Comments sought on changes to the Public Safety Training Package

Government Skills Australia, the industry skills council for government and community safety, is currently seeking industry and regulatory body consultation as part of the continuous improvement of the Public Safety Training Package (PUA00).

The key factors involved are:

reviewing, developing and refocussing competency or performance standards to ensure that they accurately describe what is needed for the public safety industry
accurately packaging the skill requirements into skill sets and nationally recognised qualifications
describing the processes and procedures to assess whether competence is achieved.

Below is a summary of the major tasks performed by key stakeholder groups.

Defence

Draft competencies, skill sets and in some cases qualifications are being developed for over 20 occupational groups. A number of occupational groups have completed the initial development process and the material is now available on the Government Skills Australia website for stakeholder comment.

For more information and draft material visit www.governmentskills.com.au/content/view/652/722

Emergency Management

At the eight national workshops, participants have identified a number of potential changes to the current suite of emergency management related competency standards. All feedback has been captured in the key issues paper that will inform a final submission statement, as part of the broader review of the Public Safety Training Package.

Also discussed was the potential use of skill sets as a method of packaging units of competency, and restructuring and refocussing of the structure of the Advanced Diploma of Public Safety (Emergency Management) (PUA60104) qualification. A new unit of competency, 'Commence Working in an Emergency Management Context', has been developed. Both the new unit of competency and restructured advanced diploma qualification are available for comments from interested stakeholders.

For more detailed information and draft material visit www.governmentskills.com.au/content/view/632/690

Fire

The fire sector is currently coordinating and managing the review of component areas which incorporate the existing fire sector competencies and qualifications, through a joint contract between the Australasian Fire Authorities Council and the United Firefighters Union of Australia. The reviewers are also considering possible new component areas in fire investigation, emergency communications operators, building fire safety, fire safety engineering and building regulatory environments, and planning and regulatory control of bushfires.

Workshops have been organised to ensure input from all national representative bodies and all states and territories covering metropolitan, regional and remote area interests.

For the workshop schedule visit www.governmentskills.com.au/content/view/618/676

Police

The police sector has developed a workshop program across eight domain areas as identified in Phase 1 of the Scoping Phase. Lead agents have been nominated for each domain area and they are working with the coordinator Vince Rio (avsrio@bigpond.com), who is coordinating and managing the workshop schedule and consolidating the reports and outcomes of all conducted activities.

For more details on the workshops and reports visit www.governmentskills.com.au/content/view/619/

Surf Life Saving

Surf Life Saving Australia has developed an issues paper that will inform the broader consultations across the aquatic search and rescue area. The project reference group has considered there would be benefits to volunteers and paid lifesavers alike through a more rigorous qualifications pathway, with appropriate skill sets identified to facilitate progression between the qualifications. The first draft of the issues paper was available in December 2007 and the first round of national consultations commenced in February 2008.

For more information on the issues paper and to access the project's information bulletins visit www.governmentskills.com.au/content/view/636/694/

State/Territory Emergency Services (SES)

The sector has developed a position paper based on the broader consultations conducted with key stakeholders. This work also covers aspects of industry-wide components in the search and rescue and community safety areas, and is being coordinated with input from the aquatic search and rescue sectors. The SES National Education and Training Committee are considering whether volunteers would benefit from a more flexible qualifications pathway and greater emphasis on 'skilling for role' and skills maintenance - rather than being driven by a qualifications only outcome.

For more information on all project documents together with key dates visit www.governmentskills.com.au/content/view/620/679/

For more information on the review contact John Scott, Government Skills Australia on 03 9349 2797, john.scott@governmentskills.com.au or visit www.governmentskills.com.au

(This article first appeared in Training Packages @ Work. To subscribe to Training Packages @ Work visit www.tpatwork.com/subscribe)

This page was generated on 05 January, 2010

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Comments sought on changes to the Public Safety Training Package

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