VET courses are competency-based. This means a student’s performance is judged against a prescribed standard in each unit of competency. In competency-based assessment, students are either competent or not yet competent.
Teachers gather information and make judgments about a student’s achievement continuously. Most competency-based assessment tasks in VET have three components:
- questions
- observation during practical and simulated work environments
- structured activities.
Competency-based assessment focuses on the requirements of the workplace. Competence incorporates all aspects of work performance, including problem-solving and the capacity to apply knowledge and skills in both familiar and new situations. Assessment of competence involves the assessment of skills and knowledge combined. As such, an integrated or holistic approach to assessment is adopted. This means that several units of competency are assessed together in a module. A module may comprise one or more units of competency.
To achieve an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) VET certificate, students must achieve the packaging rules. Students undertaking an AQF VET Certificate who do not achieve all of the units of competency, or who are undertaking a partial qualification, receive a Statement of Attainment listing the units of competency achieved.