Endorsed Components of a Unit of Competency

• Each unit of competency must be uniquely identified by the combination of its code and title.
• Units must always be identified by their full code and title, with the code preceding the title, for example ICTCC252A Resolve customer complaints.
• Codes must conform to the following:
• using the unit code TAADES401A as an example, units must contain:
• Training Package identifier—‘TAA’ refers to the Training Package in which it resides
• industry field identifier—‘DES’ refers to the industry field of Learning Design
• qualification identifier—the ‘4’ is an Arabic figure referring to the AQF qualification in which the unit was first packaged, i.e. Certificate IV (noting however that Roman numerals must always be used in Certificate qualification titles)
• sequence identifier—‘01’ refers to its position in the Training Package unit sequence
• version identifier—’A’ shows it is the first version (Note: When NTIS functionality permits, newly allocated codes will not include this—see Transitional note under ‘Coding maintenance’)
• codes must be unique and not exceed 12 characters
• do not use spaces between any characters in the code
• use uppercase letters
• use Arabic figures
• do not use ampersands, full stops or slashes
• minimise the use of the numbers 1 and 0 where possible (as they may be mistaken for the letters I and O).
• Titles for units of competency must:
• concisely describe the unit of competency outcome in the title
• not exceed 100 characters, including spaces
• avoid the use of punctuation, eg commas, semi-colons, hyphens and full stops.
• not include justification statements in the title (e.g. ‘to ensure safe operation’)
• use sentence case (with capitalised proper nouns where applicable)
• be unique for each unit, and describe a discrete workplace outcome.

• The unit descriptor communicates the content of the unit of competency and the skill area it addresses. Where a unit has been contextualised, summary information is provided.

• Training Package developers must ensure that Employability Skills are explicitly embedded within units of competency.
• Individual units of competency are not required to contain all the facets of an Employability Skills Framework—it is the overall combination of core and elective units within a qualification that must map to the full set of identified Employability Skills facets.
• Training Package developers must include the following statement after the unit descriptor:  ‘This unit contains employability skills.’

• A brief decription of how the unit is practically applied in the industry should be developed.

• Elements of a unit of competency must describe actions or outcomes which are demonstrable and assessable.

• Performance criteria must:
• clearly relate to the element
• specify the required performance in relevant tasks, roles and skills
• be expressed as a standard
• reflect the applied knowledge that enables competent performance.

• Developers need to describe the essential skills and knowledge required for competent performance    
• Knowledge: identifies what a person needs to know to perform the work in an informed and effective manner.
• Skills: describes the application of the knowledge to situations where understanding is converted into a workplace outcome. 
• While knowledge must be expressed, units of competency, their elements or performance criteria should not be entirely knowledge based unless a clear and assessable workplace outcome is described. Knowledge in units of competency:
• should be in context;
• should only be included if it refers to knowledge actually applied at work;
• could be referred to in the performance criteria and the range statement.

• The range statement must be written to:
• contextualise the competency
• provide a link to knowledge and a range of enterprise requirements
• provide a focus for assessment
• In their continuous improvement processes, Training Package developers can update units of competency by amending the range statement to reflect additional or different requirements such as new contexts, equipment or products.

• Training Package developers must ensure that evidence guides directly relate to the performance criteria and range statement, and are consistent with advice in the Assessment Guidelines.
• The evidence guide must refer to:
• critical aspects of assessment to be considered and evidence required to demonstrate competency in the unit
• any variables related to the evidence context such as the environment and conditions or equipment
• relationship to other units including units of competency that would logically benefit from being assessed or delivered together (sometimes referred to as co-requisites)
• method of assessment, conditions under which assessment may take place, and suitable methodologies for conducting assessment
• resource implications
• context of assessment, and how consistency of performance can be assessed over time

Note: An overview of assessment may also be included.

• The competency field denotes the industy sector, specialisation or function, or the way the units of competency are categorised in the Training Package.

• The unit sector describes a category that will be used to group units within a Training Package.