Training packages and units of competency have been around in the VET industry since the 1980’s in Australia, so you would think the understanding of the system and structure of the standards would be well and truly understood. Not so it would seem and this is mostly due to the ongoing changes to the system of registration and structure of the units of competency.
Having identified this shows how important it is to maintain your knowledge and understanding in how to read, use and reflect the unit of competency in the resources used to deliver, train, facilitate and assess a unit’s content. The term mapping is used, generally with respect to mapping a unit of competency and not to be confused with competency mapping, to describe how a training provider can show how and where the unit is reflected in these resources. So how do you Map a unit?
There are a few steps that can be followed and a few that are more important and ones that are missed often. Unpacking a unit of competency is the industry’s way of saying ‘read it’.
The Steps mostly achieve. Most mapping documents include the basics as noted in Step 1:
STEP 1 List the unit criteria
This usually looks like a table listing the performance criteria, including the relative unit information, element titles etc, list the critical aspects or performance evidence and list the knowledge evidence. For the older units, they can also list the required knowledge and skill. The mapping document then list the assessment methods and tools that show evidence of these criterion. 9 times out of 10 they are in a column to the left of the reflecting performance criteria. Now this is where most mapping stops and where it all goes wrong because the next few steps are so important.
STEP 2 Link the knowledge evidence to the performance criteria!
Yep, you read it correctly. It seems to have been missed in all the TAE training so lets bring it back. Unpacking a unit and mapping it to assessments is to identify how the unit components come together to create a whole workplace outcome. Performance criteria is only the first part of the picture. What knowledge does the student have to have to be able to perform the task?
STEP 3 Link the foundation skills to the performance criteria.
Like Step 2, Step 3 links those foundation skills, or required skills, of a competent person to the task being performed. Some training package writers have identified what these are and where they are linked in the new unit structure, others are not so lucky and the Assessor or Assessment developer or Compliance person will have to do this themselves, using a companion guide or getting help from an expert.
Can you guess the next step?
STEP 4 Link the performance evidence to the performance criteria.
You now have a better picture of the task that must be performed, the knowledge that is needed to perform it and the skills that a competent person will have to show they can perform it. The last step is the actual evidence of the performance. Once you have the map you then link and reference the assessment methods and tools to each performance criteria.
Your mapping document from there can also include how you have considered the dimensions of competency, the conditions of assessment and the competency of your Trainers and Assessors. You can even identify the Australian Qualification Framework outcomes and characteristics that would be achieved.
The outcome will be a tool that provides a better picture of your assessment strategy, assist in gap analysis of your assessments and also provide fantastic evidence to the auditor of how your assessment is student focused and not top heavy on assessment evidence.
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Need a bit more help with mapping? There is a tool and tactic to optimise your reviews and identify your bottle necks in assessment compliance - which is based on this Assessment gap analysis. No more will you have to manually map the assessments - Valid8ed can do it for you.
Until then thanks for reading -
