About training packages
What is a training package?
A training package is a set of nationally endorsed standards and qualifications for recognising and assessing people's skills in a specific industry, industry sector or enterprise. They are developed by national Industry Skills Councils (ISCs). Service Skills Australia is an industry skills council.
Training packages are a key feature of Australia's national vocational education and training (VET) system. They are used as the basis for most of the programs delivered in the VET system, including Australian Apprenticeships, training courses offered by TAFE and private training organisation, VET in schools programs, recognition of existing skills, and occupational licensing.
Training packages are designed to enable diverse and relevant vocational learning outcomes, and to regulate training outcomes through nationally recognised qualifications.
Despite the name, training packages do not describe how people should be trained. Rather, they provide the nationally endorsed industry standards against which training can be developed and flexibly delivered to meet particular local, individual, industry and enterprise requirements.
Training packages are developed with industry and are not owned by an individual training provider.
The aims of training packages are:
- To help the VET system achieve a better match between skills demand and supply
- To encourage flexible and relevant workforce development and learning
- To provide for the national recognition of the vocational outcomes of learning
- To guide and support individuals in their choice of training and career.
Service Skills Australia’s training packages
Service Skills maintains the following training packages:
- Tourism, Hospitality and Events Training Package
- Retail Services Training Package
- Beauty Training Package
- Floristry Training Package
- Hairdressing Training Package
- Sport Training Package
- Fitness Training Package
- Community Recreation Training Package
- Outdoor Recreation Training Package
- Funeral Services Training Package
Benefits of training packages
The skills and qualifications are nationally recognised – they are not unique to one state or an individual training organisation. They provide a consistent, national benchmark for skills, and ensure that skills gained in one state will be recognised across Australia.
Training packages focus on the competence of individuals to perform effectively in the workplace - on their skills as well as their knowledge. Employers value employees who have proven skills in their occupation, not just theoretical or academic knowledge, and training packages provide the framework to assess these skills. Training packages are designed to assess what someone can actually do, not just what he or she knows.
They are developed with industry, to ensure that they cover the skills that industry requires of its workforce.
They are updated regularly to make sure they keep pace with industry trends, technologies and legislation.
They provide for a range of flexible training options - and can also be used for recognising skills an employee already has.
Training organisations delivering training under the system are required to meet formal quality assurance requirements.
How training packages are used
Only registered training organisations (RTOs) are able to issue training package qualifications or statements of attainment.
However, the use of training packages is not restricted to training.
Possible uses include:
Training package qualifications are used as the basis for Australian Apprenticeships (apprenticeships and traineeships) Qualifications are offered as training courses provided by registered training organisations (RTOs) and schools. Individuals can enrol in these courses, and employers can enrol their staff.
Employers and industry organisations can use training packages to identify the training needs of staff and to provide workplace assessment and training.
Employers can use training packages as the basis for human resource materials such as position descriptions, training plans and performance reviews.
Industry organisations and associations can use competency standards as the basis for industry standards, codes of practice and skills audits.
Individuals can use training packages to receive recognition for their current skills and knowledge. They can also match their competencies against those set out in the training package to work out the training they might need.
Using training packages, individuals can gain recognition for their competence, regardless of how they have developed their skills. Skills can be developed through the traditional method of completing training courses and qualifications, but many people also gain skills through informal, on-the-job learning, non-recognised training, or through other life and employment experience.
How are they developed and maintained?
Training packages are part of an industry-driven system, which is designed to make sure that individuals trained under the system hold the skills and knowledge that employers need.
All training packages are developed by ISCs according to a set of rules set down by the Commonwealth Government, are endorsed by the National Training Quality Council, and signed off by the state and territory education ministers.
ISCs consult widely with the industry across Australia to define exactly what skills industry will need, now and in the future. This consultation ensures that training packages reflect the skills that employers need, and ensures that the qualifications are valued by industry.
Service Skills Australia conducts a range of projects to review and update its training packages and ensure they continue to meet the needs of industry. These projects involve widespread consultation with employers, industry associations, unions, government and other stakeholders. We use a range of consultation methods to gather feedback and input into development, and to validate the content of the training package.
Training packages are reviewed on a regular basis, to ensure that they keep pace with changes in industry, and continue to meet industry needs. For more information see Training Package Reviews under Our Projects.
If you would like to be notified of upcoming projects and other opportunities to feed into this process, please join our community and subscribe to our newsletter
You can also provide feedback about a specific training package at any time, through our web-based Training Package Feedback Register
Structure of training packages
All training packages contain three major components:
- Qualifications
- Units of competency
- Assessment guidelines
Qualifications and units of competency
Training packages contain nationally-recognised qualifications and units of competency.
Units of competency define the particular skills and knowledge and the standard required to be competent in these.
A qualification combines several units of competency that are required to work within a particular occupation or at a particular level within an industry.
These components of a training package mean that an individual can have his or her skills recognised in two ways:
Qualification: A qualification indicates that the individual is competent in all units of competency required to attain a qualification.
Statements of Attainment: A Statement of Attainment indicates that the individual is competent in one or more units of competency, but not in the full range of units required for a qualification. Statements of Attainment stand in their own right to show that the individual holds particular skills, and they can also be used as credit toward full qualifications if the individual wishes to finish a qualification in the future.
Assessment guidelines
Assessment Guidelines define the rules for how assessment must occur under the training package. These include issues such as:
- How assessment can be conducted
- What qualifications assessors need to hold
- The conditions under which assessment should occur – for example, some training packages may require that assessment of certain units must take place in a real work environment.
