National Competency Standards - training

1 training PACKAGE FOR CORRECTIONAL SERVICES National Competency Standards CSC98 1 The Role of National Competency Standards National Competency Standards are essential to the implementation of the training Package. The National Competency Standards are the basis of the nationally recognised qualifications and provide the consistency and transferability of the qualifications.

2 What are Competency Standards ? Competency Standards describe the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to perform in a particular occupation. Competency includes all aspects of the work including: skills to perform all the different tasks of the job managing a range of different task and activities required by the job responding to problems, the unexpected and non-routine events dealing with all aspects of the workplace, the organisation and colleagues The Standards do not directly relate to any particular job classification or to the work in any one organisation, nor are the Standards an attempt to force all workers to do the same thing.

3 The main aim of National Competency Standards is to identify the nature of the work performed in correctional services and the Standards required by workers to be deemed competent. This provides the basis for the design of training and detailed specifications for workplace assessment. It also provides the basis for National industry qualifications. Competency Standards are a complex combination of skills, knowledge and attitudes and no part of the Standards components should be seen in isolation from the combined picture of the full Competency described.

4 The Competency Standards should not be confused with curriculum. Curriculum can be used to translate the Standards into a wide range of learning outcomes and processes which lead to the performance outcomes described in the Standards . Competency Standards should not be confused with practice Standards or service Standards . Competency Standards are limited to the work actually performed and demonstrated by the workers, not performance management regime of the organisation or the complex combination of measures applied to determine the quality outcomes of an organisational service which includes all components of the service provision and outcomes.

5 However, Competency Standards will provide a valuable ingredient in performance management and quality endorsement. Competency Standards should not be confused with Industrial Award Classifications because they do not describe any individual worker but rather, they describe an hierarchy of skills which can be packaged together in variable combinations of core and optional units for individual workers. The Standards have been based on research which has identified those competencies required by all people working in Correctional Services regardless of employment location, organisation size and structure or personal or organisation philosophy.

6 The project has recognised that workers in Correctional Services do have specialised areas of work covering the whole spectrum of human services. Included in this are; addiction counselling, Australian National training Authority, 1998 2 education and training , recreation, accommodation and housing, health, counselling, behaviour management, emergency services, disability support, welfare support, youth work, advocacy, legal advice, financial counselling, nutrition, life skills, relationship counselling and community development.

7 While the Standards recognise and incorporate these variables, the project has not developed Standards for these specialisations on the assumption that existing or subsequent National Standards or enterprise Standards and customisations would address the more detailed needs of these specific areas. The Standards have concentrated on the competencies essential to all people who work in correctional services. Structure of the Standards When you open any set of Standards you will see the following structure: The unit title describes a major work function performed in the occupation.

8 The unit descriptor gives additional information and may include the context or the limits of this work function. The unit number is simply the coding system. The codes will indicate whether the unit was developed by correctional services (CSC) or whether it has been adopted from another industry.(PSX0127 for Public Administration, BSTRG for Workplace Trainers) Elements Elements are all the tasks required to perform the major function described in the unit Elements are always described as actions Elements must have a different name from the unit title.

9 There is no particular number of elements required for each unit, though it is usually more than one Performance Criteria Performance criteria are the answer to the question how do we know that the task has been performed to the standard required? Performance criteria are always expressed as an outcome - or what we would expect to see or know results from the task being performed Performance criteria have to be assessable and it must be possible to have evidence that this outcome has occurred. Range of Variable: The Range of Variables provides the different settings or contexts or requirements in which the major function will or may be performed.

10 Some of these will be compulsory and will use words such as will, should or must. Assessment must cover all these conditions. Some of these will be optional and will use words such as might, may or could. Assessment in this range is negotiable and will depend on factors beyond the control of the worker being assessed. This section may also include definitions of the terms used. B. Assessment Guide CSC98 3 This defines how and where the competencies will be assessed, generally in terms of on or off the job performance C.