Qualifications in WHS : developing trends in the VET sector

Access to training in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector for individuals wanting to embark on a career as an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) practitioner has been available for some time, and undergone many periodic transformations in the last fifteen years under a national regulator for VET. Recent changes to the ‘Standards for Registered Training Organisations’ along with a newly formatted competency framework for the Business Services Training Package mandates a minimum duration of study whilst also strengthening skills and knowledge that underpin vocational performance by requiring the integration of ‘Foundation Skills’ into a new assessment framework. The client (student) or employer may have differing opinions on these requirements when aligned to the transference of the training to industry needs.This paper will examine features of this new framework and consider some competing views on how these requirements translate into present and future needs for OHS practitioners to work effectively in industry. Attention will also be drawn to the challenges of the mandate for both students and employers in terms of training duration and the integration of foundation skills as prescribed in the qualifications.