterion listed.

A course participant has recently correctly answered all workbook questions for this unit of work in addition to submitting a well written 1,500 plus word essay on leadership. However, this participant can not be assessed as “competent” for the unit as the participant has not given evidence of personal competence in the performance criteria listed.

This is an example of the assessment tools suggested in this commercial booklet for this unit of work not being appropriate to give the required evidence of competence and meeting the recognised principles of assessment.

If you are using this commercial material, please ensure that before submitting your completed assessments you have performed the self-assessment check list. Go to the pages where you will find the competency assessment map for the unit of work. Check through the column which shows how the various performance criteria are assessed. Make sure that the evidence that you have provided does in fact show your competence in the performance criteria listed.

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